Fluid boundary of a viscoplastic Bingham flow for finite solid deformations

The modelling of viscoplastic Bingham fluids often relies on a rheological constitutive law based on a "plastic rule function" often identical to the yield criterion of the solid state. It is also often assumed that this plastic rule function vanishes at the boundary between the solid and fluid states, based on the fact that it is true in the limit of small deformations of the solid state or for simple yield criteria. We show that this is not the case for finite deformations by considering the example of a two state flow on a tilted plane where the solid state is described by a Neo-Hookean model with a Von Mises yield criterion. This opens new approaches for the modelling and the computation of the fluid state boundaries

Resolved simulations of submarine avalanches with a simple soft-sphere / immersed boundary method

Physical mechanisms at the origin of the transport of solid particles in a fluid are still a matter of debate in the physics community. Yet, it is well known that these processes play a fundamental role in many natural configurations, such submarines landslides and avalanches, which may have a significant environmental and economic impact. The goal here is to reproduce the local dynamics of such systems from the grain scale to that of thousands of grains approximately. To this end a simple soft-sphere collision / immersed-boundary method has been developed in order to accurately reproduce the dynamics of a dense granular media collapsing in a viscous fluid. The fluid solver is a finite-volume method solving the three-dimensional, time-dependent Navier-Stokes equations for a incompressible flow on a staggered. Here we use a simple immersed-boundary method consisting of a direct forcing without using any Lagrangian marking of the boundary, the immersed boundary being defined by the variation of a solid volume fraction from zero to one. The granular media is modeled with a discrete element method (DEM) based on a multi-contact soft-sphere approach. In this method, an overlap is allowed between spheres which mimics the elasto-plastic deformation of real grain, and is used to calculate the contact forces based on a linear spring model and a Coulomb criterion. Binary wall-particle collisions in a fluid are simulated for a wide range of Stokes number ranging from 10-¹ to 10⁴. It is shown that good agreement is observed with available experimental results for the whole range of investigated parameters, provided that a local lubrication model is used when the distance of the gap between the particles is below a fraction of the particle radius. A new model predicting the coefficient of restitution as a function of the Stokes number and the relative surface roughness of the particles is proposed. This model, which makes use of no adjustable constant, is shown to be in good agreement with available experimental data. Finally, simulations of dense granular flows in a viscous fluid are performed. The present results are encouraging and open the way for a parametric study in the parameter space initial aspect ratio - initial packing

Waves and instabilities in rotating free surface flows

The stability properties of the rotating free surface flow in a cylindrical container is studied using a global stability approach, considering succesively three models. For the case of solid body rotation (Newton’s bucket), all eigenmodes are found to be stable, and are classified into three families : gravity waves, singular inertial modes, and Rossby waves. For the case of a potential flow, an instability is found. The mechanism is explained as a resonance between gravity waves and centrifugal waves, and is thought to be at the origin of the ”rotating polygon instability” observed in experiments where the flow is driven by rotation of the bottom plate (see [9]). Finally, we give some preliminary results concerning a third model : the Rankine vortex

On the existence and evolution of a spanwise vortex in laminar shallow water dipoles

The present work investigates the existence and evolution of a spanwise vortex at the front of shallow dipolar vortices. The vortex dipoles are experimentally generated using a double flap apparatus. Particle image velocimetry measurements are performed in a horizontal plane and in the vertical symmetry plane of the flow. The dynamics of such vortical structures is investigated through a parametric study in which both the Reynolds number Re=U0D0/ν∈[90,470] and the aspect ratio α = h/D0∈[0.075,0.7],associated with the shallowness of the flow, are varied, where U0 is the initial velocity of the vortex dipole, D0 is the initial diameter, h is the water depth, and v is the kinematic viscosity of the fluid. The present experiments confirm the numerical results obtained in a companion paper by Duran-Matute et al. [Phys. Fluids 22, 116606 (2010)], namely that the flow remains quasi parallel with negligible vertical motions below a critical value of the parameter α2Re. By contrast, for large values of α2Re and α≲0.6, a three-dimensional regime is observed in the shape of an intense spanwise vortex generated at the front of the dipole. The present study reveals that the early-time motion and dynamics of the spanwise vortex do not scale on the unique parameter α2Re but is strongly influenced by both the aspect ratio and the Reynolds number. A mechanism for the generation of the spanwise vortex is proposed. For α≳0.6, a third regime is observed, where the spanwise vortex is replaced by a vorticity tongu

Simulation of an avalanche in a fluid with a soft-sphere / immersed boundary method including a lubrication force.

The present work aims at reproducing the local dynamics of a dense granular media evolving in a viscous fluid from the grain scale to that of thousands of grains, encountered in environmental multiphase flows. To this end a soft-sphere collision / immersed-boundary method is developed. The methods are validated alone through various standard configurations including static and dynamical situations. Then, simulations of binary wall-particle collisions in a fluid are performed for a wide range of Stokes number ranging in [10-1, 104]. Good agreement with available experimental data is found provided that a local lubrication model is used. Finally, three-dimensional simulations of gravity/shear-driven dense granular flows in a viscous fluid are presented. The results open the way for a parametric study in the parameter space initial aspect ratio - initial packing

Modelling the dynamics of a sphere approaching and bouncing on a wall in a viscous fluid

The canonical configuration of a solid particle bouncing on a wall in a viscous fluid is considered here, focusing on rough particles as encountered in most of the laboratory experiments or applications. In that case, the particle deformation is not expected to be significant prior to solid contact. An immersed boundary method (IBM) allowing the fluid flow around the solid particle to be numerically described is combined with a discrete element method (DEM) in order to numerically investigate the dynamics of the system. Particular attention is paid to modelling the lubrication force added in the discrete element method, which is not captured by the fluid solver at very small scale. Specifically, the proposed numerical model accounts for the surface roughness of real particles through an effective roughness length in the contact model, and considers that the time scale of the contact is small compared to that of the fluid. The present coupled method is shown to quantitatively reproduce available experimental data and in particular is in very good agreement with recent measurement of the dynamics of a particle approaching very close to a wall in the viscous regime St <O(10), where St is the Stokes number which represents the balance between particle inertia and viscous dissipation. Finally, based on the reliability of the numerical results, two predictive models are proposed, namely for the dynamics of the particle close to the wall and the effective coefficient of restitution. Both models use the effective roughness height and assume the particle remains rigid prior to solid contact. They are shown to be pertinent to describe experimental and numerical data for the whole range of investigated parameters

Collapse of a neutrally buoyant suspension column: from Newtonian to apparent non-Newtonian flow regimes

Experiments on the collapse of non-colloidal and neutrally buoyant particles suspended in a Newtonian fluid column are presented, in which the initial volume fraction of the suspension Phi, the viscosity of the interstitial fluid Muf , the diameter of the particles d and the mixing protocol, i.e. the initial preparation of the suspension, are varied. The temporal evolution of the slumping current highlights two main regimes: (i) an inertial-dominated regime followed by (ii) a viscous-dominated regime. The inertial regime is characterized by a constant-speed slumping which is shown to scale as in the case of a classical inertial dam-break. The viscous-dominated regime is observed as a decreasing-speed phase of the front evolution. Lubrication models for Newtonian and power-law fluids describe most of situations encountered in this regime, which strongly depends on the suspension parameters. The temporal evolution of the propagating front is used to extract the rheological parameters of the fluid models. At the early stages of the viscous-dominated regime, a constant effective shear viscosity, referred to as an apparent Newtonian viscous regime, is found to depend only on Phi and Muf for each mixing protocol. The obtained values are shown to be well fitted by the Krieger–Dougherty model whose parameters involved, say a critical volume fraction Phim and the exponent of divergence, depend on the mixing protocol, i.e. the microscale interaction between particles. On a longer time scale which depends on Phi, the front evolution is shown to slightly deviate from the apparent Newtonian model. In this apparent non-Newtonian viscous regime, the power-law model, indicating both shear-thinning and shear-thickening behaviours, is shown to be more appropriate to describe the front evolution. The present experiments indicate that the mixing protocol plays a crucial role in the selection of a shear-thinning or shear-thickening type of collapse, while the particle diameter d and volume fraction Phi play a significant role in the shear-thickening case. In all cases, the normalized effective consistency of the power-law fluid model is found to be a unique function of Phi. Finally, an apparent viscoplastic regime, characterized by a finite length spreading reached at finite time, is observed at high Phi. This regime is mostly observed for volume fractions larger than Phim and up to a volume fraction PhiM close to the random close packing fraction at which the initial column remains undeformed on opening the gate

Modelling the normal bouncing dynamics of spheres in a viscous fluid

Bouncing motions of spheres in a viscous fluid are numerically investigated by an immersed boundary method to resolve the fluid flow around solids which is combined to a discrete element method for the particles motion and contact resolution. Two well-known configurations of bouncing are considered: the normal bouncing of a sphere on a wall in a viscous fluid and a normal particle-particle bouncing in a fluid. Previous experiments have shown the effective restitution coefficient to be a function of a single parameter, namely the Stokes number which compares the inertia of the solid particle with the fluid viscous dissipation. The present simulations show a good agreement with experimental observations for the whole range of investigated parameters. However, a new definition of the coefficient of restitution presented here shows a dependence on the Stokes number as in previous works but, in addition, on the fluid to particle density ratio. It allows to identify the viscous, inertial and dry regimes as found in experiments of immersed granular avalanches of Courrech du Pont et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 044301 (2003), e.g. in a multi-particle configuration

Waves in Newton's bucket

The motion of a liquid in an open cylindrical tank rotating at a constant rate around its vertical axis of symmetry, a configuration called Newton’s bucket, is investigated using a linear stability approach. This flow is shown to be affected by several families of waves, all weakly damped by viscosity. The wave families encountered correspond to: surface waves which can be driven either by gravity or centrifugal acceleration, inertial waves due to Coriolis acceleration which are singular in the inviscid limit, and Rossby waves due to height variations of the fluid layer. These waves are described in the inviscid and viscous cases by means of mathematical considerations, global stability analysis and various asymptotic methods; and their properties are investigated over a large range of parameters (a, Fr), with a the aspect ratio and Fr the Froude number

Steady and unsteady shear flows of a viscoplastic fluid in a cylindrical Couette cell

Abstract Yield stress fluid flows in Couette cells have been widely studied in the last decades for their intriguingly exhibiting phenomena. In this paper, we use a {PIV} technique to investigate the axisymmetric flow and rheological properties of a Carbopol gel in a relatively wide cylindrical Couette device. Carbopol gel is known to exhibit viscoplastic behavior and is often described using a Herschel–Bulkley law, which is characterized by a plastic yield stress τ y and a shear-dependent nonlinear viscosity. In some cases, the elasticity of the material has to be accounted for to understand the whole dynamics of the system, in particular for unsteady flows as observed in the present study. Two set of experiments are conducted here in order to highlight these different rheological behaviors and the resulting dynamics: (i) a steady shear configuration and (ii) an unsteady shear configuration, in which the angular velocity of the inner cylinder is either constant or time dependent ( sin profile), respectively. In the steady configuration, a simple optimization model, based on the Herschel–Bulkley law, is developed to extract the rheological parameters of the viscoplastic contribution of the gel from the steady velocity fields. Results are shown to be in good agreements with rheological parameters obtained from a standard rheometer. On the other hand, the elastic contribution of the material is highlighted in the unsteady shear configuration, for which a spatio-temporal transition between solid-elastic and fluid behaviors is observed. Different models are proposed to describe the dynamics of the unsteady flow. First, quasi-steady state models allow to predict both the fluid shear zone close to the inner cylinder and the elastic deformation of the material as long as their contributions can be decoupled in space and in time. For more complex dynamics, i.e. when the flow becomes strongly unsteady, an elasto-viscoplastic model is developed to describe the flow dynamics. It is shown to quantitatively reproduce the experimental measurements. Finally, an elastic wave model is derived to describe an elastic front propagating from the inner cylinder to the outer one, and observed at every half forcing period. The front velocity is thus shown to scale on the phase velocity of an elastic wave in a deformable solid