KSME International Journal

, Volume 12, Issue 1, pp 87–95 | Cite as

Flow distribution in manifolds for low Reynolds number flow

  • Heehak Ahn
  • Sunghyuk Lee
  • Sehyun Shin
Article
Received:

Abstract

This paper addresses the fundamental flow distribution question of how to design manifolds of low Reynolds number flow with both numerical analysis and experiments. The present study introduces new parameters of αc and αd, defined as the ratio of header diameter to header length in combining and dividing manifolds, the parameters which are not clearly considered in the previous studies of flow distribution in manifolds. The parameters of αc and αd were found to govern the flow distribution independently of each other. varying αc, αd and the Reynolds number respectively, a correlation of optimal flow distribution is obtained for laminar fow in manifolds as follows; αd·Re w m =K where acu c≥1/4. The proposed correlation makes predictions possible for wide ranges of αd and Rew. Also, the present numerical results show satisfactory agreements with those of flow visualization. From the flow visualization. recirculating flow regime was observed at the inlet of each channel, in which hot spots may occur due to small velocities. The size of recirculating flow regime is strongly dependent on the Reynolds number and is smaller for optimal cases than others.

Key Words

Manifolds Optimal Flow Distribution Area Ratio Width Ratio Ratio of Diameter to Length in the Headers 

Nomenclature

AR

Area ratio (n·D ck/D d orL/D d)

Dc

Diameter of combining header

Dd

Diameter of dividing header

H

Channel length

K

Constant in Eq. (6)

L

Header length

m

Exponent constant in Eq. (6)

Qi

Flow rate of a channel

ReD

Reynolds number based on the dividing header diameter\(\frac{{\rho V_{in} D_d }}{\mu }\)

Rew

Reynolds number based on a channel width\(\frac{{\rho V_{in} w}}{\mu }\)

Vm

Inlet velocity

W

Width of a channel

WR

Width ratio

Greek symbols

αc

Ratio of diameter to length in combining header (=D c/L)

αd

Ratio of diameter to length in dividing header (=D d/L)

δ

Wall thickness

ν

Kinematic viscosity

μ

Dynamic viscosity

Subscripts

t

Total

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Copyright information

© The Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers (KSME) 1998

Authors and Affiliations

  • Heehak Ahn
    • 1
  • Sunghyuk Lee
    • 1
  • Sehyun Shin
    • 1
  1. 1.School of Mechanical Eng.Kyungpook National UniversityTaeguKorea

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