Fluid flow and heat transfer in an axially rotating pipe—I. Effect of rotation on turbulent pipe flow

The effects of tube rotation on the velocity and temperature distribution, on the friction coefficient and on the heat transfer to a fluid flowing inside a tube are examined experimentally and by analysis. Rotation is found to have a very marked influence on the suppression of the turbulent motion because of radially growing centrifugal forces. The analytical study is performed for flow and heat transfer in an axially rotating pipe by applying a modified mixing length theory to a fully developed turbulent pipe flow with superimposed rotation. To express the degree of turbulence suppression, due to the centrifugal forces, the mixing length is modified by a function of the Richardson number Ri. The theoretical results are compared with the experimental findings.