Slip flow of a shear-thinning power-law fluid past an assemblage of spherical particles

Abstract

The momentum transfer characteristics of slip flow around an assemblage of spherical particles in a shear-thinning fluid (n = 0.6) is numerically studied. At fluid-solid interface a linear slip velocity is applied. As the non-dimensional slip number (λ) increases, the fluid slip becomes weaker i.e., λ = 0 represents fully slip flow and λ = ∞ indicate no-slip velocity at the solid-fluid interface. A finite difference method based on SMAC semi-implicit algorithm is used in this work over the range of conditions as: Reynolds number, Re = 100–200, power-law behavior index, n = 0.6, volume fraction of slip spheres, Φ = 0.1, and dimensionless slip parameter, λ = 0.01–100. Finally effects of these parameters on detailed flow kinematics are discussed in details.