Radial flow velocity profiles of a yield stress fluid between smooth parallel disks

Abstract

In rock grouting, idealized 2D-radial laminar flow of yield stress fluids (YSF) is a fundamental flow configuration that is used for cement grout spread estimation. A limited amount of works have presented analytical and numerical solutions on the radial velocity profiles between parallel disks. However, to the best of our knowledge, there has been no experimental work that has presented measured velocity profiles for this geometry. In this paper, we present velocity profiles of Carbopol (a simple YSF), measured by pulsed ultrasound velocimetry within a radial flow model. We describe the design of the physical model and then present the measured velocity profiles while highlighting the plug-flow region and slip effects observed for three different apertures and volumetric flow rates. Although the measured velocity profiles exhibited wall slip, there was a reasonably good agreement with the analytical solution. We then discuss the major implications of our work on radial flow.