Creeping flow of viscoplastic materials through a planar expansion followed by a contraction

In this work, the creeping flow of a viscoplastic fluid through a planar channel with an expansion followed by a contraction is analyzed numerically. The solution of the conservation equations of mass and momentum is obtained via the finite volume method. In order to model the non-Newtonian behavior of the fluid, it was used the generalized Newtonian fluid constitutive equation. The viscosity function was the one proposed by Souza Mendes and Dutra [Souza Mendes, P.R., Dutra, E.S.S., 2004. Viscosity function for yield-stress liquids. Appl. Rheol. 14, 296-302]. The yielded and unyielded regions are obtained for several combinations of theological parameters. The influence of these parameters on pressure drop through the cavity is also obtained and analyzed. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.