In this work, we extend the analyses devoted to Newtonian viscous fluids previously reported by Ribe [Physical Review E 68, 036305 (2003)], by investigating shear thickening (dilatant) and shear thinning (pseudoplastic) effects on the development of folding instabilities in non-Newtonian viscous sheets of which viscosity is given by a power-law constitutive equation. Such instabilities are trigged by compression stresses acting on viscous sheets that leave a channel at a very small initial velocity, fall, and then hit a solid surface or a fluid substrate. Our study is conducted through a mixed approach combining direct numerical simulations, energy budget analyses, scaling laws, and experiments. The numerical results are based on an adaptive variational multi-scale method for multiphase flows, while Carpobol gel sheets are considered for the conducted experiments. Two folding regimes are observed: (1) the viscous regime; and (2) the gravitational one. Interestingly, only the latter is affected by shear thinning/thickening manifestations within the material. In short, when gravity is balanced by viscous forces along the non-Newtonian viscous sheet, both the folding amplitude and the folding frequency are given by a power-law function of the sheet slenderness, the Galileo number (the ratio of the gravitational stress to the viscous one), and the flow behaviour index. Highly shear thickening materials develop large amplitude (and low frequency) instabilities, which, in contrast, tend to be suppressed by shear thinning effects, and eventually cease. Lastly, nonNewtonian effects on folding onset/cessation are also carefully explored. As a result, non-Newtonian folding onset and cessation criteria are presented.
We study the rheology of a two-fluid emulsion in semi-concentrated conditions; the solute is Newtonian while the solvent an inelastic power law fluid. The problem at hand is tackled by means of direct numerical simulations using the volume of fluid method. The analysis is performed for different volume fractions and viscosity ratios under the assumption of negligible inertia and zero buoyancy force. Several carrier fluids are considered encompassing both the shear-thinning and thickening behaviors. We show that the effective viscosity of the system increases for shear-thickening fluids and dec…
A number of commercial fluids, including synthetic automotive oils, food and consumer products containing polymer additives exhibit weakly rate-thickening responses in the final stages of capillarity-driven thinning, where a large accumulated strain and high extensional strain rate alter the thinning dynamics of the slender liquid filament. Consequently, the capillarity-driven thinning dynamics typically feature two distinct regions at the early and late stages of the filament breakup process, each dominated by distinct mechanisms. These features have been incorporated in a simple Inelastic Ra…
We present a numerical study of noncolloidal spherical and rigid particles suspended in Newtonian, shear thinning and shear thickening fluids employing an Immersed Boundary Method. We consider a linear Couette configuration to explore a wide range of solid volume fractions ($0.1\le Φ\le 0.4$) and particle Reynolds Numbers ($0.1\le Re_p \le 10$). We report the distribution of solid and fluid phase velocity and solid volume fraction and show that close to the boundaries inertial effects result in a significant slip velocity between the solid and fluid phase. The local solid volume fraction profi…
This study presents a detailed investigation of how the rheological behaviour of fluid could influence the electrokinetic instability (EKI) phenomenon in a microfluidic T-junction. The non-Newtonian power-law model with different values of the power-law index (n) is used to obtain fluids of different rheological behaviours. We find that as the fluid rheological behaviour changes from shear-thickening (n > 1) to shear-thinning (n < 1) via the Newtonian (n = 1) one, the EKI phenomenon is significantly influenced under the same conditions. In particular, the intensity of this EKI phenomenon is fo…
The combined effect of fluid elasticity and yield-stress on the flow past a circular cylinder is studied by two-dimensional direct numerical simulation. We analyze the effects of yield-stress, elasticity, shear-thinning, and shear-thickening on the wake characteristics using the Saramito constitutive model. The elastoviscoplastic (EVP) wake flow is studied at a moderate Reynolds number (Re = 100) where two-dimensional vortex shedding occurs in the Newtonian case. We find that in the shear-thinning elastoviscoplastic flow, when yield stress increases, the drag coefficient and root mean square o…
In a wide range of applications, microfluidic channels are implemented in soft substrates. In such configurations, where fluidic inertia and compressibility are negligible, the propagation of fluids in channels is governed by a balance between fluid viscosity and elasticity of the surrounding solid. The viscous-elastic interactions between elastic substrates and non-Newtonian fluids are particularly of interest due to the dependence of viscosity on the state of the system. In this work, we study the fluid-structure interaction dynamics between an incompressible non-Newtonian fluid and a slende…
Mixing of reagents in microfluidics is necessary for various applications however, due to the laminar nature of flows, efficient mixing in a small span of length and time becomes difficult. The analysis of mixing of non-Newtonian fluids is critical as they are commonly encountered in practical applications. Towards this, we investigated an effective way for mixing of non-Newtonian fluids using pulsatile velocity inlet conditions. In the present study, the non-Newtonian fluid is modelled using the power law model with varying fluid rheology from shear thickening to shear thinning. For enhancing…
The creeping flow of a generalized Newtonian fluid in a non--uniform pore throat is investigated analytically. The analytical solution determines the flow regimes and the transition point from Newtonian to the power law flow regime. As an application of the new model, a regular lattice--based pore network model is constructed to simulate the flows of shear--thinning and shear--thickening fluids through porous media. The pore throats have convergent--divergent geometries.
This study focuses on a parametric study of the laminar fast transient flow of non-Newtonian fluids through helical pipes. Classical simulations of fluid hammer do not deal with the pipeline helicity and non-Newtonian characteristics of the fluid, while the present work addresses those features. To this end, the power-law model is employed to accommodate the non-Newtonian behavior of the fluid. Effects of the pipe wall elasticity and compressibility of the working fluid are taken into account through a modified bulk modulus elasticity of the fluid. The results of the three-dimensional numerica…
We propose a unifying mechanism based on the Stribeck curve for the coefficient of friction between the particles to capture the shear thinning - Newtonian plateau - shear thickening - shear thinning rheological behavior at low - intermediate - beyond critical - high shear rates, respectively, for a typical dense non-Brownian suspension. We establish the accuracy of the proposed model by comparing the numerical results with experimental data. The presence of non-DLVO (Derjaguin and Landau, Verwey and Overbeek) forces and a coefficient of friction reducing with asperity deformation explain the …
A highly sheared dense aqueous suspension of granular cornstarch particles displays rich nonlinear rheology. We had previously demonstrated the growth and onset of interfacial instabilities when shear-thinning cornstarch suspensions were displaced by a Newtonian fluid, and had suggested methods to maximise displacement efficiency [Palak, R. Sathayanath, S. K. Kalpathy and R. Bandyopadhyay, Colloids Surf. A Physicochem. Eng. Asp., 629 (2021) 127405]. In the present work, we explore the miscible displacement of a dense aqueous cornstarch suspension in its discontinuous shear-thickening regime in…
The spreading dynamics of Newtonian liquids have been extensively studied in hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces and its behavior has been extensively explored over the last years. However, drop impact of Non-Newtonian liquids still needs further study. Luu and Forterre (J. Fluid Mech., 632, 2009) successfully found scaling laws for yield-stress fluids on hydrophilic surfaces. They also uncovered interesting and yet unexplained regimes when the impact was performed on a superhydrophobic surface. In this work, we perform drop impact experiments on micro-patterned surfaces with two types of non…
Laminar natural convection from two horizontally aligned isothermal cylinders in unconfined Power-law fluids has been investigated numerically. The effect of horizontal spacing (0<=(S/D)<=10) on both momentum and heat transfer characteristics has been delineated under the following pertinent parameters: Grashof number (10<=Gr<=1e3), Prandtl number (0.71<=n<=100), and Power-law index (0.4<=n<=1.6). The heat transfer characteristics are elucidated in terms of isotherms, local Nusselt number (Nu) distributions and average Nusselt number values, whereas the flow characteristics are interpreted in …
Recent findings of possible applications of bio-friendly synthetic self-phoretic swimmers, have motivated the researchers in investigating the various motion-generating mechanisms to optimize the operating characteristics of the same. In this paper we model the auto-electrophoretic motion of a bimetallic (Au-Pt) spherical swimmer in a non-Newtonian medium. In view of the fact that many bio-fluids closely follow the generalized Newtonian rheology, the rheology of the surrounding swimming medium is considered to follow the Carreau-Yasuda viscosity model. Further to capture the experimentally obs…
We study hydrodynamics, heat transfer and entropy generation in pressure-driven microchannel flow of a power-law fluid. Specifically, we address the effect of asymmetry in the slip boundary condition at the channel walls. Constant, uniform but unequal heat fluxes are imposed at the walls in this thermally developed flow. The effect of asymmetric slip on the velocity profile, on the wall shear stress, on the temperature distribution, on the Bejan number profiles, and on the average entropy generation and the Nusselt number are established through the numerical evaluation of exact analytical exp…
We perform Brownian dynamics simulations of semiflexible colloidal sheets with hydrodynamic interactions and thermal fluctuations in shear flow. As a function of the ratio of bending rigidity to shear energy (a dimensionless quantity we denote $S$) and the ratio of bending rigidity to thermal energy, we observe a dynamical transition from stochastic flipping to crumpling and continuous tumbling. This dynamical transition is broadened by thermal fluctuations, and the value of $S$ at which it occurs is consistent with the onset of chaotic dynamics found for athermal sheets. The effects of differ…
Non-Newtonian fluid flows, especially in three dimensions (3D), arise in numerous settings of interest to physics. Prior studies using the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) of such flows have so far been limited to mainly to two dimensions and used less robust collision models. In this paper, we develop a new 3D cascaded LBM based on central moments and multiple relaxation times on a three-dimensional, nineteen velocity (D3Q19) lattice for simulation of generalized Newtonian (power law) fluid flows. The relaxation times of the second order moments are varied locally based on the local shear rate …
