Heat transfer in pulsatile flow through a straight distensible tube

An analytical investigation of unsteady heat transfer in a Newtonian fluid is reported in the case of flow driven by an oscillatory pressure gradient through a tube with deformable walls. Axisymmetric velocity profiles are obtained for a variety of stroke volumes and oscillation frequencies and then used to predict the temperature distribution inside the tube for large times and adiabatic boundary conditions. Heat is dispersed by the combined action of pulsatile convective transport of fluid and molecular diffusion and thus an effective diffusivity that is larger than the molecular diffusivity can result. The interesting result of the present work is that the longitudinal dispersion of heat is further enhanced by the lateral motion of the walls.