Premium
A study of the recirculating flow in planar, symmetrical branching channels
Author(s) -
Tsui YengYung,
Lu ChihYu
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
international journal for numerical methods in fluids
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.938
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1097-0363
pISSN - 0271-2091
DOI - 10.1002/fld.1052
Subject(s) - mechanics , reynolds number , flow (mathematics) , open channel flow , volumetric flow rate , mathematics , planar , geometry , secondary flow , hele shaw flow , duct (anatomy) , vortex , branching (polymer chemistry) , pipe flow , pressure drop , physics , materials science , turbulence , computer science , medicine , computer graphics (images) , pathology , composite material
A numerical method is employed to examine the flow in symmetrical, two‐dimensional branches of Y shape and Tee shape. The methodology is based on a pressure‐correction procedure within the frame of unstructured grids. Specified pressures are imposed at the outlets of the two branches. The area ratio of the branch is allowed to vary in the range of 2–3. Separation of the flow in the bifurcating region is inevitable. With equal outlet pressures, symmetrical flow patterns prevail except for the Y type branch under the conditions of high Reynolds numbers and large area ratios. This implies that the Y‐branch flow is more sensitive to small disturbances. It is shown that with a slightly higher pressure imposed on one of the two branches the structure of the recirculating flow for the Y type is greatly affected and the flow rate is reduced dramatically in the high‐pressure branch channel. In contrast, the influence on the Tee type branch is much lower since the flow behaves like a jet impinging on a confined duct. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.