Thermal chaotic mixing of power-law fluids in a mixer with alternately rotating walls

We investigate the enhancement of both mixing and heat transfer in a two-rod mixer for highly viscous non-Newtonian fluids. The mixer is composed of two vertical circular rods in a cylindrical tank. Chaotic flows are obtained by imposing the temporal modulations of the rotational velocities of the walls. We study the effects of different stirring protocols, which lead to non-chaotic and chaotic flows, on the efficiency of both mixing and heat transfer for three different theological fluid behaviors: shear-thinning, Newtonian and shear-thickening. For this purpose, we use statistical indicators that characterize the mean value of the fluid temperature and its homogenization. We find that chaotic mixing is suitable for shear-thickening fluids for which we observe a clear enhancement of the thermal mixing (heat extraction and homogenization). This is due to the increase in the apparent fluid viscosity in the vicinity of the rotating walls. This aspect confirms the relevance of chaotic mixing for highly viscous fluids. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.