Rheology of Bingham viscoplastic flow triggered by a rotating and radially stretching disk

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the flow and heat transfer characteristics of a Bingham viscoplastic fluid subjected to the combined effects of axial rotation and radial stretching of a circular disk. Building upon existing models for Bingham fluids on stationary walls, we extend the formulation to incorporate the effects of a linearly stretching disk using von Kármán similarity transformations.

Design/methodology/approach

The resulting system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations is solved to characterize the flow and thermal fields. Three dimensionless parameters govern the momentum layer: a swirling number capturing the balance between rotation and stretching, a Bingham number characterizing the fluid’s yield stress and a modified Reynolds number incorporating the disk stretching. The Prandtl number controls the thermal response.

Findings

For purely stretching flows, a two-dimensional flow structure emerges. However, the introduction of rotation induces three-dimensional flow behavior. Unlike previous studies suggesting that moderate Bingham numbers are sufficient for non-Newtonian effects on purely revolving disks, the findings indicate that significantly higher yield stresses are required to observe non-Newtonian characteristics under radial stretching conditions. This difference can be attributed to the enhancing influence of wall movement on the fluid dynamics. At high Bingham numbers, a two-layer flow structure develops, comprising an unyielded plug region above the disk and a yielded shear layer adjacent to the wall. The von Kármán viscous pump mechanism drives the Bingham flow within this regime.

Originality/value

Physical quantities such as drag force due to wall shear stress, torque resulting from tangential shear stress and Nusselt number are extracted from the quantitative data.