CFD ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF RADIUS OF CURVATURE ON DEAN FLOW IN A CURVED REACTOR

The effect of the radius of curvature on Dean flow in a curved reactor was numerically evaluated. Two U-shaped curved channel reactors were developed with a square cross-section (? = ? = 3 mm) and with different radius of curvature (?in = 0.05 cm and 3 cm). The results showed that the radius of curvature influenced the velocity profile, and more pronounced Dean vortices were found in the device with a smaller radius. Furthermore, the device with ?in = 0.0005 m showed an improvement in mixing intensity due to passive mixing caused by the presence of Dean vortices. Therefore, this study can provide important preliminary information about the design guidelines for curved channel reactors.