Non-isothermal flow of a Bingham fluid with pressure and temperature dependent viscosity

In this paper we investigate the non-isothermal flow of a Bingham fluid whose viscosity and yield stress depend on temperature and pressure. We consider two situations: in the first one we assume that the buoyancy effects are dominant and influence the development and evolution of the unyielded plug. In this case the governing equations are obtained via the Oberbeck–Boussinesq approximation which is derived using a perturbative approach. We show that within this approximation the heat generated by viscous friction can be safely neglected. In the second situation we assume that the frictional heating effects are dominant and influence the flow via the viscosity and yield stress that depend on temperature. For both situations we investigate the simple unidirectional flow between plates subjected to given thermal conditions. We derive the equations for the steady fully developed flow and we determine the exact position of the yield surfaces separating the yielded and the unyielded domain. We also show some plots to assess the effects due to the dependence of the rheological parameters on the temperature and pressure.     

Unsteady circular Couette flow of a Bingham plastic with the Augmented Lagrangian Method

Numerical simulations are undertaken for unsteady flows of an ideal Bingham fluid in a circular Couette viscometer. The main difficulties in such simulations are caused by the non-differentiability of the constitutive equation and the need to determine the position and shape of the yield surface separating the yielded zones from the unyielded ones. In this work, these difficulties are overcome by using a numerical method based on variational inequalities, i.e. the augmented Lagrangian/Uzawa method. The start-up and cessation of circular Couette flows of a Bingham fluid are solved numerically assuming that only one of the cylinders is rotating. An improved theoretical upper bound for the stopping time in the case of cessation is derived. The numerical estimates for the stopping time compare well with the theoretical bounds. Moreover, with the adopted method the evolution of the velocity profiles and the locations of yielded/unyielded surfaces are accurately calculated. In flow cessation, we observe an interesting effect, namely the appearance of a small unyielded region adjoined to the outer cylinder shortly before cessation.     

Stable two-layer flows at all Re; visco-plastic lubrication of shear-thinning and viscoelastic fluids

Multi-fluid flows are frequently thought of as being less stable than single phase flows. Consideration of different non-Newtonian models can give rise to different types of hydrodynamic instability. Here we show that with careful choice of fluid rheologies and flow paradigm, one can achieve multi-layer flows that are linearly stable for Re = ∞. The basic methodology consists of two steps. First we eliminate interfacial instabilities by using a yield stress fluid in one fluid layer and ensuring that for the base flow configurations studied we maintain an unyielded plug region at the interface. Secondly we eliminate linear shear instabilities by ensuring a strong enough Couette component in the second fluid layer, imposed via the moving interface. We show that this technique can be applied to both shear-thinning and visco-elastic fluids.     

Squeeze flow of a Bingham-type fluid with elastic core

The squeeze flow of a Bingham-type material between finite circular disks is considered. The material is modelled assuming that the unyielded region behaves like a linear elastic core. A lubrication approximation is considered. It is shown that no paradox can arise, such as that has been pointed out for many years by various authors when the unyielded region in the fluid is supposed to be perfectly rigid. The unyielded region is shown to be always detached from the axis of symmetry. Some numerical simulations are worked out for different squeezing rates.     

Peristaltic flow of a Bingham fluid in a channel

We study the peristaltic transport of a Bingham fluid in a channel with small aspect ratio whose walls behave as a periodic traveling wave. The governing equations in the unyielded phase are obtained writing the integral formulation for the momentum balance. As shown in Fusi et al. (2015), this approach allows to overcome the so-called “lubrication paradox” which may arise in the thin film approximation. We consider the case in which the inlet flux is prescribed and the one in which the flow is driven by a given pressure drop. In both cases the solution of the problem is determined solving a nonlinear integral equation for the yield surface. We perform some numerical simulations to illustrate the behavior of the yield surface, assuming that the traveling wave describing the peristaltic motion has a sinusoidal shape.     

Transient squeeze flow of viscoplastic materials

The transient, axisymmetric squeezing of viscoplastic materials under creeping flow conditions is examined. The flow of the material even outside the disks is followed. Both cases of the disks moving with constant velocity or under constant force are studied. This time-dependent simulation of squeeze flow is performed for such materials in order to determine very accurately the evolution of the force or the velocity, respectively, and the distinct differences between these two experiments, the highly deforming shape and position of all the interfaces, the effect of possible slip on the disk surface, especially when the slip coefficient is not constant, and the effect of gravity. All these are impossible under the quasi-steady state condition used up to now. The exponential constitutive model, suggested by Papanastasiou, is employed. The governing equations are solved numerically by coupling the mixed finite element method with a quasi-elliptic mesh generation scheme in order to follow the large deformations of the free surface of the fluid. As the Bingham number increases, large departures from the corresponding Newtonian solution are found. When the disks are moving with constant velocity, unyielded material arises only around the two centers of the disks verifying previous works in which quasi-steady state conditions were assumed. The size of the unyielded region increases with the Bingham number, but decreases as time passes and the two disks approach each other. Their size also decreases as the slip velocity or the slip length along the disk wall increase. The force that must be applied on the disks in order to maintain their constant velocity increases significantly with the Bingham number and time and provides a first method to calculate the yield stress. On the other hand, when a constant force is applied on the disks, they slow down until they finally stop, because all the material between them becomes unyielded. The final location of the disk and the time when it stops provide another, probably easier, method to deduce the yield stress of the fluid.     

Numerical simulations of complex yield-stress fluid flows

Viscoplasticity is characterized by a yield stress, below which the materials will not deform and above which they will deform and flow according to different constitutive relations. Viscoplastic models include the Bingham plastic, the Herschel-Bulkley model and the Casson model. All of these ideal models are discontinuous. Analytical solutions exist for such models in simple flows. For general flow fields, it is necessary to develop numerical techniques to track down yielded/unyielded regions. This can be avoided by introducing into the models a regularization parameter, which facilitates the solution process and produces virtually the same results as the ideal models by the right choice of its value. This work reviews several benchmark problems of viscoplastic flows, such as entry and exit flows from dies, flows around a sphere and a bubble and squeeze flows. Examples are also given for typical processing flows of viscoplastic materials, where the extent and shape of the yielded/unyielded regions are clearly shown. The above-mentioned viscoplastic models leave undetermined the stress and elastic deformation in the solid region. Moreover, deviations have been reported between predictions with these models and experiments for flows around particles using Carbopol, one of the very often used and heretofore widely accepted as a simple “viscoplastic” fluid. These have been partially remedied in very recent studies using the elastoviscoplastic models proposed by Saramito.     

Interfacial instability of turbulent two-phase stratified flow: Pressure-driven flow and non-Newtonian layers

We derive a flat-interface model to describe the flow of two horizontal, stably stratified fluids, where the bottom layer exhibits non-Newtonian rheology. The model takes into account the yield stress and power-law nature of the bottom fluid. In the light of the large viscosity contrast assumed to exist across the fluid interface, and for large pressure drops in the streamwise direction, the possibility for the upper Newtonian layer to display fully developed turbulence must be considered, and is described in our model. We develop a linear-stability analysis to predict the conditions under which the flat-interface state becomes unstable, and pay particular attention to characterizing the influence of the non-Newtonian rheology on the instability. Increasing the yield stress (up to the point where unyielded regions form in the bottom layer) is destabilizing; increasing the flow index, while bringing a broader spectrum of modes into play, is stabilizing. In addition, a second mode of instability is found, which depends on conditions in the bottom layer. For shear-thinning fluids, this second mode becomes more unstable, and yet more bottom-layer modes can become unstable for a suitable reduction in the flow index. One further difference between the Newtonian and non-Newtonian cases is the development of unyielded regions in the bottom layer, as the linear wave on the interface grows in time. These unyielded regions form in the trough of the wave, and can be observed in the linear analysis for a suitable parameter choice.     

Numerical simulation of Taylor Couette flow of Bingham fluids

The Bingham fluid flow between two concentric cylinders is studied using numerical simulation. The cylinders are assumed to rotate independently, and with an imposed axial sliding. The flow field is decomposed with linearity arguments of the base circular Couette shear flow and corresponding deviation field. The numerical methods are based on the expression of the deviation field in terms of complete sets of orthogonal functions and Chebyshev series. The Galerkin projection method is used with the pressure term being eliminated. The Adams Bashforth scheme is adopted for time marching. The results show that the vortices are squeezed toward the inner cylinder due to the effect of yield stress. When the outer cylinder is held stationary, the yield stress plays a role in weakening the vortex flow. However, for the co-rotation situation, the vortex flow is initially strengthened with an increase of yield stress, and then weakened as the yield stress is raised large enough. The annular unyielded regions emerge and stick to the outer cylinder. In case of Taylor Couette flow with an imposed axial sliding, a spiral vortex flow is visible with spiral unyielded region being obtained.     

Numerical simulations of cessation flows of a Bingham plastic with the augmented Lagrangian method

The augmented Lagrangian/Uzawa method has been used to study benchmark one-dimensional cessation flow problems of a Bingham fluid, such as the plane Couette flow, and the plane, round, and annular Poiseuille flows. The calculated stopping times agree well with available theoretical upper bounds for the whole range of Bingham numbers and with previous numerical results. The applied method allows for easy determination of the yielded and unyielded regions. The evolution of the rigid zones in these unsteady flows is presented. It is demonstrated that the appearance of an unyielded zone near the wall occurs for any non-zero Bingham number not only in the case of a round tube but also in the case of an annular tube of small radii ratio. The advantages of using the present method instead of regularizing the constitutive equation are also discussed.     

A consistent thin-layer theory for Bingham plastics

Thin-layer theory is developed for Bingham plastic fluids; the specific case of a fluid flowing down an inclined plane is considered. In contrast to previous work it is indicated how the Bingham model leads directly to a self-consistent thin-layer theory; this does not rely upon adopting a bi-viscous approximation. The theory describes the fluid in terms of regions of fully plastic flow bounded by a `fake' yield surface. Above this fake yield surface are `pseudo-plugs' – regions in which the leading-order equations predict a plug, but which are seen to be weakly yielded at higher order.     

Multi-layer channel flows with yield stress fluids

We present results of a computational study of visco-plastically lubricated plane channel multi-layer flows, in which the yield stress fluid layers are unyielded at the interface. We demonstrate that symmetric 3-layer flows may be established for wide ranges of viscosity ratio (m), Bingham number (B) and interface position (y_i), for Reynolds numbers Re ≤ 100. Here an inner Newtonian layer is sandwiched between 2 layers of Bingham fluid. Results are presented illustrating the variation of development length with the main dimensionless parameters and for different inlet sizes. We also show that these flows may be initiated by injecting either fluid into a steady flow of the other fluid. The flows are established quicker when the core fluid is injected into a channel already full of the outer fluid. In situations where the inner fluid flow rate is dominant we observed inertial symmetry breaking in the symmetric start-up flows as Re was increased. Asymmetry is also observed in studying temporal nonlinear stability of these flows, which appear stable up to moderate Re and significant amplitudes. In general the flows destabilize at lower Re and perturbation amplitudes than do the analogous core-annular pipe flows, but 1–1 comparison is hard. When the flow is stable the decay characteristics are very similar to those of the pipe flows. In the final part of the paper we explore more exotic flow effects. We show how flow control could be used to position layers asymmetrically within the flow, and how this effect might be varied transiently. We demonstrate that more complex layered flows can be stably achieved, e.g. a 7-layered flow is established. We also show how a varying inlet position can be used to “write” in the yield stress fluid: complex structures that are advected with the flow and encapsulated within the unyielded fluid.     

Unsteady shear flow of a viscoplastic material

A viscoplastic, or yield-stress, liquid occupies the space between two infinite parallel plates. Initially the whole system is at rest. The lower plate is suddenly jerked into motion with given speed or shear stress, while the upper plate is kept fixed. The flow consists of two regions; (1) a lower sheared region bounded above by the yield surface, (2) an upper unyielded region bounded below by the yield surface. The yield surface propagates to the upper plate as time proceeds. We first consider the equivalent one plate problem of flow over a jerked plate, and find similarity solutions and small time asymptotic solutions for prescribed shear and speed cases respectively. These solutions are used as initial solutions for the two plate case. The motion of the yield surface and the time taken for the entire material to yield are investigated. The problems considered here are two dimensional representations of some control devices, for example the light duty clutch, which consists of two corotating, coaxial discs separated by a layer of electrorheological material. In this application it is useful to know the time taken for all the material to yield.     

Confined viscoplastic flows with heterogeneous wall slip

The steady, pressure-driven flow of a Herschel-Bulkley fluid in a microchannel is considered, assuming that different power-law slip equations apply at the two walls due to slip heterogeneities, allowing the velocity profile to be asymmetric. Three different flow regimes are observed as the pressure gradient is increased. Below a first critical pressure gradient G ₁, the fluid moves unyielded with a uniform velocity, and thus, the two slip velocities are equal. In an intermediate regime between G ₁ and a second critical pressure gradient G ₂, the fluid yields in a zone near the weak-slip wall and flows with uniform velocity near the stronger-slip wall. Beyond this regime, the fluid yields near both walls and the velocity are uniform only in the central unyielded core. It is demonstrated that the central unyielded region tends towards the midplane only if the power-law exponent is less than unity; otherwise, this region rends towards the weak-slip wall and asymmetry is enhanced. The extension of the different flow regimes depends on the channel gap; in particular, the intermediate asymmetric flow regime dominates when the gap becomes smaller than a characteristic length which incorporates the wall slip coefficients and the fluid properties. The theoretical results compare well with available experimental data on soft glassy suspensions. These results open new routes in manipulating the flow of viscoplastic materials in applications where the flow behavior depends not only on the bulk rheology of the material but also on the wall properties.     

Viscoplastic flow around a cylinder kept between parallel plates

Numerical simulations have been undertaken for the creeping pressure-driven flow of a Bingham plastic past a cylinder kept between parallel plates. Different gap/cylinder diameter ratios have been studied ranging from 2:1 to 50:1. The Bingham constitutive equation is used with an appropriate modification proposed by Papanastasiou, which applies everywhere in the flow field in both the yielded and practically unyielded regions. The emphasis is on determining the extent and shape of yielded/unyielded regions along with the drag coefficient for a wide range of Bingham numbers. The present results extend previous simulations for creeping flow of a cylinder in an infinite medium and provide calculations of the drag coefficient around a cylinder in the case of wall effects.     

Free surface effects in squeeze flow of Bingham plastics

New results for the squeeze flow of Bingham plastics show the shape of the free surface in quasi-steady-state simulations, and its effect on the yielded/unyielded regions and the squeeze force. The present simulation results are obtained for both planar and axisymmetric geometries as in our previous paper [A. Matsoukas, E. Mitsoulis, Geometry effects in squeeze flow of Bingham plastics, J. Non-Newtonian Fluid Mech. 109 (2003) 231–240] and for aspect ratios ranging from 0.01 to 1. Bigger aspect ratios produce more free surface movement relative to the disk radius or plate length, but less movement relative to the gap. Planar geometries give more free surface movement than axisymmetric ones. Viscoplasticity serves to reduce the free surface movement and its deformation. In some cases of planar geometries and big aspect ratios, unyielded regions appear at the free surface, while the small unyielded regions near the center of the disks or plates are not affected. Including the free surface in the calculations of the squeeze force adds a small percentage to the values depending on aspect ratio and Bingham number. The previously fitted easy-to-use equations are corrected to account for that effect.     

Computations with viscoplastic and viscoelastoplastic fluids

This numerical study focuses on regularised Bingham-type and viscoelastoplastic fluids, performing simulations for 4:1:4 contraction?Cexpansion flow with a hybrid finite element?Cfinite volume subcell scheme. The work explores the viscoplastic regime, via the Bingham?CPapanastasiou model, and extends this into the viscoelastoplastic regime through the Papanastasiou?COldroyd model. Our findings reveal the significant impact that elevation has in yield stress parameters, and in sharpening of the stress singularity from that of the Oldroyd/Newtonian models to the ideal Bingham form. Such aspects are covered in field response via vortex behaviour, pressure-drops, stress field structures and yielded?Cunyielded zones. With rising yield stress parameters, vortex trends reflect suppression in both upstream and downstream vortices. Viscoelastoplasticity, with its additional elasticity properties, tends to disturb upstream?Cdownstream vortex symmetry balance, with knock-on effects according to solvent-fraction and level of elasticity. Yield fronts are traced with increasing yield stress influences, revealing locations where relatively unyielded material aggregates. Analysis of pressure drop data reveals significant increases in the viscoplastic Bingham?CPapanastasiou case, O (12%) above the equivalent Newtonian fluid, that are reduced to 8% total contribution increase in the viscoelastoplastic Papanastasiou?COldroyd case. This may be argued to be a consequence of strengthening in first normal stress effects.     

Effects of surface properties on the impact process of a yield stress fluid drop

The impact of a yield stress fluid drop onto a solid surface with diversified interface properties has been experimentally investigated. Two smooth substrates with distinct surface energies and three similar substrates with different roughnesses have been used. The bulk shear rheological behaviour of Carbopol gels, concentrated suspensions of swollen micro-gels, has been measured. Wall friction has also been characterized on each substrate. Slip effects of gels proved to be greater on a more hydrophobic substrate. They decreased with an increase in roughness. The drop hydrodynamics during the impact was correlated with the wall friction of the gels on all substrates and with the ratio of surface roughness to size of the swollen micro-gels. At very low impact velocities, the gravitational subsidence amplitude depends greatly on surface properties. At higher impact velocities, no significant difference is observed during the spreading phase. The drop behaviour differs during the retraction depending on the substrate. Interface effects during the retraction stage proved to diminish when the yield stress value increases.     

Exact solution for compressive flow of viscoplastic fluids under perfect slip wall boundary conditions

Based on the perfect slip condition between rigid walls and fluids, the compressive flow of Herschel-Bulkley fluids and biviscous fluids was studied. The explicit expressions of stresses and fluid velocity were given. To move the rigid walls for a Herschel-Bulkley fluid with the yield stress (τ₀), the mean pressure applied onto the rigid wall should be larger than 2τ₀/. No yield surface exists in the interior of the fluids when flow occurs. For a biviscous fluid, a critical load was given. The fluid behaves like the Bingham fluid when the external applied load onto the wall is larger than the critical load, otherwise the fluid is Newtonian. Received: 10 June 1997 Accepted: 22 September 1997     

Effect of yield stress on the flow of a Casson fluid in a homogeneous porous medium bounded by a circular tube

The effect of yield stress on the flow characteristics of a Casson fluid in a homogeneous porous medium bounded by a circular tube is investigated by employing the Brinkman model to account for the Darcy resistance offered by the porous medium. The non-linear coupled implicit system of differential equations governing the flow is first transformed into suitable integral equations and are solved numerically. Analytical solution is obtained for a Newtonian fluid in the case of constant permeability, and the numerical solution is verified with that of the analytic solution. The effect of yield stress of the fluid and permeability of the porous medium on shear stress and velocity distributions, plug flow radius and flow rate are examined. The minimum pressure gradient required to start the flow is found to be independent of the permeability of the porous medium and is equal to the yield stress of the fluid.