Spherical caps in low Reynolds-number tube flow

✍ Scribed by R.M. Hochmuth; S.P. Sutera

• Book ID: 103004603
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1970
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 992 KB
• Volume: 25
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-2509
• DOI: 10.1016/0009-2509(70)85091-6

✦ Synopsis

The stability, velocity and additional pressure drop (in excess of the Poiseuille drop) associated with the motion of large, rigid, neutrally buoyant spherical caps (including hemispheres) in low Reynolds-number tube flow was studied. It was found that spherical caps were stable in an orientation in which they were centered in the tube with their spherical face forward and with their base plane perpendicular to the direction of flow. For spherical caps in this stable orientation, measurements of the velocity and the additional pressure drop revealed that both were relatively independent of cap thickness and cap spacing, but depended strongly on cap diameter. The experimental pressure-drop data for hemispheres when multiplied by two showed close agreement with theoretical results derived for spheres.