Torsion effect on fully developed flow in a helical pipe

Abstract

Two approaches have been used to study the torsion effect on the fully developed laminar flow in a helical pipe of constant circular cross-section. The first approach is the series expansion method that perturbs the Poiseuille flow and is valid for low Dean numbers with both the dimensionless curvature and dimensionless torsion being much less than unity. The second is a numerical procedure that solves the complete Navier-Stokes equation and is applicable to intermediate values of the Dean number. The results obtained indicate that, as far as the secondary flow patterns are concerned, the presence of torsion can produce a large effect if the ratio of the curvature to the torsion is of order unity. In these cases the secondary flow, though still consisting of a pair of vortices, can be very much distorted. Under extreme conditions one vortex is so prevalent as to squeeze the second one into a narrow region. However, ordinarily the torsion effect is small and the secondary flow has the usual pattern of a pair of counter-rotating vortices of nearly equal strength. Concerning the flow resistance in the pipe the effect of torsion is always small in all the circumstances that have so far been considered.