Added mass of a disc accelerating within a pipe

The flow of inviscid fluid around a disc in a pipe is computed, and the results are used to determine the added mass of the accelerating disc in the frame in which the mixture velocity is zero. The added mass of an array of discs spaced at regular intervals along the pipe is then computed, and is related to the pressure gradient along the pipe. Some flow profiles are also presented. The results show that the added mass per particle increases as the pipe diameter is reduced relative to the particle size. The added mass per particle decreases as the number density of particles increases, but the added mass per unit length of the pipe nevertheless increases. Thus an increase of either the particle size or number density leads to a tighter coupling between the liquid and the particles; this result should hold for other particle shapes and configurations. Results are also presented for the drift, i.e., the displacement of fluid particles caused by the motion of an isolated disc along the axis of the pipe. If the diameter of the pipe is sufficiently small, the added mass of the disc is modified from that in unbounded fluid, and the background drift at the walls of the pipe can no longer be estimated from the added mass of the disc.