Numerical study on the laminar pulsatile flow of slurries

The laminar pulsatile flow of slurries is studied numerically. A slurry is usually described as a Bingham plastic fluid, but since the apparent viscosity coefficient of a Bingham plastic fluid diverges if the velocity gradient becomes zero, a modified Bingham model (bi-viscosity model) is used in this calculation.As one of the characteristics of the pulsatile flow of non-Newtonian fluids is the flow enhancement (the increase in the mean flow rate due to pulsation), the calculated flow enhancement rates are compared with the experimental results of Kajiuchi and Saito and good agreements are obtained. Finally, the extra power required to pulsate the flow and the characteristics of the calculated velocity distribution and the shear stress at the wall are investigated.