Numerical simulation of the rheological properties of fiber suspensions in turbulent pipe flows

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study numerically the rheological properties of fiber suspensions flowing through turbulent pipe flows. Design/methodology/approach – The work presented in this paper is derived the fluctuating equation for fiber orientation distribution function (FODF) in turbulent flows and solved using the method of characteristics. The FODF is predicted numerically. The numerical results of root-mean-square velocities generated by kinetic simulation sweeping model and are compared with the experimental data. Findings – The fiber orientation distribution becomes wider with increasing Re. The components of the fourth-order orientation tensor increase with the increase of Re, and also increase along the radial direction and reach the maximum at the center line. The first normal stress difference is much less than the shear stress. For different Re the shear stress increases rapidly in the region far from the pipe center, and reaches its maximums at center, while the first normal stress difference decreases rapidly in the region far from the pipe center, and reaches its minimum at center finally. Originality/value – By solving numerically the equation in a turbulent pipe flow with Reynolds number ranging from 2,500 to 1,000, the authors obtain the mean FODF which is in agreement with the experimental one qualitatively. Then the shear stress and first normal stress difference of suspensions are calculated based on the mean FODF.