Thin-film flow in open helically-wound channels
Date
2004
Authors
Stokes, Y.
Wilson, S.
Duffy, B.
Editors
Behnia, M.
Lin, W.
McBain, G.
Lin, W.
McBain, G.
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Type:
Conference paper
Citation
Proceedings of the Fifteenth Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference 2004, 2004 / Behnia, M., Lin, W., McBain, G. (ed./s), pp.CD-ROM 1-CD-ROM 4
Statement of Responsibility
Y. M. Stokes, S. K. Wilson and B. R. Duffy
Conference Name
Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference (15th : 2004 : Sydney, Australia)
Abstract
The study of flow in open helically-wound channels has application to many natural and industrial flows, including those in static spiral separators. The flow consists of a primary axial component and a secondary cross flow and, in spiral separators, the fluid depth is typically small making experimental investigation difficult. Mathematical models are therefore of great value for determining how such flows are influenced by fluid properties and geometrical parameters and, hence, for predicting and improving the performance of these separators. A thin-film approximation is appropriate and yields an explicit expression for the fluid velocity in terms of the free-surface shape. The latter satisfies an interesting non-linear ordinary differential equation that can easily be solved numerically and in some cases analytically. The semi-analytic predictions of the thin-film model are found to be in good agreement with much more computationally expensive solutions of the Navier–Stokes equations.