BOUNDARY ELEMENT SOLUTION OF LAMINAR

VISCOUS FLOW IN ARBITRARY DUCT

Dr. Karima E. Amori
Mech. Eng. Dep., University of Baghdad, Iraq

ABSTRACT
A boundary element scheme for 2-D steady incompressible laminar viscous flow
inside arbitrary duct is presented. The solution provides computation of velocity
distribution, average velocity, and local wall shear stress. The computational results
obtained are verified by comparing them with the corresponding exact solution for
circular and elliptical ducts, which shows an excellent agreement. Moreover the
generality of this scheme is illustrated by applying it to ducts of hydraulic diameter
(Dh=1.0) and different cross sections namely square, rectangular, triangular and
circular tube at different orientation angle of its axis from vertical axis. The obtained
results show that the local shear stress is distorted for ducts other than circular duct
while the mean shear stress is constant for the same pressure gradient and hydraulic
diameter.
‫الخلصاة‬
‫طبععاقي ولععزج فععي مجععرى ذو مقطععع عععام‬, ‫ غيععر انضععغاطي‬,‫ مسععتقر‬,‫يتضمن البحث حل"ا لجريععان ثنععائي البعععد‬
.‫ ومعدل السرعة وتوزيع أجهععاد القعص الموضعععي‬,‫ يتم تحديد توزيع السرعة‬.‫بأستخدام طريقة العناصر المحيطية‬
‫تم مقارنة النتائج المحسوبة المستحص لة معع النتائعج النظريعة لجريعان داخ ل مجعرى دائعري و بيضعوي المقطعع‬
‫ لتوضيح الستخدام العام لهذه الطريقة المطروحععة تععم تطبيقهععا علععى مجععارى‬.‫والتي أظهرت تقارب ممتاز بينهما‬
‫ انبوب دائري ذو زعانف داخليععة و انبععوب دائععري‬, ‫ مثلث‬, ‫ مستطيل‬, ‫ وذو مقطع مربع‬1= ‫ذي قطر هيدروليكي‬
‫ أوضحت النتائععج أن أجهععاد القععص الموضعععي يتغيععر علععى طععول محيععط‬.‫متغير زوايا الميل مع المحور الشاقولي‬
.‫ اما متوسط أجهاد القص فل يتغير لنفس القطر الهيدروليكي و الضغط المسلط‬,‫المجرى عدا المجرى الدائري‬
Key wards: Viscous, Flow, Boundary Element method, Duct

INTRODUCTION
The problem of viscous fluid flow inside arbitrary ducts presents itself in many
engineering applications such as compact heat exchangers, gas turbine cooling
systems, cooling channels in combustion chambers, nuclear reactors and others.
Analytical solution of this problem is possible if the duct has circular or elliptical
cross section Bachlor, (1967), equilateral triangular cross section Tao, (1961). An
experimental investigation by Carlson and Irvine (1961) has been done for isosceles
triangular, a noncircular duct was studied by Barrow and Hassan (1984).
Hussain,I.y. (1997) used a finite element method to solve the problem in equilateral
triangular duct.
The present work represents an approach to use the boundary element method to
solve developed laminar viscous flow in ducts of symmetric and asymmetric cross
section such as circular, elliptical, square, rectangular, triangular (equilateral, isosceles
and asymmetric). The flow inside internal finned tubes, and a pipe at different
orientation angle (0 to 90o) has been also investigated.

MATHEMATICAL MODEL
The shape of an arbitrary duct and the coordinate system used during this work is
shown in Fig.(1).

1
 C
y
duct boundary
z

Flow
x
o'

n
Fig.(1): Coordinate System for Fluid Flow in
Arbitrary Duct

Governing equation of fully developed steady unidirectional laminar viscous

incompressible flow is: Khader(1981)
s
 2u z  (1)

where
u z = fluid velocity (m/s)
 dp
s  g z cos  ( the negative pressure gradient incorporating the effect
dz
of gravity along the z- axis) ( N/m3)
  fluid viscosity (N.s/ m2)
  angle between duct axis and y-axis
.
The solution of eq. (1), is decomposed into homogenous solution (f) and a particular
solution( fp) (i.e)
uz  f  f p (2)

these solutions must satisfy the following conditions

 2f  0
(3)

p S
 2f  (4)

S
let fp  v( x , y )

(5)
where (v) is a plane function taken as

1
v  [( x  x o  ) 2  ( y  y o  ) 2 ] (6)
4

where (xo’ ,yo’) are the coordinates of arbitrary reference point in x,y plane, such that
it satisfies the following
2v  1
(7)

also v  . H
(8)

2
 x3 y3
where H  h x i  h y j  i j (9)
12 12
Hence
S
fp  .H

(10)
For no slip boundary condition at the solid boundary of the duct ( u z  0 )
hence f  f p (11)

Using the boundary integral formulation for the homogenous solution (f) at a point
(xo) inside the tube an integral equation for normal derivative (∂f / ∂n) can be written
as:

f ( x ) s s
 G ( x, x o ) v( x ) ( n ( x ) . G ( x , x o ) 
 c
dl( x )   v( x o )  dl( x )
c
n 
(12)
A derivation of this equation is given in the appendix

Flow Rate Computation

Flow rate is defined as

Q  u z dA   (f  f p ) dA   f dA   f
p
dA
A A A A
(13)
After some mathematical manipulation for eq.(13) leads to
s
Q   n . ( vu z  H ) dl( x )
c 
(14)
A brief derivation to this equation is given in the appendix
Equation (14) is a boundary integral equation which can be solved after the normal
gradient of (f) at the boundary (c ) is computed from eq.(12).The average velocity is
calculated as
Q
Vav  (15)
A

Computation of Shear Stress

The shear stress at the duct wall is defined as
u
 wall   z   n . u z (16)
n
substituting eq.(2) in eq.(16) to get
p
 wall   n.(f  f )

or  wall   (n . f )   ( n . f p )
(17)

substituting eq.(6) in eq.(17) to get the local wall shear stress as:

3
 f  s  s
 wall    [nx ( v)  n y ( v)]
n x  y 

f s
or  wall    [ n x (x  x o )  n y ( y  y o  ) (18)
n 2
The mean wall shear stress can be evaluated as

1
 mean   wall dl( x )
L c
(19)
where L is the perimeter of the duct

Computation of Velocity Distribution Inside the Domain

The total velocity value uz at a point (xo) inside the tube can be evaluated once the
 f 
when value of  n  at each element is computed. Referring to eq. (2)
 i
p
uz (xo) = f(xo) +f (xo) (20)

where

N f
  s
f (x o )       G ( x , x o ) dl( x )   v( x ) n ( x ) . G ( x , x o )  dl( x )
i  1 n  i c i c
(21)
and
f p (x o ) 
s

s 1
 4
 
v( x o )  *   x o  x o   2   y o  y o   2  

(22)

COMPUTATIONAL PROCEDURE
The main flow parameters namely, velocity distribution, flow rate and local wall shear
stress can be evaluated according to the following procedure:
1-The duct boundary (C) is divided into (N) boundary elements e i (of constant type)
defined by (N+1) nodes.
 f 
2- Discretizing eq.(12) by considering  n  as a constant unknown value over
 i
element ei , hence eq(12) can be rewritten as:

N
 f  s s N
   
i 1  n  i ei
G ( x , x o ) dl ( x )  

v ( x o )   vi n( x) . G( x, xo ) dl ( x)
 i 1 ei
(23)

this equation forms a system of (N+1) linear equations which is solved by Gauss
elimination method to evaluate local  f n  i .
3- Compute the velocity distribution inside the domain from eq. (20) after
substituting the values of ( f and f p ) from eq.s (21) and (22).

4-Compute flow rate and average velocity by using the boundary integral eq.s(14) and
eq.(15) respectively.

4
5-Compute the elemental and mean shear stress value using eq.s (18 and 19).

COMPUTER PROGRAM
A computer program was developed in Fortran-90 to perform the numerical solution
formulated previously. The program consists of five parts. The first part for input
data (namely hydraulic diameter=1.0, s/μ=1.0+9.81cos θ), while the second to the
generation of element matrices, and the others related to the assymbler, solver and
output data presentation respectively. The execution time of the developed program
on a personal computer (Pentium IV ) of (256 k RAM) took about less than (1
second).

DISCUSSION AND RESULTS

The forgoing computational approach is applied to problems of known exact solutions
as a rigorous test. Fig.2 shows a comparison between the obtained numerical results
of radial velocity distribution in circular duct of radius (R=0.5unit or hydraulic
diameter=1.0unit ) with the corresponding exact solution as given in Bachlor(1967)
sR  r 2
uz  1  ( R )  (24).
4
for different number of boundary elements. It is clear that the accuracy of solution
become very well when the boundary elements be (N=16). Fig.3 shows that the
maximum computational velocity value (which is equal to twice the average value)
exist at the duct center which agrees with the analytical solution .
Fig.4 shows the velocity distribution inside an elliptical duct of dimensions (a=1.0
unit and b=0.36 unit). The results compared with the analytical solution given by
Bachlor(1967)
s  x 2 y 2
uz  1  ( a )  ( b )  (25)
2 2
2  (a b )
an excellent agreement between them is obtained. Also it is clear that the maximum
value of velocity ratio (V/Vaverage) is traced at duct center ( the same value as that for
circular duct). Fig.5 shows that the variation of predicted local wall shear stress at
each boundary element number for circular and elliptical ducts. It is clear that the
local value of wall shear stress is constant along the perimeter of circular duct, since
every boundary point has the same distance away from the center. A comparison
between the computational values and the corresponding analytical values (derived
the appendix) for elliptical duct shows an excellent agreement, also it can be noticed
that the values of local (τwall) be minimum at its ends of the major axis and maximum
at the tips of minor axis, this is due to the difference in duct curvatures at these
positions. Fig.6 shows the velocity distribution inside rectangular ducts for different
aspect ratios. It predicts that the velocity values decreases as the aspect ratio increases
for the same hydraulic diameter (D h =1.0 unit). The local shear stress along the longer
side of this duct increases as the longer side length increases while there is no
variation noticed along the shorter sides as shown in Fig.7.This is due to the weaker
velocity variation obtained as the side length increases for the same flow rate. The
local shear stress for ducts of triangular section was affected by the apex angle as
shown in Fig.8. The figure shows that the local (τwall) increases along the side walls of
the duct as the apex angle decreases, while there is no effect on the base side. Fig.9
shows the velocity variation along y-axis of triangular duct for different apex angle. It
can be deduced that the maximum velocity traced at the duct center and it increases as
the apex angle decreases. The above trained has been also shown for unsymmetrical

5
triangular duct as shown in Fig.10. A cross section of internal finned circular tube (6
fins) is shown in Fig.11-a. The local shear stress variation along a pie section
boundary of this duct (divided into 18 segments as shown in Fig.11-b is shown in
Fig.11-c. It can be noticed that the local (τwall) value vanishes at the fluid plain of
symmetry and has a maximum value at the fin tips. This is due to the tube geometry
distortion. The velocity variation along selected lines within the pie section is
presented in Fig.12, in all cases the velocity was found to be maximum at the duct
center and vanishes at the duct contour. The radial velocity distribution for a circular
tube at different inclination angles with y-axis varies from (0 o-90o) is shown in Fig.13.
It is clear that the velocity increases as the inclination angle increases for the same
supply pressure(s).This is due to the effect of gravity force.

CONCLUSION
The boundary element approach derived in this work for fully developed laminar flow
in ducts has been successfully applied. It is clear that the numerical solution was
capable in predicting the complete velocity distribution and wall shear stress (local
and mean) in arbitrary duct section, with minimum effort compared with FDM and
FEM. Another primary advantage of the present method is the space
reduction of the problem from 2-D to one dimension.

References:
Bachlor,G.K. “ An Introduction to Fluid Dynamics” Cambridge University Press.
Cambridge. 1967.
Barrow,H. ; Hassan,A.K.A. and Avegerinos, C. “Peripheral Temperature Variation in
the Wall of a Noncircular Duct-An Experimental Investigation” Int. J. Heat Mass
Transfer, vol. 27,No.7, p.p.1031-1037,1984
Brebbia, C.A. and Walkrt, S. “Boundary Element Techniques in Engineering”,
McGraw-Hill,1980
Carlson,L.W.; Irvine,JR.T.F. “Fully Developed Pressure Drop in Triangular Shaped
Ducts” J. Heat Transfer Nov. 1961 p.p. 441-444
Hussain,I.y. “A finite element algorithm for Laminar Forced Convection in
Equilateral Triangular Duct” Proceedings of The Fourth Scientific Engineering
Conference, College of Engineering, University of Baghdad,(18-20)Nov.1997
Khader,M.S. ”A Surface Integral Numerical Solution for Laminar Developed Duct
Flow” J. Applied Mechanics, Transaction of ASME Dec.1981,vol.48,p.p.695-700
“Fully Developed Flow and Heat Transfer in Ducts Having Streamwise-Periodic
Variations of Cross Sectional Area” J. Heat Transfer, May,Vol.99,p.p. 180-186, 1977
Partap,V.S. and Spalding D.B. “ Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer in Three-
Dimensional Duct Flows” Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, vol.19, p.p.1183-1188
Tao,L.N. ”On Some Laminar Forced-Convection Problems”Trans. ASME, J. of Heat
Transfer Nov.1961, p.p.166

6
 0 .0 6 A n a ly t ic a l
N o . o f e le m e n ts = 4
N o . o f e le m e n ts = 8
N o . o f e le m e n ts = 1 6
0 .0 5

V e lo c ity (m /s ) 0 .0 4

0 .0 3

0 .0 2

0 .0 1

0 .0 0

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
B o u n d a ry N o d e N o .
Fig.(2): Effect of Number of Boundary Elements on
Numerical Results of Circular Duct
0 .0 8
2 .0

0 .0 6
1 .5
v e lo c ity (m /s )

V /V a v e r a g e

0 .0 4
1 .0

0 .0 2 0 .5
c o m p . v e lo c it y
A n a ly t. v e lo c it y
V / V a v e ra g e

0 .0 0 0 .0

0 .0 0 0 .2 0 0 .4 0 0 .6 0 0 .8 0 1 .0 0
r /R
Fig.(3): Radial Velocity Distribution in Circular Duct

7
 2 .0

0 .0 6

1 .5

v e lo c ity (m /s ) 0 .0 5

V /V a v e r a g e
1 .0

V
0 .0 3

0 .5
0 .0 2
C o m p . v e lo c it y
A n a l. v e lo c it y
V / V a v e ra g e

0 .0 0 0 .0

0 .0 0 0 .2 0 0 .4 0 0 .6 0 0 .8 0 1 .0 0
x /a o r y /b
Fig.( 4 ) : Velocity Distribution in Elliptical Duct
0 .3 5
C o m p u t . ( E llip .)
A n a ly . (E llip . )
C o m p u t . ( C ir c u la r )

0 .3 0
S h e a r S tr e s s (N /m ^ 2 )

0 .2 5

0 .2 0

0 .1 5

0 .1 0

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
B o u n d a ry N o d e N o .

Fig.(5): Local Shear Stress Distribution Along Duct Boundary

(Circular and Elliptical)

8
 0 .3 0
2B
2A

0 .2 5

0 .2 0
v e lo c ity (m /s )

0 .1 5

0 .1 0

0 .0 5
A =B
A = 1 .5 B
A =2 B

0 .0 0

-1 .0 -0 .5 0 .0 0 .5 1 .0
x /A

Fig.(6 ) : Velocity Distribution in Rectangular Duct

(a)
1 .2 0
A=B
1 .1 0 A = 1 .5 B
A=2B
1 .0 0

0 .9 0

y 0 .8 0
S h e a r S tr e s s (N /m ^ 2 )

0 .7 0

0 .6 0

64 0 .5 0

32 0 .4 0

0 .3 0

x 0 .2 0

96 0 .1 0

1 0 .0 0

-0 .1 0

128 0 20 40 60
Node No.
80 100 120 140

(b)
Fig.(7): a) Boundary Node No., b) Local Shear Stress
Distribution Along
Rectangular Duct Boundary for Different Aspect Ratio

9
 1
196

0 .4 5

0 .4 0

0 .3 5

0 .3 0

S h e a r S tr e s s (N /m ^ 2 )
0 .2 5

0 .2 0

0 .1 5

0 .1 0

0 .0 5
y a = 60

a = 30
0 .0 0 a = 20
128
64 a = 15
-0 .0 5

x 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200

B o u n d a ry N o d e N o .
(a) (b)
Fig.(8): a) Boundary Node No. ; b) Local Shear Stress
Distribution Along Triangular Duct Boundary For The
Same Hydraulic Diameter and Different Apex Angle

2 .5

a =60

a =30

a =20
2 .0 a =15

y
V

b
1 .5
V

x
V / V a v e ra g e

2b

1 .0

0 .5

0 .0

-2 .0 -1 .5 -1 .0 -0 .5 0 .0 0 .5 1 .0
y /b

10
 Fig.( 9 ): Velocity Distribution Along y-Axis in
Triangular Duct for
Different Apex Angle
0 .6

0 .5

y
V

0 .4

V
x
V / V a v e ra g e

0 .3

0 .2

0 .1

0 .0

-0 .5 - 0 .4 -0 .3 -0 .2 - 0 .1 0 .0 0 .1 0 .2 0 .3
y
Fig.(10): Velocity Distribution Along y-Axis in Unsymmetrical
Triangular Duct

12

13
11

14
A
ne
Li

10
16
15

e B
17 L in

18

30
60
45 5 L in e C
8
1 2 3 4 6 7

(a)
(b)

11
 1 .0

0 .8

S h e a r S tr e s s (N /m ^ 2 ) 0 .6

0 .4

0 .2

0 .0

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Node No.
(c)
Fig.(11): a) Internal Finned Duct ; b) Pie Section of
Duct ; c)Local Shear Stress Distribution Along Boundary
of a Pie Section of Finned Duct
0 .0 3 0

L in e A
0 .0 2 5
L in e B
L in e C

0 .0 2 0
v e lo c ity (m /s )

0 .0 1 5

0 .0 1 0

0 .0 0 5

0 .0 0 0

0 .0 0 0 .2 0 0 .4 0 0 .6 0 0 .8 0 1 .0 0
r /R o

Fig.(12): Velocity Distribution Along

Selected Lines(A,B and C) in
Finned Duct

12
 0 .8 Q= 0

Q= 30

0 .7 Q= 60

Q= 90

0 .6

0 .5

v e lo c ity (m /s )
0 .4

0 .3

0 .2

0 .1

0 .0

0 .0 0 .2 0 .4 0 .6 0 .8 1 .0
r / R
Fig.(13): Radial Velocity Distribution in Circular Duct
Located at Different Orientation Angle

APPENDIX
Boundary Integral Eq. (12)
f ( x )
f ( x o )    G (x, x o ) dl( x )   f ( x )( n ( x ) . G ( x , x o ) dl( x )
c
n c
(26)
where G is the 2-D Green’s function defined as:

G
1
2
ln X  X o 
1
2
 1
ln  x  x o  2   y  y o  2 2 
(27)

where G is a differentiable function and satisfies the

singularity forced Laplaces equation:

 2 G ( X, X o )   ( X  X o )  0
(28)

where δ is the Dirac delta function

Substituting eq. (11) in (26) when the point (xo)
approaches the tube boundary (c) and using eq. (5) to get

f ( x ) s
f ( x o )    G ( x, x o ) dl( x )   v( x ) (n ( x ) . G ( x , x o )  dl( x )
c
n c
(29)

13
 Using Green’s second identity which states that

G  2 f  f  2 G   . ( G f  f G )
(30)

eq. (30) can be rewritten as:

G  2 f  f  ( X  X o )   . ( G f  f G )
(31)
substituting eq. (3) to get

f  ( X  X o )   . (G f  f G )
(32)

Now integrating both sides over the domain area A

 f  (X  X o ) dA     . (G f  f G ) dA
A A
(33)
then applying the divergence theorem to get
f ( x o )    n . (Gf )dl   n . (f G )dl
c c
(34)
f
using n . f  ,Brebbia, and Walkrt(1980), to get :
n
f
f (x o )   G dl   f n . G dl
c
n c
(35)
If the field point (xo) approaches the duct boundary then
f ( x o )  f p ( x o )
substituting eq.(5) to get
s f
v( x o , y o )    G dl   f n . G dl
 c
n c

Flow Rate Eq.(16)

Dealing with the first term on RHS of eq.(13) it can be
rewritten as
2
 f dA   (f  v  v  2 f ) dA
A A
(36)
then using the divergence theorem
2
 (f  v  v  2 f ) dA  c n . ( v f  f v)dl( x )
A
(37)
at the boundary ( c ) using eq. (11)
v f  f v  v  f  (  f p ) v
s
 v f  (  v ) v

s
 v ( f  v)


14
using eq. (5) to get
v f  f v  n . v  ( f  f p )
  f dA  c n . v u z dl( x )
A
(38)

Now using the divergence theorem on the second term on

RHS of eq.(13) such as:
p s s
 f dA     . H dA   n . 
c 
H dl( x )
A A
(39)

then substituting equations (38) and (39) in eq.(13) to get

s
Q   n . ( vu z  H ) dl( x )
c 

Wall Shear Stress of Elliptical Duct

u z u u
 n . u z  z n x  z n y
n x y
(40)

Now referring to equation (25)

u z s  2x  2y
 wall    ( nx  ny)
n 2(a  2  b  2 ) a 2 b2
(41)

where (x,y)coordinates of a point belongs to the duct

contour

15