DRAG ON MULTIPLE SPHERE ASSEMBLIES SUSPENDED IN NON-NEWTONIAN TUBE FLOW

摘要

The drag forces experienced by single and multiple sphere assemblies suspended in non-Newtonian tube-flow were investigated under different levels of fluid viscosity of aqueous CMC solutions (m=2.0 to 21.1 Pa-s~n and n=0.73 to 0.82), flow rate (0.02 to 0.86 kg/s) and panicle concentrations (1.53 to 11.01 % on a volume basis). It was found that an increase in particle concentration resulted in an increase in drag force experienced by each sphere in an assembly. It was also observed that the presence of identical assemblies upstream and downstream of the single test assembly (multiple assembly case), resulted in drag force increases per sphere from 14% for low concentration to 25% for high concentration. An equation was developed to predict a drag correction factor for Stokes' equation for the multiple assembly configuration based on panicle concentration.