Turbulent flow of Newtonian and shear-thinning liquids through a sudden axisymmetric expansion

 Measurements are reported for the turbulent flow through a sudden expansion of a moderately elastic shear-thinning liquid and also for two Newtonian liquids. The differences in the mean velocity fields for the two fluid types are relatively small, including the length of the recirculation region which is essentially unaffected by the fluid rheology. Although turbulent kinetic energy levels for the non-Newtonian fluids are always lower than for the Newtonian fluids, no significant difference is found in the relative contributions to the turbulent kinetic energy of the axial, radial and tangential normal stresses. Since the vorticity thicknesses are much the same for all flows, viscoelasticity appears to be responsible for the reduced levels of turbulent kinetic energy for the non-Newtonian fluids. Received: 6 November 1998/Accepted: 27 January 1999