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Investigation of unsteady flow characteristics through a curved duct is widely used in many engineering applications such as in fluid transportation, rotating machinery and metallic industry. Fluid behavior depends not only on the rotation of the duct but also on physical properties such as fluid pressure, curvature and aspect ratio of the duct. The present paper focuses on the time-dependent flow behavior through a rotating curved square duct. The bottom wall of the duct is heated while cooling from the ceiling, the inner and outer sidewalls being thermally insulated. Numerical calculations are carried out by using a spectral technique, where function expansion and collocation methods are applied for constant Dean number, Dn = 1000, the Grashof number, Gr = 100 and curvature, δ = 0.01 over a wide range of the Taylor number, −1500≤Tr≤1500. In this paper, we investigated flow characteristics for both positive and negative rotation of the duct. Due to combined action of the centrifugal, Coriolis and buoyancy forces various types of physically realizable transient solutions such as steady-state, periodic, multi-periodic and chaotic solutions have been obtained. Flow transitions are well determined by obtaining the power spectrum of the solutions. Typical contours of axial flow, secondary flow and temperature profiles have also been obtained and it is found that time-dependent solutions are comprised of two-to six-vortex solutions. The present study shows that convective heat transfer is significantly enhanced by the secondary flow and there is a strong interaction between the heating-induced buoyancy force and the centrifugal-Coriolis instability in the rotating curved duct that stimulates fluid mixing and consequently enhances heat transfer in the fluid. Finally, our numerical results have been compared with the experimental investigations and it is found that there is a good agreement between the numerical and experimental investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time-dependent flow behavior through a curved duct is widely encountered in engineering and cell sorting sections. In this article, we have numerically investigated time-dependent fluid flow and dynamic heat transfer related to the stationary curved square duct, paying particular attention to the dependence of velocity and temperature fields on Dean number (Dn), Grashof number (Gr), curvature (δ) and aspect ratio. Here, the outer and bottom walls of the duct are maintained at high temperature whereas the inner and upper walls adiabatically segregated. In the first instance, time evolution calculation of the unsteady solutions has been performed for an extensive range of the Dean number (100 ≤ Dn ≤ 1000) and the Grashof number (100 ≤ Gr ≤ 1000) while other parameters have been considered to be fixed. Time-dependent solutions show that the flow undergoes through various flow instabilities regarding the range of parameters. It has been seen that three types of flow characters, steady-state, periodic, multi-periodic oscillations have been constructed in the time vs. Nusselt number for cooling wall plane. To point out the periodic and multi-periodic flow more clearly, power spectrum has been accomplished. Typical contours of two types of flow velocity such as axial and secondary flow and isotherm (temperature profiles) have been obtained for various values of Dn and Gr. It is found that only two-vortex asymmetric solutions appear for the steady-state solution whereas two- to four-vortex for the periodic and multi-periodic flows. Heat transfer has been demonstrated and it is found that heat transfer is enhanced by the secondary flow particularly when the Dean vortices emerge at outer concave wall. The present investigation reveals that there is a sharp influence amidst the ardor-induced buoyancy compulsion and the centrifugal instability in the curved duct that stimulates fluid composition and consequently enhances heat transfer in the fluid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]