Abstract
In this study, a rotating cylinder is placed in a stream of shear-thinning fluids, flowing with an uniform velocity. Detailed investigations are performed for the following range of conditions: Reynolds number 100 ? Re ? 500, power-law index 0.2 ? n ? 1 and rotational velocity 0 ? ? ? 5. Flow transitions are observed from steady to unsteady at critical values of the Reynolds number, the rotational velocity, and the power-law index. Critical values of the Reynolds number Re^c have been obtained for varying levels of the rotational velocity, and the power-law index. Re^c varies non-monotonically with the rotational velocity. At a particular Reynolds number, an increase of the rotational velocity acts as a vortex suppression technique. For shear-thinning ?uids considered here, the vortex suppression occurs at a larger value of the critical rotational velocity ?^c, relative to Newtonian ?uids. For the unsteady ?ow, lift coef?cient versus time curve exhibits oscillatory behavior, and this has been used to delineate the ?ow regime as steady or unsteady ?ow. For unsteady ?ow regimes, both the amplitude of the lift coef?cient and the Strouhal number increase with increasing Reynolds numbers. The results presented in this work for such high Reynolds numbers elucidate the possible complex interplay between the kinematic and rheological parameters of non-Newtonian ?uids. This investigation also complements the currently available low Reynolds number results up to ? Re = 140.
Stationary and time-dependent numerical approximation of the lid-driven cavity problem for power-law fluid flows at high Reynolds numbers using a stabilized finite element formulation of the VMS type