Shear rate turbulent flow

The equations shown above are strictly speaking only valid if the flow profile is a pure laminar flow. Above a critical shear rate, the flow becomes increasingly turbulent and deviates from laminar flow. This kind of shear flow is not reached in the viscosimeter types described below though. 

From Fig. 5.3 it may be seen that this exceeds the shear rate for non-laminar flow (approximately 30 s ) so that the entry to this region would need to be streamlined. Fig. 5.3 also shows that the extensional strain rate, k, in the tapered entry region should not exceed about 15 s if turbulence is to be avoided. 

The dynamics of reactor flow is also important for its effect on the crystal agglomeration, since the intensity of turbulent shear dominates the orthoki-netic mechanism for both processes of aggregation and disruption. The mean shear rate is estimated as (see Harnby etai, 1992)... 

Chain degradation in turbulent flow has been frequently reported in conjunction with drag reduction and in simple shear flow at high Reynolds numbers [187], Using poly(decyl methacrylate) under conditions of turbulent flow in a capillary tube, Muller and Klein observed that the hydrodynamic volume, [r ] M, is the determining factor for the degradation rate in various solvents and at various polymer concentrations [188], The initial MWD of the polymers used in their experiments are, however, too broad (Mw/Iiln = 5 ) to allow for a precise... 

In turbulent motion, the presence of circulating or eddy currents brings about a much-increased exchange of momentum in all three directions of the stream flow, and these eddies are responsible for the random fluctuations in velocity The high rate of transfer in turbulent flow is accompanied by a much higher shear stress for a given velocity gradient. 

Because concentrated flocculated suspensions generally have high apparent viscosities at the shear rates existing in pipelines, they are frequently transported under laminar flow conditions. Pressure drops are then readily calculated from their rheology, as described in Chapter 3. When the flow is turbulent, the pressure drop is difficult to predict accurately and will generally be somewhat less than that calculated assuming Newtonian behaviour. As the Reynolds number becomes greater, the effects of non-Newtonian behaviour become... 

The production of turbulence is maximum close to walls, where both shear rate and turbulent viscosity, ut, are high. In pipe flow, the maximum is close to y+ = 12. A proper design of a chemical reactor for efficient mixing at low Re should allow the generated turbulence to be transported with the mean flow from the region where it is produced to the bulk of the fluid where it should dissipate. 

This response time should be compared to the turbulent eddy lifetime to estimate whether the drops will follow the turbulent flow. The timescale for the large turbulent eddies can be estimated from the turbulent kinetic energy k and the rate of dissipation e, Xc = 30-50 ms, for most chemical reactors. The Stokes number is an estimation of the effect of external flow on the particle movement, St = r /tc. If the Stokes number is above 1, the particles will have some random movement that increases the probability for coalescence. If St 1, the drops move with the turbulent eddies, and the rates of collisions and coalescence are very small. Coalescence will mainly be seen in shear layers at a high volume fraction of the dispersed phase. 

With turbulent channel flow the shear rate near the wall is even higher than with laminar flow. Thus, for example, (du/dy) ju = 0.0395 Re u/D is vaHd for turbulent pipe flow with a hydraulically smooth wall. The conditions in this case are even less favourable for uniform stress on particles, as the layer flowing near the wall (boundary layer thickness 6), in which a substantial change in velocity occurs, decreases with increasing Reynolds number according to 6/D = 25 Re", and is very small. Considering that the channel has to be large in comparison with the particles D >dp,so that there is no interference with flow, e.g. at Re = 2300 and D = 10 dp the related boundary layer thickness becomes only approx. 29% of the particle diameter. It shows that even at Re = 2300 no defined stress can be exerted and therefore channels are not suitable model reactors. 

For turbulent flow, we shall use the Chilton-Colburn analogy [12] to derive an expression for mass transfer to the spherical surface. This analogy is based on an investigation of heat and mass transfer to a flat plate situated in a uniform flow stream. At high Schmidt numbers, the local mass transfer rate is related to the local wall shear stress by... 

Corresponding expressions for the friction loss in laminar and turbulent flow for non-Newtonian fluids in pipes, for the two simplest (two-parameter) models—the power law and Bingham plastic—can be evaluated in a similar manner. The power law model is very popular for representing the viscosity of a wide variety of non-Newtonian fluids because of its simplicity and versatility. However, extreme care should be exercised in its application, because any application involving extrapolation beyond the range of shear stress (or shear rate) represented by the data used to determine the model parameters can lead to misleading or erroneous results. 

Both laminar and turbulent pipe flow of highly loaded slurries of fine particles, for example, can often be adequately represented by either of these two models over an appreciable shear rate range, as shown by Darby et al. (1992). 

Like the von Karman equation, this equation is implicit in/. Equation (6-46) can be applied to any non-Newtonian fluid if the parameter n is interpreted to be the point slope of the shear stress versus shear rate plot from (laminar) viscosity measurements, at the wall shear stress (or shear rate) corresponding to the conditions of interest in turbulent flow. However, it is not a simple matter to acquire the needed data over the appropriate range or to solve the equation for / for a given flow rate and pipe diameter, in turbulent flow. 

A coal slurry is found to behave as a power law fluid, with a flow index of 0.3, a specific gravity of 1.5. and an apparent viscosity of 70 cP at a shear rate of 100 s 1. What volumetric flow rate of this fluid would be required to reach turbulent flow in a 1/2 in. ID smooth pipe that is 15 ft long What is the pressure drop in the pipe (in psi) under these conditions ... 

The first term on the right-hand side of Equation (2) describes the formation rate of k-flocs, and the second term is the disappearance rate. In the present study the flow was turbulent, and an effective shear rate was calculated as (e/v) / (19), where e is the energy dissipation, W/kg, and v is the kinematic viscosity, m /s. Equation (2) was also extended to include a collision efficiency factor, a, defined as... 

In turbulent flow, there is direct viscous dissipation due to the mean flow this is given by the equivalent of equation 1.98 in terms of the mean values of the shear stress and the velocity gradient. Similarly, the Reynolds stresses do work but this represents the extraction of kinetic energy from the mean flow and its conversion into turbulent kinetic energy. Consequently this is known as the rate of turbulent energy production ... 

Thus, only the normal Reynolds stresses (i = j) are directly dissipated in a high-Reynolds-number turbulent flow. The shear stresses (i / j), on the other hand, are dissipated indirectly, i.e., the pressure-rate-of-strain tensor first transfers their energy to the normal stresses, where it can be dissipated directly. Without this redistribution of energy, the shear stresses would grow unbounded in a simple shear flow due to the unbalanced production term Vu given by (2.108). This fact is just one illustration of the key role played by 7 ., -in the Reynolds stress balance equation. 

The Taylor vortices described above are an example of stable secondary flows. At high shear rates the secondary flows become chaotic and turbulent flow occurs. This happens when the inertial forces exceed the viscous forces in the liquid. The Reynolds number gives the value of this ratio and in general is written in terms of the linear liquid velocity, u, the dimension of the shear gradient direction (the gap in a Couette or the radius of a pipe), the liquid density and the viscosity. For a Couette we have ... 

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