Steady laminar flow in a 90° bend

This research undertook an assessment of the characteristics of laminar flow in a 90° bend. The research utilised the computational fluid dynamics software tool ANSYS Fluent, adopting a finite volume method. The study focused on pressure decreases, velocity profiles, Dean vortices and Dean cells present in the bend. The results indicated that the Dean vortices first appear slightly at the bend, take a clear form at the exit pipe and disappear further downstream. This article contains also an original chart for determining the Darcy–Weisbach friction factor, while the areas of pipe where Dean vortices and Dean cells formed are presented in a bifurcation diagram.