Spherical Couette flow of a viscoelastic fluid Part I: Experimental study of the inner sphere rotation

Flow of viscoelastic fluid contained between a stationary outer sphere and a rotating inner sphere is studied experimentally. In the present investigation, relatively low-concentration polyacrylamide-water solutions are used as viscoelastic fluid, and for the sake of comparison glycerin-water solutions are used as the Newtonian fluid. In experiments, measurements of the rotational torque and the velocity profile in the meridional plane of the spherical gap are made. Various transition phenomena of flow modes that are unique to viscoelastic fluids are investigated by flow visualization for a wide range of rotational Reynolds numbers. Experimental results revealed that a roll-cell-like structure (banded radial structure) caused by elastic instability is generated in the polar region, and that it propagates toward the equatorial region when rotation of the inner sphere is increased, resulting in the formation of two distinct regions: the elastic dominant region and the inertial dominant region. Flow modes are classified and the critical Reynolds numbers are obtained for different gap widths. A correlation is obtained for the torque data in the regime before the onset of instability.     

Experimental and numerical investigations of pressure drop in a rectangular duct with modified power law fluids

Numerical solutions are presented for fully developed laminar flow for a modified power law fluid (MPL) in a rectangular duct. The solutions are applicable to pseudoplastic fluids over a wide shear rate range from Newtonian behavior at low shear rates, through a transition region, to power law behavior at higher shear rates. The analysis identified a dimensionless shear rate parameter which, for a given set of operating conditions, specifies where in the shear rate range a particular system is operating, i.e. in the Newtonian, transition, or power law regions. The numerical results of the friction factor times Reynolds number for the Newtonian and power law region are compared with previously published results showing agreement within 0.05% in the Newtonian region, and 0.9% and 5.1% in the power law region. Rheological flow curves were measured for three CMC-7H4 solutions and were found to be well represented by the MPL constitutive equation. The friction factor times Reynolds number values were measured in the transition region for which previous measurements were unavailable. Good agreement was found between experiment and calculation thus confirming the validity of the analysis.     

Velocity field of convergent flow into a rectangular slit for a polymeric fluid

Three-dimensional velocity distributions in the entry region of a rectangular slit contraction were investigated using a dual-beam laser Doppler velocimeter. The flow of a silicone oil (a Newtonian fluid) and a solution of silicone rubber in the same silicone oil (a viscoelastic fluid) was studied at low Reynolds numbers (Re < 0.5). In contrast to the usual velocity distribution of a Newtonian fluid, the viscoelastic fluid showed the following characteristic features: (1) a pronounced axial velocity overshoot immediately after the slit entrance and a maximum before the slit exit; (2) appearance of an axial flow deceleration region just before the sharp acceleration near the slit entrance. Even more remarkably, a saddle form of velocity profile was found in the entrance region. This flow pattern is completely different from that found for Newtonian fluids and has not yet been explained using existing rheological analysis.Parts of this paper were presented at the IX. Intern. Congress on Rheology at Acapulco (Mexico), October 8–13, 1984     

Drag of a sphere in dilute polymer solutions in high Reynolds number range

We have measured by means of four ultrasonic transducers the fall velocity of a sphere at high Reynolds number range in dilute polyacrylamide solutions which have viscoelastic effects. The polymer solutions were 5, 20 and 50ppm in the concentration. Basset-Bousinessq-Oseen equation for the falling sphere was analyzed numerically on Newtonian fluids in order to compare with the fall velocity of a sphere in the polymer solutions, and the experimental data of the fall velocity in tap water is in agreement with the range of no effect of the test tank wall. In polymer solutions, it was shown that the fall velocity is larger than that in Newtonian fluids within the critical Reynolds number range such that the drag reduction occurs and is smaller than that of Newtonian fluids over the range. The experimental data for the drag reduction ratio of polymer solutions is arranged by Weissenberg number calculating the experimental data of the first normal stress differences. It was shown that the maximum drag reduction ratio in the polymer solutions lies in the range of We=3∼10. Received: 15 October 1997 Accepted: 12 May 1998     

GPU accelerated simulations of three-dimensional flow of power-law fluids in a driven cube

Newtonian fluid flow in two- and three-dimensional cavities with a moving wall has been studied extensively in a number of previous works. However, relatively a fewer number of studies have considered the motion of non-Newtonian fluids such as shear thinning and shear thickening power law fluids. In this paper, we have simulated the three-dimensional, non-Newtonian flow of a power law fluid in a cubic cavity driven by shear from the top wall. We have used an in-house developed fractional step code, implemented on a Graphics Processor Unit. Three Reynolds numbers have been studied with power law index set to 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5. The flow patterns, viscosity distributions and velocity profiles are presented for Reynolds numbers of 100, 400 and 1000. All three Reynolds numbers are found to yield steady state flows. Tabulated values of velocity are given for the nine cases studied, including the Newtonian cases.     

Rotating electroosmotic flow of an Eyring fluid

A perturbation analysis is presented in this paper for the electroosmotic(EO) flow of an Eyring fluid through a wide rectangular microchannel that rotates about an axis perpendicular to its own. Mildly shear-thinning rheology is assumed such that at the leading order the problem reduces to that of Newtonian EO flow in a rotating channel, while the shear thinning effect shows up in a higher-order problem.Using the relaxation time as the small ordering parameter,analytical solutions are deduced for the leading-as well as first-order problems in terms of the dimensionless Debye and rotation parameters. The velocity profiles of the Ekman–electric double layer(EDL) layer, which is the boundary layer that arises when the Ekman layer and the EDL are comparably thin, are also deduced for an Eyring fluid. It is shown that the present perturbation model can yield results that are close to the exact solutions even when the ordering parameter is as large as order unity. By this order of the relaxation time parameter, the enhancing effect on the rotating EO flow due to shear-thinning Eyring rheology can be significant.     

Flow of a shear-thinning liquid in a cylindrical container with a rotating end wall

The flow patterns produced by rotating one end wall of a circular cylinder completely filled with a strongly shear-thinning viscoelastic liquid have been investigated using the laser-induced fluorescence flow visualization technique. An intense toroidal vortex is produced in the vicinity of the rotating end wall with outward spiraling flow over the end wall itself. This vortex drives a second countercirculating vortex of low intensity in the region of the stationary end wall. Under some circumstances an axial jet of fluid is observed moving away from the rotating end wall. This jet showed evidence of instability, whereas all flows were otherwise completely steady. The double-vortex structure is different from those recently observed in either a Newtonian or slightly shear-thinning liquid or in the low Reynolds number flow of an elastic liquid. There are, however, similarities with older work for a viscoelastic liquid at relatively high Reynolds numbers. The observations highlight the suitability of the cylinder/rotating end wall configuration as a sensitive test case for computational work.     

DNS of viscoelastic turbulent channel flow with rectangular orifice at low Reynolds number

Direct numerical simulations of turbulent viscoelastic-fluid flow in a channel with a rectangular orifice were performed to investigate the influence of viscoelasticity on turbulence statistics and turbulent structures downstream of the orifice. The geometry considered is periodic rectangular orifices with 1:2 expansion. The constitutive equation follows the Giesekus model, valid for polymer (or surfactant) solutions, which are generally capable of reducing the turbulent frictional drag in a smooth channel. The friction Reynolds number and the Weissenberg number were set to 100 and 20-30, respectively. A drag reduction of about 20% was achieved in the viscoelastic flows. The onset Reynolds number for the transition from a symmetric to an asymmetric state was found to be shifted to higher values than that for the Newtonian flow. In the viscoelastic flow, the turbulent kinetic energy was decreased and fewer turbulent eddies were observed, as the Kelvin-Helmholtz vortices were quickly damped. Away from the orifice, quasi-streamwise vortices in the viscoelastic flow were sustained for a longer period, accompanied by energy exchange from elastic energy of the viscoelastic fluid to kinetic energy.     

Creation of very-low-Reynolds-number chaotic fluid motions in microchannels using viscoelastic surfactant solution

Solutions of flexible high-molecular-weight polymers or some kinds of surfactant are viscoelastic fluids. The elastic stress is induced in such viscoelastic fluid flows and grows nonlinearly with the flow-rate resulting in many particular flow phenomena, including purely elastic instability. The purely elastic instability can even result in a kind of chaotic fluid motion, the so-called elastic turbulence, which is a recently discovered flow phenomenon and arises at arbitrarily small Reynolds number. By using viscoelastic surfactant solution, we attempted to create the peculiar chaotic fluid motions in several specially designed microchannels in which flows with curvilinear streamlines can be generated. The viscoelastic working fluids were aqueous solutions of surfactant, CTAC/NaSal (cetyltrimethyl ammonium chloride/sodium salicylate). CTAC solutions with weight concentration of 200 ppm (part per million) and 1000 ppm, respectively, at room temperature were tested. For comparison, water flows in the same microchannels were also visualized. The Reynolds numbers for all the microchannel flows were quite small (for solution flows, the Reynolds numbers were the order of or smaller than one) and the flow should be definitely laminar for Newtonian fluid. It was found that the regular laminar flow patterns for low-Reynolds-number Newtonian fluid flow in different microchannels were strongly deformed in solution flows: either asymmetrical flow structures or time-dependent vortical fluid motions appeared. These chaotic flow phenomena were considered to be induced by the viscoelasticity of the CTAC solutions. Discussions about the potential applications using such kind of chaotic fluid motions were also made.     

Asymptotic solutions of the flow of a Johnson-Segalman fluid through a slowly varying pipe using double perturbation strategy

A double perturbation strategy is presented to solve the asymptotic solutions of a Johnson-Segalman (J-S) fluid through a slowly varying pipe. First, a small parameter of the slowly varying angle is taken as the small perturbation parameter, and then the second-order asymptotic solution of the flow of a Newtonian fluid through a slowly varying pipe is obtained in the first perturbation strategy. Second, the viscoelastic parameter is selected as the small perturbation parameter in the second perturbation strategy to solve the asymptotic solution of the flow of a J-S fluid through a slowly varying pipe. Finally, the parameter effects, including the axial distance, the slowly varying angle, and the Reynolds number, on the velocity distributions are analyzed. The results show that the increases in both the axial distance and the slowly varying angle make the axial velocity slow down. However, the radial velocity increases with the slowly varying angle, and decreases with the axial distance. There are two special positions in the distribution curves of the axial velocity and the radial velocity with different Reynolds numbers, and there are different trends on both sides of the special positions. The double perturbation strategy is applicable to such problems with the flow of a non-Newtonian fluid through a slowly varying pipe.     

Characteristic turbulent structure of a modified drag-reduced surfactant solution flow via dosing water from channel wall

The modification of the near-wall structure is very important for the control of wall turbulence. To ascertain the effect of near-wall modulation on the viscoelastic drag-reduced flow, the modified characteristics of a surfactant solution channel flow were investigated experimentally. The modulation was conducted on the boundary of the channel flow by injecting water from the whole surface of one side of the channel wall. The diffusion process of the injected water was observed by using the planar laser-induced fluorescence technique. The velocity statistics and characteristic structure including the spatial distributions of instantaneous streamwise velocity, swirling strength, and Reynolds shear stress were analyzed based on the velocity vectors acquired in the streamwise wall-normal plane by using the particle imaging velocimetry technique. The results indicated that the disturbance of the injected water was constricted within a finite range very near the dosing wall, and the Reynolds shear stress was increased in this region. However, the eventual drag reduction rate was found to be increased due to a relatively large decrement of viscoelastic shear stress in this near-wall region. Moreover, the flow structure under this modulation presented obvious regional characteristics. In the unstable disturbed region, the mixing of high-speed and low-speed fluids and the motions of ejection and sweep occurred actively. Many clockwise vortex cores were also found to be generated. This characteristic structure was similar to that in the ordinary turbulence of Newtonian fluid. Nevertheless, outside this disturbed region, the structure still maintained the characteristics of the drag-reduced flow with non-Newtonian viscoelastic additives. These results proved that the injected Newtonian fluid associated with the modified stress distribution creates a diverse characteristic structure and subsequent enhanced drag reduction. This investigation can provide the experimental basis for further study of turbulence control.     

Sphere settling in an aging yield stress fluid: link between the induced flows and the rheological behavior

The flow pattern induced by the settling of a non-Brownian sphere in a fluid depends on the rheological properties of that fluid. For instance, at small Reynolds numbers, the pattern presents a fore–aft symmetry in a Newtonian fluid, whereas, in some viscoelastic polymer solutions, it can exhibit a negative wake, i.e., an upward flow in the sphere’s wake. This study is an experimental work on the settling of a sphere in a suspension of a synthetic colloidal clay, laponite. The fluid is a yield stress fluid that ages, i.e., whose rheological properties evolve over time. We show that the settling velocity of a given sphere, as well as the induced flow pattern, are strongly modified as the fluid ages. In particular, the flow pattern asymmetry increases with the age of the fluid, and a negative wake eventually forms. We relate those modifications to rheological measurements and suggest, in line with works dealing with polymer solutions, that it is the increase in the fluid viscoelasticity that is responsible for the formation of a negative wake. The flow field measurements are also compared with flow-induced birefringence measurements, and we show that very slow relaxation processes are involved in the sphere settling.     

The influence of flow-induced non-Newtonian fluid properties on turbulent drag reduction

Friction factors and velocity profiles in turbulent drag reduction can be compared to Newtonian fluid turbulence when the shear viscosity at the wall shear rate is used for the Reynolds number and the local shear viscosity is used for the non-dimensional wall distance. On this basis, an apparent maximum drag reduction asymptote is found which is independent of Reynolds number and type of drag reducing additive. However, no shear viscosity is able to account for the difference between the measured Reynolds stress and the Reynolds stress calculated from the mean velocity profile (the Reynolds stress deficit). If the appropriate local viscosity to use with the velocity fluctuation correlations includes an elongational component, the problem can be resolved. Taking the maximum drag reduction asymptote as a non-Newtonian flow, with this effective viscosity, leads to agreement with the concept of an asymptote only when the solvent viscosity is used in the non-dimensional wall distance.     

A note on sinusoidal motion of a viscoelastic non-Newtonian fluid

In this note, the exact solutions of velocity field and associated shear stress corresponding to the flow of second-grade fluid in a cylindrical pipe, subject to a sinusoidal shear stress, are determined by means of Laplace and finite Hankel transform. These solutions are written as sum of steady-state and transient solutions, and they satisfy governing equations and all imposed initial and boundary conditions. The corresponding solutions for the Newtonian fluid, performing the same motion, can be obtained from our general solutions. At the end of this note, the effects of different parameters are presented and discussed by showing flow profiles graphically.     

Drag of a rotating sphere

We consider the problem of steady incompressible viscous fluid flow about a rotating sphere, with the flow specified on a sphere of finite radius, which reduces to the solution of the complete Navier-Stokes equations.The dimensionless stream functions and circulai velocity are sought in the form of series in powers of the Reynolds numbers, which converge for small values of this number. Recurrence formulas are derived for determining the coefficients of these series. The pressure, rotational resistance torque, and drag are determined. It is established that the rotating sphere has higher drag than a stationary sphere. The leading term of the series in powers of the Reynolds number for the drag and resistive torque is calculated.     

Kinematics and normal stress differences of a viscoelastic fluid undergoing wiggle flow

An experimental program was carried out to determine the laminar regime kinematics and normal stress differences of a viscoelastic fluid in wiggle flow employing non-contact measurement techniques. The viscoelastic fluid was a 5% by weight solution of polyisobutylene dissolved in Primol 355, a high purity mineral oil.The kinematics were determined by Laser-Doppler Anemometry and compared with the data obtained for a Newtonian fluid, Primol 355, under identical flow conditions. It was found that the normalized axial velocity versus axial position curves along the centerline for both fluids superimposed at very low flow rates, an experimental verification that a viscoelastic fluid behaves like a Newtonian fluid under very low shear rates. However, at higher flow rates the behaviour of the viscoelastic fluid curves changed appreciably whereas the Newtonian fluid curves did not change at all. Thus, the effect of flow rate on viscoelastic fluid behaviour was also experimentally established.The normal stress differences were determined using a stress-birefringence apparatus. Data obtained along the centerline clearly exhibited a delayed growth of stress which should be attributed to the expected memory effects in viscoelastic fluid flow.     

Unsteady flow in an annulus between two concentric rotating spheres

An analysis is presented for the unsteady laminar flow of an incompressible Newtonian fluid in an annulus between two concentric spheres rotating about a common axis of symmetry. A solution of the Navier-Stokes equations is obtained by employing an iterative technique. The solution is valid for small values of Reynolds numbers and acceleration parameters of the spheres. In applying the results of this analysis to a rotationally accelerating sphere, a virtual moment of inertia is introduced to account for the local inertia of the fluid.     

A reassessment of the wall effect of non-newtonian flow of polymer solutions

An apparatus for checking slip interpretation of flow anomalies in the laminar capillary flow of macromolecular solutions is described. It consists of a two-dimensional flow channel, having a uniform width of 1.5 inch and an alternative, convergent taper that is adjustable. Dilute aqueous solutions of the polymers Carbopol, Natrosol, and Polyox are recirculated in steady laminar flow from a large reservoir. Velocities, pressures, and wall shear stresses are measured. Local velocities are obtained by the local injection of conductive tracer fluid, whose passage is sensed by sets of electrodes stationed along the flow. Wall shear stresses are measured on a small, freely displaceable, traction surface flush with the channel wall. The tests cover concentrations of Carbopol of 0.1% to 0.4%, Natrosol of 0.5% to 1%, and Polyox of 0.5% to 1%. Approximate viscosities range from about 10 to 1000 cP. Wall shear rates up to 1000 s^–1 are attained.The results are in good agreement with the established viscometric properties of the tested materials. Actual shear stresses agree with those calculated from pressure drops, and velocities exhibit no detectable anomaly near the wall. Any velocity anomaly in the experiment would have to be less than 3% of the mean flow velocity.An order of magnitude analysis, based on particulate behavior, is made in an attempt to delineate an underlying mechanism.     

An investigation of non-newtonian flow past a sphere

Any experimental work on the flow of a polymer solution or any theoretical analysis on the basis of a visoelastic constitutive equation does not always bring out viscoelastic effects but may be showing a non-Newtonian viscosity effect. Therefore, in order to obtain a clear understanding about viscoelastic effects, it is desirable to have a sufficient knowledge of the non-Newtonian viscosity effect. To facilitate this, finite-difference numerical solutions of non-Newtonian flow were carried out using a non-Newtonian viscous model for the Reynolds numbers of 0.1, 1.0, 20 and 60.Drag force measurements and flow visualization experiments were also performed over a wide range of experimental conditions using polymer solutions. The present work appears to support the following idea: When compared with the Newtonian case on the basis of DV_∞P/η₀, where η₀ is the zero shear viscosity, it is on account of the non-Newtonian viscosity that the friction and pressure drags decrease, that the separating vortices behind the sphere become larger, and that no shift occurs in the streamlines. On the other hand, it is due to viscoelasticity that the normal force drag increases, that the separating vortices behind the sphere become smaller, and that an upstream shift occurs in the streamlines.     

Influence of Heat and Mass Transfer on Newtonian Biomagnetic Fluid of Blood Flow Through a Tapered Porous Arteries with a Stenosis

Heat and mass transfer effects on Newtonian biomagnetic fluid of blood flow through a tapered porous artery with a stenosis is investigated. Governing equations have been modeled by treating blood as Newtonian biomagnetic fluid. The governing equations are simplified under the assumption of mild stenosis. Exact solutions have been evaluated for velocity, temperature, and concentration profiles. The effects of Newtonian nature of blood on velocity, temperature, concentration profile, wall shear stress, shearing stress at the stenosis throat and impedance of the artery are discussed graphically. Stream lines have been presented in last section of the article.