Flow development in a porous channel and tube

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Abstract
The spatial development of the inlet velocity profile in a uniformly porous channel and tube is investigated. For tubes which are very long compared with their radius, it is shown that above a critical Reynolds number of 2.3 the inlet velocity profile does not necessarily decay into the fully developed, similarity profile for an infinite tube. Rather, the structure of the flow throughout the entire tube is influenced by the inlet profile. This loss of validity of the similarity solution is due to the fact that the tube is of finite length and the inlet profile is not of the similarity form. The actual length of the tube is, however, unimportant. Analogous results hold for the flow in a porous channel, with a critical Reynolds number of approximately 6.