Fluid flow through a helical pipe (Q867674)

The goal of this paper is to study the fluid flow through a thin or long pipe with a helical shape via rigorous asymptotic analysis. Steady flow of a Newtonian fluid in a bounded domain \(\Omega\subset \mathbb R^2\) in the isotropic regime is under consideration: \[ \begin{gathered} \text{div}(\sigma v)= 0\quad\text{in }\Omega,\\ \sigma v\cdot\nabla v-\mu\Delta v- (v+\mu)\nabla\text{\,div\,}v+ \nabla\pi(\sigma)= \sigma F\quad\text{in }\Omega,\end{gathered}\tag{1} \] where \(v: \Omega\to\mathbb R^2\) represents the velocity field, \(\pi:\mathbb R^+_0\to\mathbb R\), a given function of the density \(\sigma: \Omega\to\mathbb R^+_0\), represents the pressure and \(F: \Omega\to\mathbb R^2\) is the volume force. Here \[ \pi(\sigma)= \sigma^\gamma,\quad \gamma> 1.\tag{2} \] The flow is considered in a fixed domain with rigid walls, i.e. \[ v\cdot n= 0\quad\text{at }\partial\Omega.\tag{3} \] The following slip boundary condition is taken: \[ n\cdot T(v,\pi)\cdot\tau+ fv\cdot\tau= 0\quad\text{at }\partial\Omega\tag{4} \] with \(f\geq 0\); the stress tensor \(T(v,\pi)= 2\mu D(v)+ (\nu\,\text{div\,}v- \pi)I\) and \[ T_{ij}(v,\pi)= \mu((\partial v_i/\partial x_j)+ \nu\,\text{div\,}v\delta_{ij}- \pi\delta_{ij}; \] \(n\) and \(\tau\) are the normal and tangent vectors to \(\partial\Omega\). The function \(f\) describes the friction effects at the boundary. If \(f\to\infty\), then (3) and (4) become the zero Dirichlet conditions and, if \(f= 0\), the so-called perfect slip boundary conditions are obtained. Relations (3) and (4) are known as the Navier or friction relations, too [\textit{H. Fujita}, Remarks on the Stokes flow under slip and leak boundary conditions of friction type. Galdi, Giovanni P. (ed.) et al., Topics in mathematical fluid mechanics. Quad. Mat. 10, 73--94 (2002; Zbl 1189.76135); \textit{P. B. Mucha}, Nonlinearity 16, No. 5, 1715--1732 (2003; Zbl 1073.76016)]. The pair \((\sigma,v)\in L_\gamma(\Omega)\times W^1_2(\Omega)\), \(v\cdot n= 0\) at \(\partial\Omega\), is called a weak solution to (1)--(4), if \[ \int_\Omega\sigma v\cdot\nabla\eta\,dx= 0,\quad\forall\eta\in C^\infty(\overline\Omega) \] and \[ \begin{multlined}-\int_\Omega\sigma v\otimes v:\nabla\varphi\,dx+ 2\mu \int_\Omega D(v): D(\varphi)\,dx+ v\int_\Omega \text{div\,}v\text{\,div\,}\varphi \,dx+ \int_{\partial\Omega} f(v\cdot\tau)(\varphi\cdot\tau)\,dx\\ -\int_\Omega \pi(\sigma)\text{div\,}\varphi \,dx= \int_\Omega \sigma F\cdot\varphi \,dx,\quad\forall\varphi\in C^\infty(\overline C);\;\varphi\cdot n= 0\quad\text{at }\partial\Omega.\end{multlined} \] The following theorem is proved: Let \(\Omega\in C^2\) be a bounded domain, the constants \(\mu> 0\), \(2\mu+ 3v> 0\), \(M> 0\), \(\gamma> 1\), \(f\geq 0\) and \(F\in L_\infty(\Omega)\). Then there exists a weak solution to (1)--(4) such that \[ \sigma\in L_\infty(\Omega)\text{ and }\sigma\geq 0,\quad v\in W^1_p(\Omega)\text{ for }\forall p<\infty,\quad \int_\Omega\sigma \,dx= M. \] When the problem is written in an \(a\)-dimensionalized form, suitable for an asymptotic analysis, three important geometric parameters appear, pipe's thickness, distance between two coils of the helix (helix step) and the helix diameter. The authors suppose that the pipe's thickness and the helix step have the same small order \(\varepsilon\ll 1\) while the diameter of the helix is larger, of order 1, and study the effective flow as \(\varepsilon\to 0\). An asymptotic expansion (in terms of the pipe's thickness \(\varepsilon\)) of the solution to the full Navier-Stokes system, in the case when the helix torsion is of the same order as the pipe's thickness, is derived. The main contributions of the investigation are the rigorous convergence results and the error estimate of the approximation, as the pipe's thickness tends to zero. It improves the known methods, reducing the number of technical tricks.