ANALOGY BETWEEN LAMINAR FLOWS IN CURVED PIPES AND ORTHOGONALLY ROTATING PIPES

The secondary flow of a viscous fluid, caused by the Coriolis force, through a straight pipe rotating about an axis perpendicular to the pipe axis is analogous to that of a fluid, caused by the centrifugal force, through a stationary curved pipe. The quantitative analogy between these two fully developed laminar flows will be demonstrated through similarity arguments, computational studies and the use of experimental data. Similarity considerations result in two analogous governing parameters for each flow, which include a new one for the rotating flow. When one of these analogous pairs of parameters of the two flows is large, it will be demonstrated that there are strong similarities between the two flows regarding friction factors, heat transfer rates, flow patterns and flow properties for the same values of the other pair of parameters.