The Motion of Small Particles in Non-Newtonian Fluids

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The motion of particles in non-Newtonian fluids will be numerically and experimentally investigated. A suspension of non-linear elastic dumbbells is used to simulate viscoelastic fluids. The dumbbells interact with macroscopic particles via relationships derived from low-Reynolds-number hydrodynamics. The effect of changing various parameters on the multiple particle interaction and flow will be analyzed, including the relaxation time, shear thinning and inertia. Various flow conditions, constitutive relationships, and typical applications will be simulated in order to obtain generic conclusions on the applicability of the method and its correlation with various physical flow systems. Inter-dumbbell interactions will be calculated using the fast multipole method. Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging will be applied to measure particle velocity and concentration in sedimenting suspensions and in Couette devices. The proposed numerical approach has applications to non-newtonian flows encountered in food and petroleum industries, polymeric flows, plastics and other materials processing.