Laminar, Turbulent, and Inertial Shear-Thickening Regimes in Channel Flow of Neutrally Buoyant Particle Suspensions

Iman Lashgari, Francesco Picano, Wim-Paul Breugem, Luca Brandt
2014 Physical Review Letters  
The aim of this Letter is to characterize the flow regimes of suspensions of finite-size rigid particles in a viscous fluid at finite inertia. We explore the system behavior as function of the particle volume fraction and the Reynolds number (the ratio of flow and particle inertia to viscous forces). Unlike single phase flows where a clear distinction exists between the laminar and the turbulent states, three different regimes can be identified in the presence of a particulate phase, with
more » ... transitions between them. At low volume fractions, the flow becomes turbulent when increasing the Reynolds number, transitioning from the laminar regime dominated by viscous forces to the turbulent regime characterized by enhanced momentum transport by turbulent eddies. At larger volume fractions, we identify a new regime characterized by an even larger increase of the wall friction. The wall friction increases with the Reynolds number (inertial effects) while the turbulent transport is weakly affected, as in a state of intense inertial shear-thickening. This state may prevent the transition to a fully turbulent regime at arbitrary high speed of the flow.
doi:10.1103/physrevlett.113.254502 pmid:25554885 fatcat:b3gim5dvo5ag3cty2elyys6c6m