MODELING GRAVITY-DRIVEN RIVULET ON A MONOTONICALLY VARYING INCLINE

Rivulet type flow is of great importance in many engineering areas including the packed columns design or heat exchangers calculations. We concentrate on the case of a rivulet flowing in the azimuthal direction from top to bottom of a large horizontal cylinder. A direct numerical simulation of the problem is compared to simplified solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations for the cases of a rivulet with (i) constant contact angle and varying width, (ii) constant width and varying contact angle, and (iii) varying both contact angle and width. Such comparison sheds light on the applicability of simplified models for a solution of real-life problems.