Laminar entry length problem for power law fluids (Q1065645)

The paper presents a new approximative method for predicting the change in pressure drop in laminar isothermal entry flow of a purely viscous, incompressible non-Newtonian fluid described by the power law model, as introduced by Ostwald-de Waele. The work concerns the determination of changes in pressure drop with increasing distance from the entrance cross section of a circular tube and the calculation of the entry length and of total pressure losses along the entry length. A special transformation method introduced earlier by the authors [e.g.: Inz. Chem. 9, 147 ff. (1979)] (and also discussed in an appendix herein) has been adopted to construct a pseudo-Newtonian model for the entry flow problem considered. A single curve correlation (independent of any value of flow behaviour index) between the pressure drop and the axial distance from the tube entrance is presented. The theoretical predictions of the paper and the available experimental data are in excellent agreement and hence the pseudo-Newtonian model for the laminar entrance region flow of power law fluid presented here may be successfully applied in engineering designs.