TY - JOUR TI - Experimental study on fiber suspensions in a curved expansion duct with particle image velocimetry AU - Liang Xiaoyu AU - Wu Huan-Huan AU - Tu Cheng-Xu AU - Zhang Kai JN - Thermal Science PY - 2012 VL - 16 IS - 5 SP - 1414 EP - 1418 PT - Article AB - The visualization measurement of internal flow field in a curved expansion duct is experimentally studied using particle image velocimetry technology and the influence of flow rate on flow field is analyzed. The streamline distribution and related performance curve in the internal flow field can be figured out through further analysis of experiment data. The results show that fiber orientation is mainly affected by velocity gradient, the fibers near the wall are aligned with the flow direction more quickly than the fibers in intermediate region, and the fibers near the concave wall are more quickly aligned with the flow direction than the convex wall. The larger inlet flow rate which will accordingly lead to increase inlet velocity enables the more quick adaptation and steady of fibers in flow direction.