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Having a basic understanding of non-Newtonian fluid flow through porous media, which usually consist of series of expansions and contractions, is of importance for enhanced oil recovery, groundwater remediation, microfluidic particle manipulation, etc. The flow in contraction and/or expansion microchannel is unbounded in the primary direction and has been widely studied before. In contrast, there has been very little work on the understanding of such flow in an expansion–contraction microchannel with a confined cavity. We investigate the flow of five types of non-Newtonian fluids with distinct rheological properties and water through a planar single-cavity microchannel. All fluids are tested in a similarly wide range of flow rates, from which the observed flow regimes and vortex development are summarized in the same dimensionless parameter spaces for a unified understanding of the effects of fluid inertia, shear thinning, and elasticity as well as confinement. Our results indicate that fluid inertia is responsible for developing vortices in the expansion flow, which is trivially affected by the confinement. Fluid shear thinning causes flow separations on the contraction walls, and the interplay between the effects of shear thinning and inertia is dictated by the confinement. Fluid elasticity introduces instability and asymmetry to the contraction flow of polymers with long chains while suppressing the fluid inertia-induced expansion flow vortices. However, the formation and fluctuation of such elasto-inertial fluid vortices exhibit strong digressions from the unconfined flow pattern in a contraction–expansion microchannel of similar dimensions.
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Life and death of inertial particle clusters in turbulence
Clusters of inertial particles in turbulence are usually identified from the spatial coherence of the particle concentration field, neglecting their temporal persistence. The latter is in fact essential to the ability of the particles to interact with each other and to modify the flow. Here, we leverage simulations of homogeneous isotropic turbulence laden with small heavy particles and develop a Lagrangian framework to follow them before, during and after their time as part of a coherent cluster. We define a criterion to establish whether a cluster survives over successive time steps, and use it to characterize its lifetime. We find that cluster lives have typical durations of a few Kolmogorov time scales, with positive correlation between cluster size and lifetime. Increasing inertia and gravitational settling both lead to longer lifetimes. Small clusters emerge from the coagulation of non-clustered particles, quickly followed by disintegration into prevalently non-clustered particles. By contrast, large clusters result from the recombination of other large clusters. The birth of a cluster is preceded by an exponential contraction of the particle cloud, and its death coincides with the beginning of a slower exponential expansion, The contraction is simultaneous to a decline in the local small-scale turbulence activity, while the expansion is accompanied by its recovery. Therefore, during their lifetime, the clusters experience lower-than-average enstrophy and strain rate in the fluid. This relatively quiescent state of the flow is thus a necessary condition for the cluster survival, at least in the considered range of turbulence intensity and particle inertia.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1903564
- PAR ID:
- 10554627
- Publisher / Repository:
- Cambridge Press
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of fluid mechanics
- Volume:
- 902
- ISSN:
- 1469-7645
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- R1
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- particle/fluid flow
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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