bending_pipe.

book Page 1 Wednesday, November 26, 2008 1:37 PM

Turbulent Flow Through a Bending Pipe

SOLVED WITH COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS 3.5a

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T u r b u l e n t F l o w T h r o u g h a Be n d i n g
P i pe
Introduction
This example models the fluid flow through a bending pipe at high Reynolds number.
It compares results obtained using both the k- and k- turbulence models with
experimental data. The example contains detailed descriptions of how to make the
modeling as accurate as possible.

Model Definition
Figure 1 shows the geometry of a generic bending pipe (Ref. 1). The pipe has a
diameter of 1 meter and a total length of 6.71 m.

outlet

inlet

Figure 1: Geometry of the bending pipe. The pipe diameter is 1 m.

Because of the way the geometry is generated, the modeling domain is a union of three
subdomains as shown in Figure 2.

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3
2

Figure 2: Subdomain decomposition of the geometry.

The flow characteristics are determined by the Reynolds number, which is defined as
U ref L ref
Re = --------------------------.

Here, is the density and denotes the dynamic viscosity, while Uref and Lref are the
reference velocity and length, respectively. For this example it is suitable to choose Uref
as the inlet velocity and Lref as the pipe diameter. Experimental data is available from
Ref. 1 for Re = 3105. At such high Reynolds number, the flow is turbulent and a
turbulence model must be used. The Chemical Engineering Module supplies two
RANS models: the standard k- turbulence model and the Wilcox revised k-
turbulence model from 1998. In this model, you compare the velocity profiles
obtained using these two turbulence models to the experimental data.
You model the fluid as a generic fluid with = 1 kg/m3 and = 1/(3105) Pas. The
closest physical correspondence is air with rather low viscosity.
BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

At the inlet there is a uniform flow of velocity 1 m/s in the z direction. The turbulent
length scale is 0.07D, where D = 1 m is the pipe diameter, and the turbulence intensity
is 5%, which is typical for fully turbulent internal flows. A constant pressure is specified
at the outlet, and the flow vector is normal to the outlet.
The model uses wall functions as boundary conditions on all other boundaries. The
wall functions implemented in COMSOL Multiphysics are so called lift off wall

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functions, that is, the computational domain is displaced a small distance, w, from
the surface. In this case, this is handled by drawing a domain with a smaller radius than
the radius of the modeled pipe. The wall functions assume that the displacement
expressed in viscous units, w+, falls between 30 and some upper limit dependent on
the Reynolds number, in this case roughly 300. The correct procedure is for you to
+ 300 . If this is not the case, you
guess a displacement distance, w, so that 30 w
must redraw the computational domain, choosing another value for w. In this model,
you set the initial guess for w to be 1 cm, giving the computational domain a radius
of 0.49 m compared to 0.50 m for the modeled pipe. For more information on wall
functions, see Logarithmic Wall Function on page 151 of the Chemical
Engineering Module Users Guide.
CORNER SMOOTHING

All nodes on the circles bounding the interior boundaries (see Figure 2) have two wall
normals, one for each subdomain. The no-penetration condition of the wall functions
results in two distinct directions in which there can be no mass flux. If this is not
considered, the existing equations fulfill the constraints by forcing the flow to be
stagnate at the points of intersection, which is of course unphysical. COMSOL
Multiphysics provides corner smoothing as an application mode property for the k-
and k- turbulence models to deal with this issue. An extra vectorial equation is
introduced on the boundaries, and its solution is a smoothly varying wall normal. This
smoothed wall normal is then used in the boundary conditions for the velocities.

Results and Discussion

Figure 3 shows a boundary plot of the application mode variable dwplus_chns for
+ 300 , and by rotating the plot, you can see
w+. The scale is restricted to 30 w
+
that the wall is complete. If w would have fallen outside the permitted range, there
would have been areas in the boundary plot with no results. Because there are none,
you can conclude that the choice of w = 0.01 m fulfills the above mentioned
assumption for the wall functions.

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Figure 3: Boundary plot of w+ from the k- solution.

Figure 4 compares the velocity, U, along the line from (1.58, 0, 0.3) to (1.58, 0, 1.3)
computed with the k- and k- turbulence models to experimental data. While both
methods give fair results, the k- turbulence model is slightly more accurate at the
wall. This implies that k- gives a better prediction of the drag and hence of the
friction loss in the pipe.

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Figure 4: Streamwise velocity profile along the line between the points (1.58, 0, 0.3) and
(1.58, 0, 1.3). The lines represent results from the k- (solid line) and k- (dashed line)
models. The circles correspond to experimental data (Ref. 1).

Reference
1. I. E. Idelchik, Handbook of Hydraulic Resistance, 1996, Begell House Publishers.

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