Numerical simulation of Taylor Couette flow of Bingham fluids

Abstract

The Bingham fluid flow between two concentric cylinders is studied using numerical simulation. The cylinders are assumed to rotate independently, and with an imposed axial sliding. The flow field is decomposed with linearity arguments of the base circular Couette shear flow and corresponding deviation field. The numerical methods are based on the expression of the deviation field in terms of complete sets of orthogonal functions and Chebyshev series. The Galerkin projection method is used with the pressure term being eliminated. The Adams Bashforth scheme is adopted for time marching. The results show that the vortices are squeezed toward the inner cylinder due to the effect of yield stress. When the outer cylinder is held stationary, the yield stress plays a role in weakening the vortex flow. However, for the co-rotation situation, the vortex flow is initially strengthened with an increase of yield stress, and then weakened as the yield stress is raised large enough. The annular unyielded regions emerge and stick to the outer cylinder. In case of Taylor Couette flow with an imposed axial sliding, a spiral vortex flow is visible with spiral unyielded region being obtained.