Developing Flow of Power-Law Fluids in Circular Tube Having Superhydrophobic Transverse Grooves

Ming Wei Lee; Kok Hwa Yu; Yew Heng Teoh; Han Wei Lee; Mohd Azmi Ismail

Authors

Ming Wei Lee School of Aerospace Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300 Penang, Malaysia
Kok Hwa Yu School of Mechanical Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300 Penang, Malaysia
Yew Heng Teoh School of Mechanical Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300 Penang, Malaysia
Han Wei Lee School of Mechanical Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300 Penang, Malaysia
Mohd Azmi Ismail School of Mechanical Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300 Penang, Malaysia

Keywords:

superhydrophobic, entrance length, water-repellent, surface roughness, non-Newtonian fluid

Abstract

This study presents a numerical investigation on developing flow of inelastic non-Newtonian fluids in a circular tube having alternating superhydrophobic grooves and ribs arranged transversely to the flow direction. Laminar, steady and incompressible flow of non-Newtonian power-law fluid flowing in a circular tube having superhydrophobic transverse grooves of L = 0.1 and d = 0.5 is considered. The influences arising from the presence of superhydrophobic surfaces SHS on radialvelocity profile development, centerline velocity distribution and hydrodynamic entrance length are examined. For Reynolds numbersranging from Re = 1×10^-4 to Re = 1, numerical results show that the hydrodynamic entrance lengths arising from flow over superhydrophobic transverse grooves for non-Newtonian fluid with power-law index in the range 0.5 ≤ n < 1.5are consistently longer than that of smooth surface.