Apph sci. Res. Section B, Vol.

10

UNSTEADY HYDRODYNAMIC VISCOUS FLOW

IN AN ANNULAR CHANNEL
by M. L. MITTAL
Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India

Summary
The unsteady hydrodynamic viscous flow in an annular channel in the
presence of a time varying pressure gradient in the direction of the axis has
been considered by the application of the Laplace transform. The case of a
constant axial pressure gradient has been taken into account as a special case.

§ 1. Introduction. M i t h a l 1) has considered the unsteady flow

of a viscous incompressible fluid in a circular pipe under a time
varying pressure gradient. The wellknown Poiseuille flow appears
to be a special case of his analysis when the pressure gradient along
the axis is made constant and the time that has elapsed since the
commencement of the motion is infinite.
The same problem has been extended in the present paper to
the case of flow of a viscous incompressible fluid in a channel
bounded by two coaxal circular cylinders under a pressure gradient
along the axis which decays exponentially with time. By choosing
a parameter, which characterizes the nature of variation of the
pressure gradient along the axis as zero, the pressure gradient
becomes constant and the flow tends to the expected steady flow
after an infinite time.
The analysis has been made by the application of the Laplace
transform.

§ 2. The equations o/ motion and their boundary conditions. Let

the z-axis be along the common axis of the infinite cylinders, a
point 0 on it being the origin. The radial coordinate is taken as r
and the boundaries of the cylinders are r = a and r----b. The
annular region between the cylinders is occupied by a viscous

-- 86 --
 U N S T E A D Y VISCOUS A N N U L A R F L O W 87

homogeneous incompressible fluid at rest at time t = 0. For t > 0,

a time varying pressure gradient ~p/Oz = - p/(t) is established
in the direction of the common axis of the cylinders, p being the
pressure and p the density. The velocity v is assumed to be in the
z-direction at all times and all places. The equations of motion
in the absence of external forces then are:
0v (02u 1 0v)
= v + -- + l(t) (2. l)
St \ 0r 2 r -~r
and

0- 0p
Or ' (2.2)

where v is the kinematic coefficient of viscosity. The b o u n d a r y

conditions are:
v=0 for r : a , t > ~ O ,
v=0 for r = b , t ~>0, (2.3)
v=0 for t = 0 , a ~<r ~<b.

§ 3. Solution o / t h e equations. Defining the Laplace transforms

of v and [(t) by:
oo

~J = f v e -~t dt (3.1)
0
and

f(~) = f ](t) e - ~ dt, (3.2)

0

and multiplying equation (2.1) b y e -~t, integrating with respect

to t from t = 0 to t = oo and using the third condition from
(2.3) we obtain:
d2~ 1 d~ t 1_
dr 2 + r dr - v- ~ v f(;t). (3.3)

The first and the second conditions of (2.3) transform to:

= 0 for r = a,
~J = 0 for r = b. (3.4)
The solution of (3.3) is

= AJo(ir~/~lv) + BYo(ir~/~/v) + f(~) (3.5)

A
88 M.L. MITTAL

Using the b o u n d a r y conditions (3.4) for the evaluation of A and B

leads to"

~5= f(2)
I 1
Yo(irv'2/v)[Jo(ibvq~/v) -- Jo(ia~/J~/v)] -
- f o ( i r ~ / 2 / v ) [ Y o ( i b ~ / 2 / v ) - Yo(iaV2/v)]
~- - Y o ( i a V X / v ) j o ( i b v / 2 / v ) _ j o ( i a V 2 / v )Yo(ibV2/v) (3.6)

Applying the inversion formula 2) for Laplace transform we obtain

the expression for the velocity

v -- 2hi
a/ v eat d2. (3.7)
P

Here F is the usual contour for inversion.

§ 4. Special case. If the pressure gradient is taken as an ex-

ponentially decaying function of time, namely:

1 0p
. . . . . P e -st, (4.1)
p 0x
where ~ is a constant, we have:
oo
P
f(2) = f P e -(~+a~t dt --
~+~ (4.2)
0

The velocity v from (3.7) becomes"

1 /~ P e zt d2
v --

I 2zd J 2(2 -f- ~x) X

F

Yo(ir~A/v)[jo(ibv, A/v) -- Jo(iaVA/v)] -

- Jo(irv/~l~)[Yo(ibv'X/~) - Yo(iaV~l~)]
}

× 1-- Yo(iav,2/v)jo(ibv/2/v)_jo(ia~/,~/v)Yo(iMv/2/v ) . (4.3)

The integrand here is a single valued function of 2 with simple

poles at 2 -= 0, 2 = -- ~ and the roots of the equation

Yo(iaV2/v) Jo(ibv'2/v) -- Jo(iaV2/v ) Yo(ibv'2/v ) -- 0, (4.4)

which has simple roots, all on the negative real axis. For simplicity
it is presumed that ~ does not coincide with any of the roots of (4.4).
The contour P of integration is taken as follows. Take a line
 UNSTEADY" VISCOUS A N N U L A R FLOW 89

at a distance c from the imaginary axis and parallel to it. The line
is of length 2R and is bisected by the real axis. With this point of
bisection as centre and R as radius describe a semicircle towards
the negative part of the real axis. The contour thus consists of a
semi-circular arc bounded by its diameter as described above.
The q u a n t i t y c is selected so t h a t all the singularities ot the inte-
grand lie to its left and R tends to infinity through a sequence
of such values t h a t the semicircle never passes through a pole of
the integrand. Thus v is given by

P
v -- 2~i × 2Jri [Sum of the residues at the poles of the integrand].

The residue at 2 = 0 is zero and after calculating the residues at

2 = -- ~ and the zeros of (4.4) we obtain:
Yo(rVo<lv ) [Jo(bVo,/v ) - Jo(a@x/v)] - I
v= - - J°(rV°<iv) [Y°(bV°</v) - Y°(a'v/°</v)]l -
Po, e-°'t 1 - Yo(aVo:/v) jo(bVo~/v) _ j o ( a V o @ ) Yo(bVo~/v) ]

--2P E ×

[ Yo(rfn)[fo(bfn) -- lo(afln)] - ]
i . - Jo(rfln) [Y0(bf.) - Y o ( a f . ) l[. (4.5)
X g[ll(bfn) Yo(afn) -- lo(afn) Yl(bfn)] @ [
+ a[Jo(bfln) Yl(afln) -- Jl(afln) Yo(bZn)~J
The s u m m a t i o n extends over the roots of (4.6). The integral round
the semi-circular contour vanishes z) as R -+ oo. Here fin has been
used to represent a root of the equation

Y o ( a f ) f o(bfl) -- Jo(afl) Vo(bf) -- O. (4.6)

W h e n e = O, the pressure gradient in (4. l) becomes constant and
the expression for the velocity given by (4.5) becomes:

P [ a21nb-b21na
v = 4-~ In (b/a) +
(b2--a2) l n r
In (b/a) -- r2 --
1
Yo(rfln) [Jo(bfln) -- Jo(afin)] -
2P co e-.tl.u -- Jo(rfln) [Yo(bfln) -- Yo(afln)]
Z . (4.7)
Y n=l ffn b[Jl(bfln) Yo(afl.) -- Jo(afln) Yl(bfln)] +
+ a[Jo(bfln) Yl(afln) -- Jl(atSn) Yo(bfln)]
90 U N S T E A D Y VISCOUS ANNULAR FLOW

As t --> oo, this solution tends to the solution of the steady case
for an annular region.
The case when the pressure gradient is periodic can be discussed
b y taking a suitable form of/(t). The extension to the flow of non-
Newtonian fluids in the annular channel can be carried out in the
same manner as in 1).

I am thankful to Dr. M. N. L. N a r a s i m h a n , I.I.T. Bombay for

helpful discussions and to Mr. S. C. G u p t a for suggesting this
problem to me.

Received 14th February, 1962.

REFERENCES

1) M i t h a l , K. G., Bull. Cal. Math. Soc. ;i2 (1960) 47.

2) T r a n t e r , C. J., Integral Transforms in Mathematical Physics, Methuen, 1956,
p. 15.
3) T h o m s o n , W. T., Laplace Transformation, p. 208, 1950.