Experimental and Numerical Analysis of the Effect of Rheological Models on Measurements of Shear-Thinning Fluid Flow in Smooth Pipes

The aim of this research is to investigate the effects of rheological models of shear-thinning fluids and their estimated parameters on the predictions of laminar, transitional, and turbulent flow. The investigation was carried out through experimental and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) studies in horizontal pipes (diameters of 19.1 mm and 76.2 mm). Six turbulent models using Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes equations in CFD_ANSYS Fluent 19.0 were examined in a 3D simulation followed by comparison studies between numerical and experimental results. Regarding results of laminar regions in power-law rheology models, Metzner and Reed presented the best fit for the pressure loss and transitional velocity. For the turbulent region, correlations observed by Wilson and Thomas as well as Dodge and Matzner had good agreement with the experimental results. For Herschel–Bulkley fluids, pressure losses and transitional regions based on a yielded region were examined and compared to the experimental results and the modified Slatter Reynolds number, where the results provided good estimation. For both pipe diameters, the Slatter model was the best fit for pressure losses of Herschel–Bulkley fluids in the turbulent regime. Furthermore, when comparing k-omega and k-epsilon turbulence models to the power-law behaviour, numerical studies delivered the most accurate results with fluids that have a higher behaviour index. However, the error percentage significantly increased at a higher shear rate in the Herschel–Bulkley fluids with a greater yield stress effect. Moreover, the modified Herschel–Bulkley viscosity function by Papanastasiou was implemented in the current CFD study. This function was numerically stabilized, devoid of discontinuity at a low strain rate, and more effective in transitional regions.