Fluid flow and mass transfer characteristics in a sinusoidal wavy-walled tube at moderate Reynolds numbers for steady flow

Abstract.

Flow and mass transfer characteristics in an axisymmetric sinusoidal wavy-walled tube are investigated experimentally in the Reynolds number range from 50 to 1000. The flow patterns are visualized by the aluminum dust method. The measurements of the wall shear stress and the mass transfer rate for high Schmidt number are performed by the electrochemical method. The attention is focused on their characteristics, including the transitional flow. It was observed that steady flow changes into unsteady flow when the Reynolds number exceeds about 160. The wall shear stress in the minimum circular cross section of the tube and the mass transfer rate for one wavelength are shown to depend upon the Reynolds number. In the laminar flow regime they increase with the slope of 1 and 1/3, respectively, whereas in the turbulent flow regime they increase with the slope of 3/2 and 3/5, respectively. In the transitional flow regime both of them increase significantly with further larger slope. It is found that the laminar-like motion and turbulent-like motion occur alternatively, with different time intervals, indicating intermittent flow behavior. This is quite different from the flow instability of the wavy-walled channel in which Tollmien-Schlichting waves keeping a time-periodic flow appear.