Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xm8r8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-17T05:20:18.308Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

On the longitudinal dispersion of dye whose concentration varies harmonically with time

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2006

P. C. Chatwin
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Liverpool

Abstract

In recent years many problems concerned with the dispersion of a passive contaminant along pipes and channels have been investigated, and this paper is concerned with one such problem which arises in diverse applications. This is the study of the longitudinal dispersion of a contaminant whose concentration is prescribed as a harmonic function of time at one cross-section. On the basis of physical arguments and of detailed calculations for two laminar flows it is shown that for high frequencies the concentration pattern is transported downstream at the maximum fluid velocity but that for low frequencies it is transported at the discharge velocity, and that the fluctuations in concentration decay to zero in a much shorter downstream distance for high frequencies than for low frequencies. It is shown further that at high frequencies the concentration is exponentially small except near the places where the fluid velocity attains its maximum, whereas for low frequencies the variation in concentration over the cross-section is small. Some of these conclusions are compared with those made by others, and the agreement is in general satisfactory.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1973 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bentley, P. G. & Dawson, D. G. 1966 Trans. Soc. Instrum. Tech. 18, 183.
Brinkman, H. C. 1950 Appl. Sci. Res. A2, 120.
Carrier, G. F. 1956 Quart. Appl. Math. 14, 108.
Copson, E. T. 1965 Asymptotic Expansions. Cambridge University Press.
Erdogan, M. E. & Cratwin, P. C. 1967 J. Fluid Mech. 29, 465.
Philip, J. R. 1963a Aust. J. Phys. 16, 187.
Philip, J. R. 1963b Aust. J. Phys. 16, 300.
Slater, L. J. 1960 Confluent Hypergeometric Functions. Cambridge University Press.
Taylor, G. I. 1953 Proc. Roy. Soc. A 219, 186.
Taylor, G. I. 1954 Proc. Roy. Soc. A 223, 446.