The Effects of Flexion and Torsion on a Fluid Flow Through a Curved Pipe

We consider an injection of incompressible viscous fluid in a curved pipe with a smooth central curve γ . The one-dimensional model is obtained via singular perturbation of the Navier—Stokes system as ɛ , the ratio between the cross-section area and the length of the pipe, tends to zero. An asymptotic expansion of the flow in powers of ɛ is computed. The first term in the expansion depends only on the tangential injection along the central curve γ of the pipe and the velocity as well as the pressure drop are in the tangential direction. The second term contains the effects of the curvature (flexion) of γ in the direction of the tangent while the effects of torsion appear in the direction of the normal and the binormal to γ . The boundary layers at the ends of the pipe are studied. The error estimate is proved. Accepted 21 March 2001. Online publication 9 August 2001.