On creeping drag flow of a viscoplastic fluid past a circular cylinder: wall effects

The creeping drag flow of a Bingham plastic past a circular cylinder kept symmetrically between parallel plates was analyzed via numerical simulations with the finite element method. Different gap/cylinder diameter ratios have been studied ranging from 2:1 to 50:1. The Bingham constitutive equation is used with an appropriate modification proposed by Papanastasiou, which applies everywhere in the flow field in both yielded and practically unyielded regions. The emphasis is on determining the extent and shape of yielded/unyielded regions along with the drag coefficient for a wide range of Bingham numbers. The present results extend previous analyses for creeping drag flow past a cylinder in an infinite medium based on variational principles and provide calculations of the drag coefficient around a cylinder in the case of wall effects. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.