Flow of Non-Newtonian Fluids Past A Solid and Slotted Circular Cylinder: Effect of Blockage Ratio and Power Law Index

The flow of non-Newtonian viscous fluids past a circular cylinder has been investigated with the help of computational fluid dynamics software Ansys. The work which has been presented deals with the flow at the Reynolds number 40. The analysis is carried out for a solid circular cylinder and a circular cylinder with a parallel slit with the blockage ratios considered as 0.01, 0.05, and 0.20. The fluids that are used in the study have power-law indices of 0.6 (shear thinning), 1 (Newtonian), and 1.2 shear thickening). The analysis is carried out to understand the flow pattern and effect of the slit on the bubble formation, flow separation, and drag coefficient for the given flow conditions. The total drag coefficient increases with the decrease in the blockage ratio in both solid cylinder and slotted cylinder. Also with the increase in power law index the drag coefficient increases keeping the blockage ratio and slit conditions constant.