Effect of slip on existence, uniqueness, and behavior of similarity solutions for steady incompressible laminar flow in porous tubes and channels

Abstract

The existence and multiplicity of similarity solutions for steady, fully developed, incompressible laminar flow in uniformly porous tubes and channels with one or two permeable walls is investigated from first principles. A fourth-order ordinary differential equation obtained by simplifying the Navier-Stokes equations by introducing Berman’s stream function [A. S. Berman, J. Appl. Phys. 24, 1232 (1953)] and Terrill’s transformation [R. M. Terrill, Aeronaut. Q. 15, 299 (1964)] is probed analytically. In this work that considers only symmetric flows for symmetric ducts; the no-slip boundary condition at porous walls is relaxed to account for momentum transfer within the porous walls. By employing the Saffman [P. G. Saffman, Stud. Appl. Math. 50, 93 (1971)] form of the slip boundary condition, the uniqueness of similarity solutions is investigated theoretically in terms of the signs of the guesses for the missing initial conditions. Solutions were obtained for all wall Reynolds numbers for channel flows whereas no solutions existed for intermediate values for tube flows. Introducing slip did not fundamentally change the number or the character of solutions corresponding to different sections. However, the range of wall Reynolds numbers for which similarity solutions are theoretically impossible in tube flows was found to be a weak function of the slip coefficient. Slip also weakly influenced the transition wall Reynolds number corresponding to flow in the direction of a favorable axial pressure gradient to one in the direction of an adverse pressure gradient. Momentum transfer from the longitudinal axis to the walls appears to occur more efficiently in porous channels compared to porous tubes even in the presence of slip.