Abstract
Inviscid methods of treating secondary flows due to streamline curvature are well known in the literature. The development of secondary motions at high Reynolds number in a bifurcation characteristic of the lung airways or the cardiovascular system is considered. In particular, the secondary motions in the initial section of a bifurcation, which can be considered a tube of slowly varying ellipticity, are calculated. Providing viscous effects are confined to regions near the walls, the calculated velocity field agrees with experimental observation. Thus the structure of the secondary motions can be considered an effect of stretching of vortex lines by the tube boundary.

This publication has 11 references indexed in Scilit: