Flow Regulation Characteristics of Thin-Walled Compliant Tubes: Part II—Experimental Verification and Design of the Wave-Speed Flow Regulator

Abstract

The theoretical foundation of the two different mechanisms of compliant-tube flow limitation when the flow is either friction dominated (frictional flow limitation for low-Reynolds-number flow) or inertia dominated (wave-speed flow limitation for high-Reynolds-number flow) was formulated in Part I [1] of this paper. In this part of the paper, the high-Reynolds-number wave-speed flow limitation behavior of compliant tubes is verified experimentally and applied to the design of a flow regulator employing a collapsible tube as its active element. Criteria for the design of an inertia-dominated compliant-tube flow regulator are established and checked against findings of experiments.