Miscible displacement of non-Newtonian fluids in a vertical tube.

Abstract

The influence of rheology on the miscible displacement of a viscous fluid by a less viscous, Newtonian one in a vertical tube is studied experimentally as a function of the flow velocity. For Newtonian displaced fluids the transient residual film thickness hri is nearly 38% of the tube radius at large viscosity ratios between the two fluids in agreement with experimental and numerical results from the literature. For shear-thinning fluids with a zero yield stress (mostly xanthan-water solutions), hri decreases down to 28-30% of the radius for the most concentrated solutions. For fluids with a non-zero yield stress, hri further decreases down to 24-25% of the radius. The orders of magnitude of these values can be obtained through numerical simulations (commercial code) for the various types of fluids. Instabilities of the film at its boundary develop downstream and lead to a reduction of the final thickness of the film at longer times: this reduction is larger for lower viscosity ratios and larger velocities.