Large-Eddy Simulation of Turbulent Flow in a Curved Pipe

Abstract

In this paper, we use Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) to compute a fully-developed turbulent flow in a curved pipe. The results allow us to study how the curvature influences the mean velocity profile and also various turbulent statistics. We find reasonable agreement with the few experiments that are available. Our simulation also allows a detailed study of secondary motion in the cross section of the pipe which are caused by the centrifugal acceleration due to the pipe curvature. It is known that this secondary motion may consist of one, two, or three circulation cells. In our simulation results we find one circulation cell.