Meridiano, Giovanni;
Angeli, Panagiota;
Mazzei, Luca;
(2025)
Numerical investigation of the effect of viscoelasticity on the dynamics of a solid sphere in a shear flow via VOF.
Chemical Engineering Research and Design
, 218
pp. 117-132.
10.1016/j.cherd.2025.04.011.
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Abstract
We used the volume-of-fluid (VOF) method to predict the effect of viscoelasticity on the rotational speed of a solid sphere immersed in the shear flow between two parallel plates. We modeled the non-Newtonian fluid with the Oldroyd-B constitutive equation, letting the Weissenberg number (Wi) vary between 0 and 3. As expected, the sphere rotational period increased with the viscoelasticity of the flow, being strongly influenced by the buildup of normal stresses. Moreover, the analysis of the streamlines around the sphere revealed that, at large Wi, the values of the blockage ratio suggested in the literature are insufficient to eliminate the effect of the boundary conditions on the flow field around the sphere. Finally, our values of the sphere rotational velocity agree with the numerical data reported in the literature up to Wi = 1. Above this value, our results deviate from those of other works but match well the experimental data.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Numerical investigation of the effect of viscoelasticity on the dynamics of a solid sphere in a shear flow via VOF |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.cherd.2025.04.011 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cherd.2025.04.011 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Institution of Chemical Engineers. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | Normal stress, Rotational velocity, Shear flow, Viscoelasticity, VOF |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Chemical Engineering |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10207736 |
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