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A numerical study of bifurcation in laminar flow in curved ducts
Author(s) -
Jayanti S.,
Hewitt G. F.
Publication year - 1992
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.1650140302
Subject(s) - laminar flow , vortex , reynolds number , bifurcation , flow (mathematics) , mechanics , mathematics , secondary flow , computer simulation , geometry , physics , classical mechanics , turbulence , nonlinear system , quantum mechanics
The bifurcation phenomenon whereby multiple‐vortex secondary flow occurs in place of the normal two‐vortex flow in laminar flow in curved ducts has previously been studied numerically by several researchers. However, the various results have been conflicting on many points. The present paper describes a set of numerical experiments conducted to study the effect of numerical accuracy on the solution. The results show that the transition from two‐ to four‐vortex structure depends strongly on the differencing scheme and to a lesser extent on the grid size. The study also shows that as the Reynolds number of the flow increases, a two‐vortex structure is re‐established via a path which involves strongly asymmetric secondary flow patterns. These results are in agreement, at least qualitatively, with recent experimental theoretical and numerical results.