Numerical analysis of the low velocity regions in an array of three horizontal 90° elbows conducting water

Abstract

Paper presented at the 5th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, South Africa, 1-4 July, 2007.

The numerical simulation and the results analysis, of the velocity and pressure fields in a three 90º elbows horizontal array are presented in this paper. A turbulent water flow ranging in a [44000, 176000] Reynolds number was used for the simulation with Fluent®. The velocity profile and the static pressure distribution inside the pipe and the three elbows array were analyzed when the separation distance between the elbows 1 - 2, and 2 - 3 were changed. The pipe diameter used for the simulation was 44 mm, and all the elbows had an average curvature radius of 100 mm. the tested separation between the elbows (L1 and L2) was varied from 0D to 10D. Results show that there is a minimum separation distance between elbows 1 and 2 where there is no more influence on the velocity profile in the first elbow and then the lowest velocity zone could be used for metrology and separation purposes.