Numerical investigation on flow characteristics in ribbed bend

Previous research by the author has proved that ribbed bend technology is a simple and efficient anti-erosion method. The present paper is a further study to unveil the mechanism of the technology by using numerical method. The flow characteristics in ribbed bend were studied. A k-ε turbulence model was used and the simulations were carried out in the body-fitted coordinates. This procedure was confirmed to be credible by showing the satisfactory agreement between the predications and experimental results. It is concluded that the character of the longitudinal flow in ribbed bend especially in the concave parts between ribs has a beneficial effect on increasing the anti-erosion ability of ribbed bend but the secondary flow has little effect on determining the particle trajectory.