The existence of steady flow in a collapsed tube

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Self-excited oscillations arise during flow through a pressurized segment of collapsible tube, for a range of values of the time-independent controlling pressures. They come about either because there is an (unstable) steady flow corresponding to these pressures, or because no steady flow exists. We investigate the existence of steady flow in a one-dimensional collapsible-tube model, which takes account of both longitudinal tension and jet energy loss E downstream of the narrowest point. For a given tube, the governing parameters are flow-rate Q, and transmural pressure P at the downstream end of the collapsible segment. If E = 0, there exists a range of (Q, P)-values for which no solutions exist; when E ≠ 0 a solution is always found. For the case E ≠ 0, predictions are made of pressure drop along the collapsible tube; these solutions are compared with experiment.