Some experimental results on the development of Couette flow for non-Newtonian fluids

This paper reports some experimental results on the time development of a Couette flow following the start-up of shear flow using the technique of two-color flow birefringence. Measurements obtained on collagen solutions are consistent with two theoretical studies which predict that for some viscoelastic liquids, momentum is transferred from the moving Couette cell boundary to the interior of the fluid through a velocity wave propagating and reflecting between the cell boundaries. This non-Newtonian phenomenon, exhibited as an oscillatory response in the measured birefringence and orientation angle, is observed at shear rates above a critical value when the response time of the polymer solution approaches the flow development time in the Couette flow cell.     

Numerical evaluation of extinction angle and birefringence in various directions as a function of velocity gradient

Despite the limitations of the theory of Peterlin and Stuart it still seems to be the best theory for interpreting quantitative flow birefringence measurements performed on solutions of rigid spheroidal particles. First, we repeat the numerical evaluation of the extinction angleX and the orientation factorf _z corresponding to conventional observations realized in a Couette cell, but the values are now given with a higher degree of accuracy and the range of variation of the parameters has been extended. Furthermore, using the same theory, we extend our calculations to other directions of observation. This should contribute towards avoiding false interpretations of birefringence measurements in these directions (as has sometimes occurred). Finally, we present measurements taken along the lines of flow and along the direction of the velocity gradient, thus including the principal situations met in the various cells used in flow birefringence measurements.     

Cessation of Newtonian circular and plane Couette flows with wall slip and non-zero slip yield stress

We solve analytically the cessation flows of a Newtonian fluid in circular and plane Couette geometries assuming that wall slip occurs provided that the wall shear stress exceeds a critical threshold, the slip yield stress. In steady-state, slip occurs only beyond a critical value of the angular velocity of the rotating inner cylinder in circular Couette flow or of the speed of the moving upper plate in plane Couette flow. Hence, in cessation, the classical no-slip solution holds if the corresponding wall speed is below the critical value. Otherwise, slip occurs only initially along both walls. Beyond a first critical time, slip along the fixed wall ceases, and beyond a second critical time slip ceases also along the initially moving wall. Beyond this second critical time no slip is observed and the decay of the velocity is faster. The velocity decays exponentially in all regimes and the decay is reduced with slip. The effects of slip and the slip yield stress are discussed.     

Axial Couette–Poiseuille flow of Bingham fluids through concentric annuli

In this paper, the axial Couette–Poiseuille flow of Bingham fluids through concentric annuli is studied. Analytical solutions of different types of flow are derived. Compared to previous studies, we emphasize two new types of flow, which have been missed previously, are found in our results. Hence, there are eight different forms of the velocity profile depending on values of three dimensionless parameters, which are the Bingham, axial Couette numbers and the radius ratio. Distributions of these eight forms are specified in the parameter plane of axial Couette number vs. Bingham number for various radius ratios. These new flow regimes are analyzed from both a mathematical and physical perspective.     

Two-color rotary modulated flow birefringence

A method is described that solves the problem of determining the correct birefringence and orientation angle of samples having multiple orders of retardation. The approach simultaneously uses two wavelengths of light combined with modulation of the polarization vector using a high-speed rotating half waveplate. The simultaneous application of two wavelengths is possible with the use of an achromatic waveplate. The technique is demonstrated by performing start-up Couette flow experiments on a concentrated polystyrene solution that produced multiple orders in retardation.     

Flow birefringence and rheological measurements on shear induced micellar structures

Aqueous solutions of cationic surfactant systems with strongly binding counterions show the striking phenomenon of shear induced phase transitions. At low shear rates or angular frequencies, the solutions exhibit Newtonian flow. At high rates of shear, however, the rheological properties change dramatically. Above a well defined threshold value of the velocity gradient, a supermolecular structure can be formed from micellar aggregates. This shear induced structure (SIS) behaves like a gel and exhibits strong flow birefringence. The formation of the shear induced structure is very complicated and depends on the specific conditions of the surfactant system. In this paper we discuss new results which have been obtained from rheological measurements and from flow birefringence data. We examine the stability of the shear induced state as a function of temperature, surfactant concentration and salt concentration and we analyse the effect of solubilisation of alcohols and hydrocarbons. The results are interpreted in terms of a kinetic model which accounts for the observed behavior.Dedicated to the 60. birthday of Prof. H. Harnisch, Hoechst AGPartly presented at the 2nd Conference of European Rheologists, Prague, June 17–20, 1986     

非稳态Couette流动阶段的边界位移与黏性能量耗散

本文研究了牛顿流体非稳态Couette流动阶段的边界位移与流体黏性摩擦能耗.在上边界始终保持静止,下边界以恒定速度或恒定内壁剪切应力突然运动的情况下,建立了Couette非稳态流动的数学模型.求解定解问题,获得流体速度分布函数;通过渐近分析,获得不同边界条件下流动充分发展的临界时间,进而获得非稳态过程中的边界位移量.利用边界剪切应力和位移量的结果,计算非稳态过程中移动平板做功;再结合流体动能增加量,计算得出不同边界条件下非稳态流动阶段流体黏性摩擦能耗.     

Rarefied gas flows based on variational principle

A variational principle has been utilized to study Couette flow, and Kramers' velocity slip problem with specular-diffuse reflection. The method leads to extremely satisfactory analytic results for the velocity slip coefficient and also for the variation of shear stress with inverse Knudsen number. This leads us to the conclusion that the present variational principle even with extremely simple trial functions, essentially suggested by continuum flow theory, is a useful means of computing macroscopic quantities of physical interest in rarefied gas dynamics.     

An experimental study of drop migration in shear flow between concentric cylinders

The phenomenon of migration of liquid drops in Couette flow between concentric cylinders due to non-Newtonian fluid properties and shape deformation has been studied experimentally. The results agree very well with the theory of Chan and Leal, which included the effect of hydrodynamic interaction with the bounding walls, and that of velocity profile curvature in a Couette device. Significant observations that were not reported in previous studies include the migration of a deformable Newtonian drop to an equilibrium position between the centerline and the inner rotor, and the competition between normal stresses and shape deformation effects for the case of a Newtonian drop in a non-Newtonian fluid.     

Plane Couette flow of binary gaseous mixture in the whole range of the Knudsen number

The Couette flow of binary gaseous mixtures is studied on the basis of the McCormack model of the Boltzmann equation, which was solved numerically by the discrete velocity method. The calculations were carried out for three mixtures of noble gases: neon–argon, helium–argon, and helium–xenon. The stress tensor and bulk velocity of both species were calculated for several values of the gas rarefaction in the range from 0.01 to 40 for three values of the molar concentrations: 0.1,0.5 and 0.9. The numerical solution together with an analytical solution based on the slip boundary condition cover the whole range of the gas rarefaction. It was showed that the Couette flow is weakly affected by the intermolecular interaction law.     

Photoviscous analysis of two-dimensional laminar flow in an expanding jet

This paper presents experimental measurements of the velocity profiles in an expanding fluid jet. The data were obtained from analysis of birefringence measurements over the flow field. A new method of photoviscous analysis to determine the pertinent flow information from isochromate data alone was developed as part of the investigation. A numerical method for obtaining the flow data from the optical measurements is presented.     

Evidences of persisting thermal structures in Couette flows

DNS of passive thermal turbulent Couette flow at several friction Reynolds numbers (180, 250, and 500), and the Prandtl number of air are presented. The time averaged thermal flow shows the existence of long and wide thermal structures never described before in Couette flows. These thermal structures, named CTFS (Couette Thermal Flow Superstructures), are defined as coherent regions of hot and cold temperature fluctuations. They are intrinsically linked to the velocity structures present in Couette flows. Two different 2D symmetries can be recognized, which get stronger with the Reynolds number. These structures do not affect the mean flow or mean quantities as the Nusselt number. However, turbulent intensities and thermal fluxes depend on the width of the structures, mainly far from the walls. Since the width of the structures is related to the channel width, the statistics of thermal Couette flow are to some point box-dependent.     

Gas-kinetic numerical method for solving mesoscopic velocity distribution function equation

A gas-kinetic numerical method for directly solving the mesoscopic velocity distribution function equation is presented and applied to the study of three-dimensional complex flows and micro-channel flows covering various flow regimes. The unified velocity distribution function equation describing gas transport phenomena from rarefied transition to continuum flow regimes can be presented on the basis of the kinetic Boltzmann–Shakhov model equation. The gas-kinetic finite-difference schemes for the velocity distribution function are constructed by developing a discrete velocity ordinate method of gas kinetic theory and an unsteady time-splitting technique from computational fluid dynamics. Gas-kinetic boundary conditions and numerical modeling can be established by directly manipulating on the mesoscopic velocity distribution function. A new Gauss-type discrete velocity numerical integration method can be developed and adopted to attack complex flows with different Mach numbers. HPF parallel strategy suitable for the gas-kinetic numerical method is investigated and adopted to solve three-dimensional complex problems. High Mach number flows around three-dimensional bodies are computed preliminarily with massive scale parallel. It is noteworthy and of practical importance that the HPF parallel algorithm for solving three-dimensional complex problems can be effectively developed to cover various flow regimes. On the other hand, the gas-kinetic numerical method is extended and used to study micro-channel gas flows including the classical Couette flow, the Poiseuille- channel flow and pressure-driven gas flows in two-dimensional short micro-channels. The numerical experience shows that the gas-kinetic algorithm may be a powerful tool in the numerical simulation of micro-scale gas flows occuring in the Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS). The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (90205009 and 10321002), and the National Parallel Computing Center in Beijing. The English text was polished by Yunming Chen.     

Velocity and temperature dissimilarity in fully developed turbulent channel and plane Couette flows

The natural dissimilarity or decorrelation of stream-wise velocity and temperature fluctuations in fully developed turbulent channel and plane Couette flows was studied using direct numerical simulation (DNS). For both of the flow configurations, a Reynolds number of about 150 was used based on the friction velocity and half the distance between walls. Buoyancy effects were neglected, and only results with a molecular Prandtl number, Pr, equal to 1 are presented. The boundary conditions for the thermal field were a uniform source of energy in the domain and isothermal wall temperature for the channel and Couette flow, respectively. The importance of those events responsible for wall-normal turbulent fluxes in the generation of axial velocity and temperature dissimilarity was examined using conditional probability. It was found that the dissimilarity in the whole domain was higher in Couette than in channel flow. It was also found that for wall-normal turbulent fluxes (momentum and heat), the averaged dissimilarity in the whole domain was slightly more correlated with those events in the second or fourth quadrant, according to the quadrant analysis technique. For channel flow, the importance of both kinds of events was similar, while for Couette flow there was a predominance in the generation of dissimilarity by those events in the fourth quadrant. Also, for both flow configurations and throughout the wall-normal direction, it was found that in the buffer region there was a predominance of events in the fourth quadrant associated with dissimilarity for both wall-normal turbulent fluxes. In the frequency domain, the distribution of energy showed that there was a high-frequency shift experienced from the wall towards the centerline by the temperature spectrum with regards to the axial velocity spectrum, for which the action of the fluctuations of the wall-normal velocity was the main cause. In the central region of the flow, on the other hand, there was a global convergence of all spectra towards the pressure spectrum, with this convergence lower for Couette flow. Finally, it is shown that the dissimilarity in developed conditions is caused by the greater correlation existing for the temperature fluctuation with the instantaneous axial pressure gradient than for the velocity fluctuation with the instantaneous axial pressure gradient.     

Experimental study of the induced flow birefringence of a suspension of rigid particles at the transition from Couette flow to Taylor vortex flow

The flow birefringence induced in solutions of rigid particles is studied experimentally in the region of the axisymmetrical Taylor vortex flow which arises once the velocity gradient G in the annular gap of a conventional Couette cell reaches a critical value G _c .The measurements are performed for several values of G > G _c and for 10 radial observation points in the annular gap. Solutions of two types of rigid particles are investigated: the first is a suspension of flattened clay particles like bentonite, while the second contains rod-like particles of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). The variations of the birefringence intensity n and of the extinction angle measured in the domain of the axisymmetrical flow show a different behavior according to the shape of the particle in solution. This fact is confirmed theoretically with a good agreement for the measurements performed with solutions of flat particles.     

Modeling plane turbulent Couette flow

Among the salient features of shear-driven plane Couette flow is the constancy of the total shear stress (viscous and turbulent) across the flow. This constancy gives rise to a quasi-homogenous core region, which makes the bulk of the flow substantially different from pressure-driven Poiseuille flow. The present second-moment closure study addresses the conflicting hypotheses relating to turbulent Couette flow. The inclusion of a new wall-proximity function in the wall-reflection part of the pressure-strain model seems mandatory, and the greement with recent experimental and direct numerical simulation (DNS) results is encouraging. Analysis of model computations in the range 750 ≤ Re ≤ 35,000 and comparisons with low-Re DNS data suggest that plane Couette flow exhibits a local-equilibrium core region, in which anisotropic, homogeneous turbulence prevails. However, the associated variation of the mean velocity in the core, as obtained by the model, conflicts with the intuitively appealing assumption of homogeneous mean shear. The constancy of the velocity gradient exhibited by the DNS therefore signals a deficiency in the modeled transport equation for the energy dissipation rate.     

不同润湿性纳米通道内库埃特流动的模拟

利用非平衡分子动力学模拟方法, 模拟了两无限大平行平板组成的纳米通道内的库埃特流动, 并给出了壁面润湿性和速度对流场密度、速度分布及壁面滑移的影响规律.数值模拟中, 统计系综采用微正则系综, 势能函数选用LJ/126模型, 壁面设为刚性原子壁面, 温度校正使用速度定标法, 牛顿运动方程的求解则采用文莱特算法.结果表明, 纳米通道内流体密度呈对称的衰减振荡分布, 且随壁面润湿性的降低, 振荡幅度减小, 振荡周期保持不变;滑移量随壁面润湿性的提高而降低, 甚至在亲水壁面时出现负滑移现象;随壁面速度的增加滑移速度逐渐增大, 且在流体呈现非线性流动阶段其增幅显著加大.另外, 还发现当壁面设置为超疏水性时, 壁面滑移呈现出随润湿性降低而减小的反常现象, 并基于杨氏方程对其进行了解释.     

Empirical slip and viscosity model performance for microscale gas flow

For the simple geometries of Couette and Poiseuille flows, the velocity profile maintains a similar shape from continuum to free molecular flow. Therefore, modifications to the fluid viscosity and slip boundary conditions can improve the continuum based Navier–Stokes solution in the non‐continuum non‐equilibrium regime. In this investigation, the optimal modifications are found by a linear least‐squares fit of the Navier–Stokes solution to the non‐equilibrium solution obtained using the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. Models are then constructed for the Knudsen number dependence of the viscosity correction and the slip model from a database of DSMC solutions for Couette and Poiseuille flows of argon and nitrogen gas, with Knudsen numbers ranging from 0.01 to 10. Finally, the accuracy of the models is measured for non‐equilibrium cases both in and outside the DSMC database. Flows outside the database include: combined Couette and Poiseuille flow, partial wall accommodation, helium gas, and non‐zero convective acceleration. The models reproduce the velocity profiles in the DSMC database within an L₂ error norm of 3% for Couette flows and 7% for Poiseuille flows. However, the errors in the model predictions outside the database are up to five times larger. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical study of turbulent plane Couette flow at low Reynolds number

A direct numerical simulation of fully developed turbulent plane Couette flow has been performed. Unsteady large-scale structures, which contributed to the instantaneous energy level, were observed. These evolving and drifting vortical structures vanished after time-averaging, and the resulting mean velocity and streamwise turbulence intensity compared favourably with recent laboratory data.     

Solution of the temperature jump (Knudsen layer flow) and linear heat-transfer problems for two parallel plates in a rarefied gas

The Monte Carlo method [1, 2] is used to solve the linearized Boltzmann equation for the problem of heat transfer between parallel plates with a wall temperature jump (Knudsen layer flow). The linear Couette problem can be separated into two problems: the problem of pure shear and the problem of heat transfer between two parallel plates. The Knudsen layer problem is also linear [3] and, like the Couette problem, can be separated into the velocity slip and temperature jump problems. The problems of pure shear and velocity slip have been examined in [2].The temperature jump problem was examined in [4] for a model Boltzmann equation. For the linearized Boltzmann equation the problems noted above have been solved either by expanding the distribution function in orthogonal polynomials [5–7], which yields satisfactory results for small Knudsen numbers, or by the method of moments, with an approximation for the distribution function selected from physical considerations in the form of polynomials [8–10]. The solution presented below does not require any assumptions on the form of the distribution function.The concrete calculations were made for a molecular model that we call the Maxwell sphere model. It is assumed that the molecules collide like hard elastic spheres whose sections are inversely proportional to the relative velocity of the colliding molecules. A gas of these molecules is close to Maxwellian or to a gas consisting of pseudo-Maxwell molecules [3].