Flow of viscoplastic fluids in a rotating concentric annulus

A difficulty in any flow calculation with viscoplastic fluids such as Bingham fluids is the determination of possible plug zones in which no deformation occurs. This paper investigates the flow in a concentric annulus when there is both an axial and tangential flow, the tangent flow arising from rotation of the inner cylinder of the annulus. The flow is analyzed by considering flow in a slot, for which an analytical solution is given, and by solving the full problem numerically. It is shown that when the boundary is set in motion an applied pressure gradient will always cause flow. If the applied pressure gradient is small compared to the yield stress of the fluid then the full solution predicts the existence of plugs attached to the outer wall of the annulus. The slot approximation fails to predict this feature. For larger pressure gradients the two solutions are in good agreement. The analytical calculation gives a simple expression for the critical rate at which the wall has to move to reduce the plug size to zero.