Numerical Investigation of Three-Dimensional Laminar Wall Jet of Non-Newtonian Fluid

Abstract

A numerical investigation was performed for three-dimensional laminar wall jet flows of non-Newtonian fluid with power-law index, n = 0.7 at two Reynolds numbers. A colocated finite volume based in-house CFD code was used to solve the complete nonlinear incompressible Navier-Stokes equation. The results showed that the spread of the jet in both the transverse and spanwise directions, decay of the local maximum streamwise velocity, and the skin friction coefficient depend strongly on Reynolds number. The jet half-width in the transverse direction is significantly higher than in the spanwise direction. Depending on the specific Reynolds number, the apparent viscosities were up to three orders of magnitude higher than the dynamic viscosity of water. Significant differences were observed among the profiles in the inner region when the results were compare with Newtonian fluid, n = 1.0. Nomenclature Cf = skin friction coefficient d = inlet pipe diameter n = power-law index p = pressure r = local radius which is a function of y and z