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The decay of a turbulent swirl in a pipe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2006

Frank Kreith
Affiliation:
University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado
O. K. Sonju
Affiliation:
University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado

Abstract

This paper presents a linearized theory for the average decay of a tape-induced fully developed turbulent swirl in flow through a pipe. In the Reynolds number range between 104 and 105 the theoretical analysis was found to be in good agreement with experimental data obtained with water in a 1 in. pipe, provided the eddy diffusivity was chosen appropriately.

It was observed that a turbulent swirl decays to about 10–20% of its initial intensity in a distance of about 50 pipe diameters, the decay being more rapid at smaller than at larger Reynolds numbers. The theoretical swirl velocity distribution agreed qualitatively with experimental measurements at distances less than 20 diameters downstream from the outlet of the swirl inducer, but deviated from the experimental results further downstream.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1965 Cambridge University Press

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