THE INFLUENCE OF CURVATURE AND PRESSURE-GRADIENT ON THE FLOW TEMPERATURE AND VELOCITY DISTRIBUTION

For an asymmetrically curved channel, after obtaining the velocity distributions as solutions of the Navier-Stokes equation, the partial differential equation of energy containing the dissipation function is transformed into an ordinary differential equation by means of the separation method. Numerical solutions are found for different Reynolds and Prandtl numbers. For the accelerated flow, the velocity and temperature distributions near the channel walls experience a steep gradient, with the temperature maxima located close to the concave wall. Increasing the Reynolds number results in fuller velocity profiles and causes pronounced temperature boundary layers, particularly for higher Prandtl numbers. For the decelerated flow, the velocity distribution on the concave wall is fully attached and reveals steeper temperature gradient near the walls as a consequence of higher energy dissipation. On the convex wall, the velocity profile exhibits the tendency for separation, which is particularly pronounced for higher Reynolds numbers. The exact solutions presented in this paper with the detailed description of the method exhibit, besides the experimental verification, a powerful means to validate numerical methods dealing with the calculation of velocity and temperature distributions within viscous flows. © 1990.