FULLY DEVELOPED LAMINAR FLOW IN A HELICALLY COILED TUBE OF FINITE PITCH

Solutions for steady, fully developed, laminar flow of an incompressible Newtonian fluid through a helically coiled tube of finite pitch were obtained by finite difference calculations. Prior theoretical solutions have apparently been limited to toroidal flow (with zero pitch). The computed results are consistent with those for this limiting case and with prior experimental data for finite pitch. The behavior for helical coils is intermediate between that for a straight pipe and a torus, and, for a moderate degree of pitch differs only slightly from that for a torus. A correlating equation was developed for the friction factor for all Reynolds numbers, all ratios of coil radius to lube radius and all ratios of pitch to coil radius for which the flow remains laminar.