A numerical study of the hydrodynamics of a falling liquid film on the internal surface of a downward tapered cone

The hydrodynamics of a falling laminar liquid film along the internal surface of a downward tapered cone in a stagnant vapor phase is presented. A marching procedure is employed for the solution of the equations of continuity, momentum and global mass for the two fluid velocity components u and v, and the film thickness, delta, in the entrance region and the asymptotically fully developed region. A parametric study illustrating the effects of the half-cone angle phi, inlet cone curvature, beta, inlet Reynolds number, Re-o, and the inlet Froude number, Fro, on the streamwise distribution of film thickness, and wall skin friction are examined in detail. The obtained numerical results are compared with analytical results for special cases of the problem and are found to be in excellent agreement. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.