Steady, supercritical flow in collapsible tubes. Part 1. Experimental observations

Experimental results are presented for steady, supercritical flow of a liquid in a thin-walled compliant tube which is in a state of partial collapse due to a negative transmural pressure. Particular attention is paid to the effects of longitudinal tension. With a constant external pressure, friction acts to increase the area in the down-stream direction. With the tube tilted downward, friction may be so balanced by gravity forces as to result in an asymptotic approach to an equilibrium situation in which the area and velocity remain constant. When the downstream pressure is increased sufficiently, shock-like transitions to subcritical inflated states, with positive transmural pressure, occur. The longitudinal length scale of the shock is on the order of one to several tube diameters. The pressure rise across the shock lies between that for loss-free pressure recovery and that given by the Borda-Carnot sudden-expansion theory. The presence of longitudinal tension causes a train of standing waves of area to appear upstream of a local area disturbance, such as a shock-like transition. The standing waves are superimposed upon the more gradual area changes associated with friction and gravity. The wave amplitude grows in the downstream direction. Theoretical interpretations of the observations are presented in the companion paper (part 2).