Numericalinvestigationofalaminarpulsatingflowina.PDFVIP

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN FLUIDS Int. J. Numer. Meth. Fluids 29: 935–950 (1999) NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF A LAMINAR PULSATING FLOW IN A RECTANGULAR DUCT A. YAKHOT*, M. ARAD AND G. BEN-DOR Pearlstone Center for Aeronautical Engineering Studies, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ben -Gurion Uniersity of the Nege, Beershea 84105, Israel SUMMARY A pulsating laminar flow of a viscous, incompressible liquid in a rectangular duct has been studied. The motion is induced under an imposed pulsating pressure difference. The problem is solved numerically. Different flow regimes are characterized by a non-dimensional parameter based on the frequency () of the imposed pressure gradient oscillations and the width of the duct (h ). This, in fact, is the Reynolds number of the problem at hand. The induced velocity has a phase lag (shift) with respect to the imposed pressure oscillations, which varies from zero at very slow oscillations, to 90° at fast oscillations. The influence of the aspect ratio of the rectangular duct and the pulsating pressure gradient frequency on the phase lag, the amplitude of the induced oscillating velocity, and the wall shear were analyzed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley Sons, Ltd. KEY WORDS: pulsating flow; high-order-accurate discretization 1. INTRODUCTION The study of unsteady pulsating flows is of practical engineering importance. High speed (turbulent) pulsating flows occur in turbomachinery, rotor blade aerodynamics, reciprocating piston-driven flows, etc. Numerous experimental investigations were focused on fundamental studies of fully developed periodic pipe flows with sinusoidally varying pressure g