Forced convection in tightly coiled ducts: Bifurcation in a high Dean number region

Abstract

The present numerical study is on the fully developed bifurcation structure of forced convection in a tightly coiled duct of square cross-section and curvature ratio of 0.5 in a high Dean number region. Ten solution branches, two symmetric and eight asymmetric, are found. Among them, one symmetric branch and seven asymmetric branches have not been reported in the literature. On these new branches, the flow has a structural 2-, 4-, 5-, 6-, 7- or 8-cell. The mean friction factor and Nusselt number are different on various solution branches. In tightly coiled ducts, the secondary flow enhances the heat transfer more significantly than the friction increase. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.