CFD simulation of two-phase gas/non-Newtonian shear-thinning fluid flow in pipes

A RANS based shear stress transportation (SST) model was employed in this study to validate experimental results from a recent literature, which investigated the fully developed turbulent flow for a non-Newtonian shear thinning fluid, containing drag reduction polymer additives in a horizontal concentric annulus (inner to outer radio θ = 0.4). The polymer concentration varied from 0.07% V/V to 0.12% V/V and three mass flow rates from 3.92 kg/s to 5.95 kg/s were analyzed. The viscous property of the fluid was modeled by the power-law model. Simulation performed with the commercial code of ANSYS-CFX indicated that the SST model with default model constants overestimated the turbulence statistics of shear thinning flow in the near wall region where y+<60. As an effort to improve simulation accuracy, one of the model constants α1 was tuned in this study for the first time. Simulation results obtained from the modified model showed better agreement with experimental data compared to those from the default one. The present study represents a successful benchmark task for simulating turbulent shear thinning flow in concentric annuli with modified turbulence model constants.

Download Full-text

Characteristics of Shear-Thinning Fluid Flow under Traversal Vibration

Japanese Journal of Applied Physics ◽

10.1143/jjap.42.1363 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 42 (Part 1, No. 3) ◽

pp. 1363-1367 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sehyun Shin ◽

Ji-Hyung Lee

Keyword(s):

Fluid Flow ◽

Shear Thinning ◽

Shear Thinning Fluid

Download Full-text

Studies on two-phase co-current air/non-Newtonian shear-thinning fluid flows in inclined smooth pipes

International Journal of Multiphase Flow ◽

10.1016/j.ijmultiphaseflow.2007.03.008 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 33 (9) ◽

pp. 948-969 ◽

Cited By ~ 32

Author(s):

Jing-yu Xu ◽

Ying-xiang Wu ◽

Zai-hong Shi ◽

Li-yun Lao ◽

Dong-hui Li

Keyword(s):

Fluid Flows ◽

Shear Thinning ◽

Two Phase ◽

Shear Thinning Fluid

Download Full-text

Experimental Investigation of Flow-Induced Vibration in Gas/Shear-Thinning Liquid Flows in Vertical Pipe

Volume 8: CFD and FSI ◽

10.1115/omae2020-18162 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Ruinan Lin ◽

Ke Wang ◽

Qing Li ◽

Narakorn Srinil ◽

Fangjun Shi

Keyword(s):

Newtonian Fluid ◽

Industrial Process ◽

Flow Region ◽

Shear Thinning ◽

Maximum Energy ◽

Internal Diameter ◽

Flow Induced Vibration ◽

Two Phase ◽

Liquid Flows ◽

Shear Thinning Fluid

Abstract The non-Newtonian shear-thinning fluid widely exists in the industrial process and the rheology exerts a significant influence on the flow pattern transition and flow-induced vibration (FIV). However, studies on the rheology effect of the liquid phase in the vertical upward two-phase flows are quite lacking due to the complexity of non-Newtonian fluid properties. In the present study, the vertical upward gas/shear-thinning liquid flows experiments are conducted on a rigid acrylic pipe with an internal diameter of 20 mm. Three different Carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMC) solutions are used as the non-Newtonian fluid, aimed at capturing a two-phase flow regime transition including the vertical slug, churn and annular flows. The results indicate that the maximum energy spectral densities of vibration occur at the slug-to-churn flow transition boundary at low liquid velocities and the annular flow region under high liquid velocities, respectively. The effects of the rheology of the shear-thinning fluid in terms of the flow patterns and FIV are also presented and discussed.

Download Full-text