Laminar Pipe Flow
Created using ANSYS 13.0
Problem Specification
Consider fluid flowing through a circular pipe of constant radius as illustrated above. The pipe diameter D = 0.2 m and length L = 8 m. The inlet velocity Ūz = 1 m/s. Consider the velocity to be constant over the inlet cross-section. The fluid exhausts into the ambient atmosphere which is at a pressure of 1 atm. Take density ρ = 1 kg/ m3 and coefficient of viscosity µ = 2 x 10-3 kg/(ms). The Reynolds number Re based on the pipe diameter is
where Ūz is the average velocity at the inlet, which is 1 m/s in this case.
Solve this problem using FLUENT via ANSYS Workbench. Plot the velocity and pressure variation within the pipe. Validate your results.
Note: The values used for the inlet velocity and flow properties are chosen for convenience rather than to reflect reality. The key parameter value to focus on is the Reynolds number.
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