XXIV ICTAM, 21-26 August 2016, Montreal, Canada

BLASIUS-TYPE FRICTION EQUATION FOR YIELDING FLUIDS

BASED ON EXTENDED KOLMOGOROV MICROSCALES
Hamidreza Anbarlooei1 , Cecilia M.M. Santos2 , Daniel O.A. Cruz 3 , and Atila P. Silva Freire4
1,2,3,4
Mechanical Engineering Program (PEM/COPPE), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro,C.P. 68503,
21941-972, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Summary In previous works [1-2], the extension of the Kolmogorov K41 theory for purely viscous power-law fluids was developed. In
the present work, the same procedure is used to find Kolmogorov microscales for yielding fluids. This idea is applied for Bingham plastic
rheology and the related scales are derived. As a direct application a friction equation is developed for Bingham fluids by relating the
purposed velocity scale and friction factor using a phenomenological model for turbulence. Comparing the new Blasius-type friction
equation with experimental results shows a good agreement.

INTRODUCTION
Turbulent flow of purely viscous non-Newtonian (PVNN) fluids is present in many industrial applications. Typical examples are the transport of some polymeric substances, sewage sludges, coal, china clay and many other mineral suspensions.
Despite its great engineering importance, only few works have been dedicated in literature to this topic.
Recently, authors have developed an extended version of the Kolmogorov K41 theory for purely viscous non-Newtonian
fluids [1-2]. The purpose of the current paper is to extend further this idea into yielding fluids. Also, using the phenomenological turbulence model of Gioia and Chakaborty [3], it is possible to related Kolmogorov microscales to friction. Using this
model, a Blasius-type friction equation was developed for Newtonian [3] and non-Newtonian (Power-Law) fluids [1]. The
second part of this paper is dedicated to develope such an equation for Bingham fluids. To our knowledge there is no such a
theoretical equation in the literature.
KOLMOGOROV SCALES
For the sake of simplicity, in the reminder of this paper only Bingham rheology is considered. This model is expressed as
= y + where y stands for the yield stress, is plastic viscosity and is shear rate. It should be emphasized here
that in the turbulent flow yielding fluid, it is believed the stress is higher than yielding limit in any point or at least, thixotropy
of the fluid do not let the plug micro-regions to form [4]. Thus the unyielded situation is removed from the rheological model
considered here.
The starting point of Kolmogorovs theory is Richardsons notion of energy cascade [1]. Based on experimental and
numerical evidences it can be assumed that this picture of energy transfer through eddies remains same for PVNN fluids.
K41 theory is based on three important hypotheses combined with dimensional arguments and experimental observations.
It is clear that the first hypotheses (local isotropy of turbulence) is still valid in turbulent flow of PVNN fluids. However, first
similarity hypotheses should be changed as in every turbulent flow at sufficiently high Reynolds number, the statistics of the
small scale motions (micro-scales) have a universal form that is uniquely determined by (dissipation rate), and rheological
properties of the fluid (y and ). Finally Kolmogorovs second similarity hypothesis states that in every turbulent flow at
sufficiently high Reynolds number, the statistics of the motions of scale l in the range l0 l have a universal form
that is uniquely determined by independent of viscosity. Because of independency on viscosity, this hypotheses remains
unchanged for PVNN fluids.
To complete our extension of Kolmogorov Hypothesis, we just need to provide the relation between , y and (Kolmogorov micro-scales). To do this, we start from dissipation. Generally, dissipation can be expressed as = S, where
and S( )
stand for dissipation and strain rate, respectively. Using Bingham model, we will have = (y + )
where
at dissipation range this can be approximated by = (y + ul )( ul ) where u and l are dissipation velocity and length.
Combining this with dissipation calculated from integral scale (U 3 /L), we will have:

u u
U3
(1)
= y +
L
l
l
It is logical to assume (same as Newtonian fluids) that in the limit of Kolmogorov scales, the local Reynolds number is equal
to one. For the Bingham fluid , the local viscosity can be expressed as = / = + 0 ul . Using equations (1) and
Relocal = 1, one can obtain velocity scale as following
vq
u
u He2
4
He
+ Re
t Re4 + Re
2
u
=
(2)
U
2
Corresponding

author. Email: doac@mecanica.coppe.ufrj.br

a)

b)

0.006

1.4
Current Work (Hed=2.1e6)
Darby and Melson Formula [6]
Experimental Results [5]
Blasius Equation

Current Work
Darby and Melson Formula

1.3

0.0055
1.2
0.005

fpred/fexp

fFanning

1.1

0.0045

0.9
0.004
0.8
0.0035
0.7

0.003

0.6
4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9 9.5
4

Re (x 10 )

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

=y/w

0.6

0.7

0.8

Figure 1: Comparison of Relative error of predictions of purposed formula with Darby-Melson and Blasius equations.

where Re =

U L

is the bulck flow Reylonds number and He is the Hedstrom number defined as

y L2
2 .

Friction Equation
Thanks to phenomenological theory developed by Gioia and Chakaborty [3], the Kolmogorov micro-scales can be related
to friction factor [1-3]. Here we extend this idea to yielding fluids.
To derive an expression for w , the shear stress at the wall, we follow the procedure set forward in [3]. We consider that
the momentum transfer through the near the wall viscous layer balances wall shear stress and also yield stress of the fluid. On
top of this layer, fluid has a high velocity which scales with U . However, in the viscous layer, the axial momentum transfer is
negligible so that the net rate of momentum transfer is due to the normal velocity, which is induced by the small eddies. Thus,
the stress scales as w = wf luid + y U un , where un is the velocity of the dissipating eddies, which will be assumed equal
to u . Combinign this idea with the velocity scale of the previous section, it easy to show
vq
u
u He2
4
He
f luid
+ Re
t Re4 + Re
2
He
8
(3)
8 2
ff luid = w 2 = C()
U
2
Re
where ff luid is Darcy friction factor and C() is assumed to be equal to 0.316 for Newtonian case ( = 0) to comply with
Blasius equation. Simple comparison with experimental data shows that C is not strong function of at least for low values
of . So, it is assumed to be constant equal to 0.316 here. The accuracy of the predictions of equation (3) is compared with
experimental results of [5], in Figure 1. For the sake of comparison, results obtained with the empirical equation of Darby
and Melson [6] are also shown in this figure. This limited test seems to indicate that our analytic formula preforms even
better than purely empirical equation Darby and Melson [6] (The maximum error of new equaiton is less than 10%, where the
empirical equation shows up to 15% deviation from experimental results). However, further experimental evidence remains
necessary for a final judgement. It is also interesting to note that developed equation approaches Blasius equation in the limit
as expected, while Darby and Melson [6] equation does not.
References
[1] Anbarlooei H.R., Cruz D.O.A., Ramos F., Silva Freire A.P.: Phenomenological Blasius-Type Friction Equation for Turbulent Power-Law Fluid Flows.
Phys. Rev. E 92:063006,2015.
[2] Anbarlooei H.R., Cruz D.O.A., Silva Freire A.P.: A Blasius Type Friction Equation for Purely Viscous non-Newtonian Fluid. 15th European Turbulence
Conference, Netherlands 2015.
[3] Gioia G., Pinaki Chakraborty: Turbulent Friction in Rough Pipes and the Energy Spectrum of the Phenomenological Theory. Phys. Rev. Lett., 96:044502,
2006.
[4] Frigaard I.A., Howison S.D., Sobey I.J.: On the Stability of Poiseuille Flow of a Bingham Fluid. J. Fluid Mech. 263:133150, 1994.
[5] Bartosik A.: Simulation of the Friction Factor in a Yield-stress Slurry Flow which Exhibits Turbulence Damping Near the Pipe Wall. J. Theor. App.
Mech. 49:283-300, 2011.
[6] Darby R., Melson J.: How to Predict the Friction Factor for Flow of Bingham Plastics. Ch.E. 28:5961, 1981.