SYMMETRY-BREAKING AND BIFURCATION STUDY ON THE LAMINAR FLOWS THROUGH CURVED PIPES WITH A CIRCULAR CROSS-SECTION

The Dean problem of steady viscous flow through a coiled circular pipe is studied numerically. We compute the structure of the symmetric fam ilies of the flows that exist as the crucial parameter D varies, which is in accordance with those stated in Yang and Keller (Appl. Numer. M ath. 2, 257, 1986), Furthermore, we find a asymmetric flow emanating f rom the symmetry-breaking bifurcation point, which they could not find since they restricted the numerical study on the flows symmetric abou t the x-axis. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.