Laminar Fully Developed Flow in Periodically Converging-Diverging Microtubes

Laminar fully developed flow and pressure drop in linearly varying cross -section converging-diverging microtubes have been investigated in this work. These microtubes are formed from a series of converging-diverging modules. An analytical model is developed for frictional flow resistance assuming parabolic axial velocity profile in diverging and converging sections. Frictional flow resistance is found to be only a function of the geometrical parameters. To validate the model, a numerical study is carried out for the Reynolds number ranging from 0.01 to 100, for various taper angles and maximum-minimum radius ratios ranging from 0.5 to 1. Comparisons between the model and numerical results show that the proposed model predicts the axial velocity and the flow resistance accurately. As expected, the flow resistance is found to be effectively independent of the Reynolds number from numerical results. Parametric study shows that the effect of radius ratio is more significant than the taper angle. It is also observed that for small taper angles, flow resistance can be determined accurately by applying the local Poiseuille flow approximation.