LDA Measurements of Velocities in a Simulated Collapsed Tube

Abstract

A perspex (plexiglas) tube was locally deformed into an almost bi-lobar interior cross section, representative of the localized throat at the downstream end of a collapsed tube conveying a flow. The axial and transverse (parallel to the long axis of the deformed cross section) components of fluid velocity were measured in a dense rectangular grid of points covering the whole cross section, at 15 axial sites between one diameter upstream of and three diameters downstream of the center of the constriction. The Reynolds number based on undeformed tube diameter and mean velocity was 705. Results are presented both as surfaces showing the variation of each component over the cross section and as velocity vector profiles. The overall changes in velocity in the streamwise direction are presented in terms of the variation of the maximum and minimum of each component with axial position. Flow downstream of the throat consisted of two parallel side-jets with a broad region of reverse flow in between. This pattern persisted until beyond 2.5 diameters downstream, by which point transverse inflow at the top and bottom of the cross section had converted the side jets into a complete annulus of axial velocity surrounding a central deficit. Jet velocities and reverse flow disappeared relatively abruptly before three diameters downstream.