4 research outputs found
An instability mechanism for particulate pipe flow
We present linear stability analysis for a simple model of particle-laden
pipe flow. The model consists of a continuum approximation for the particles
two-way coupled to the fluid velocity field via Stokes drag (Saffman 1962). We
extend previous analysis in a channel (Klinkenberg et al. 2011) to allow for
the initial distribution of particles to be inhomogeneous and in particular
consider the effect of allowing the particles to be preferentially located
around one radius in accordance with experimental observations. This simple
modification of the problem is enough to alter the stability properties of the
flow, and in particular can lead to a linear instability at experimentally
realistic parameters. The results are compared to the experimental work of
Matas et al. (2004a) and are shown to be consistent with the reported flow
regimes.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figure