The characteristics of turbulence in curved pipes under highly pulsatile flow conditions

Abstract

High speed stereoscopic particle image velocimetry has been employed to provide unique data from a steady and highly pulsatile turbulent flow at the exit of a 90 degree pipe bend. Both the unsteady behaviour of the Dean cells under steady conditions, the so called “swirl switching” phenomenon, as well as the secondary flow under pulsations have been reconstructed through proper orthogonal decomposition. The present data set constitutes – to the authors’ knowledge – the first detailed investigation of a turbulent, pulsatile flow through a pipe bend.