“FLOW PAST A ROTATING SPHERE IN A NON-NEWTONIAN,

POWER-LAW FLUID, UP TO A REYNOLDS NUMBER OF 10,000”

ARTICLE CONTENT

A non-Newtonian fluid is that fluid whose viscosity varies with time and the shear
stress applied to it. As a result, a non-Newtonian fluid does not have a defined and
constant viscosity value, unlike a Newtonian fluid.

We employ a state-of-the-art microfabrication technique (selective laser-induced

etching, SLE) to produce microfluidic cylinder geometries that explore new
geometrical regimes. Using SLE, two microchannels are fabricated in monolithic
fused silica substrate with height mm and width mm (aspect ratio ) containing
cylinders of radius mm (blockage ratio ), centered at the channel mid-width, W/2.
An ‘sc’ channel contains a single cylinder, while a ‘dc’ channel contains two axially-
aligned cylinders separated by a distance mm ().

Compared with cylinder geometries fabricated by soft lithography (which typically

have α ≪ 1 and β ≳ 0.5), these rigid glass devices provide a quasi-two-dimensional
flow along the direction of the cylinder axis and also more clearly reveal the effects
of the strong extensional wake regions located at the leading and trailing stagnation
points. Using flow velocimetry and quantitative birefringence measurement
techniques, we study the behaviour of a well-characterized viscoelastic polymer
solution in flow around the cylinders. The small cylinder radii result in low inertia and
very high elasticity numbers

Aprox. ≈ 2400. For the sc device, we report strong flow modification effects around
the cylinder as the flow rate is incremented. This is associated with the deformation
of polymer molecules primarily in the upstream wake region, leading to the onset of
a purely elastic flow asymmetry upstream of the cylinder. Stretched polymer
molecules are advected around the cylinder and relax downstream of the cylinder,
resulting in an extremely long elastic wake extending for  > 300r downstream. In the
dc channel, at lower flow rates, similar flow modification effects are observed to
develop around, and downstream of, both cylinders. However, at higher flow rates
the wake of the first cylinder extends  > 50r downstream, and begins to interact with
the second cylinder. The second cylinder becomes encapsulated by the wake of the
first and is effectively obviated from the flow field. The results will be of relevance
to understanding practical applications of viscoelastic fluids, for example in particle
suspension and porous media flows, and also for benchmarking against numerical
simulations using viscoelastic constitutive models.
ABSTRACT

A non-Newtonian fluid is that fluid whose viscosity varies with time and the shear
stress applied to it. As a result, a non-Newtonian fluid does not have a defined and
constant viscosity value, unlike a Newtonian fluid.

The flow induced by a sphere rotating inside an incompressible, non-Newtonian,

power law fluid has been investigated numerically. The rotating sphere is enclosed
in a concentric cubic box with solid boundaries. The fluid power-law index varied
between 0.2 and 2 thereby covering both shear-thinning and shear-thickening fluids
and the Reynolds number varied between 0.01 and 10,000. Numerical predictions
show significant differences between shear-thinning and shear-thickening fluids. In
the first case the flow is confined near the sphere whereas in the second case the
flow extends up to the box plates. In creeping flow and shear-thinning fluids the
torque is independent of the Reynolds number.

TRADUCCIÓN DEL “ABSTRACT”

Un fluido no newtoniano es aquel fluido cuya viscosidad varía con el tiempo y el

esfuerzo cortante aplicado a él. Como resultado, un fluido no newtoniano no tiene
un valor de viscosidad definido y constante, a diferencia de un fluido newtoniano.

El flujo inducido por una esfera que gira dentro de un fluido incompresible no
newtoniano, ha sido investigado numéricamente. La esfera giratoria está encerrada
en una caja cúbica concéntrica con límites sólidos. El índice del fluido varió entre 0.2
y 2 pozos que cubrían ambos, dilución de cizallamiento y fluidos espesantes de
cizallamiento, y el número de Reynolds varió entre 0.01 y 10.000. Las predicciones
numéricas muestran diferencias significativas entre el adelgazamiento por
cizallamiento y los fluidos espesantes de cizallamiento.

En el primer caso, el flujo se limita a la esfera, mientras que en el segundo caso el

flujo se extiende hasta las placas de caja. En fluidos progresivos y fluidos de dilución
de cizalla, el par es independiente del número de Reynolds.