Theoretical aspects of non-newtonian fluids flow simulation in food technologies

Introduction. The problems of simulating viscoplastic longitudinal and cross-sectional flow of non-Newtonian fluids are overviewed. Materials and methods. For the first time the superposition method by expressing the components of the stress tensor for building flow fields with higher dimension from flow fields with lower dimension with various boundary conditions when rheological parameters change depending on pressure was used. The flows in the channel are categorized by velocity and pressure values in each point of the section. Results. The theoretical methods for simulating flows of non-Newtonian fluids in channels of different geometry with moving bounds and pressure drop on channel edges with respect to functional connections between main process parameters are described using the superposition method. It is shown that longitudinal and cross-sectional are reduced to the collection of one-dimensional longitudinal flows of the same type which allow to describe three-dimensional isothermal in rectangular channel and two-dimensional flows in flat channels with different channel aspect ratio. The received theoretical two- and three-dimensional model of viscous flows in channels with basic geometry allow to research main regularities of the process and to establish optimal macro-kinetic and macro-dynamic flow characteristics of non-Newtonian materials which are aimed at reducing energy costs and material consumption of food processing equipment. Conclusion. The developed and theoretically reasonable three-dimensional models flows of non-Newtonian fluids in channels allow to perform qualitatively new design of food processing equipment which allows to reduce energy costs and material consumption.