Two-phase flow model for concentrated suspensions

Abstract

A new two-phase model is derived that make use of a constitutive law combining non-Brownian suspension with granular rheology, that was recently proposed by Boyer et al. [PRL, 107(18),188301 (2011)]. It is shown that for the simple channel flow geometry, the stress model naturally exhibits a Bingham type flow property with an unyielded finite-size zone in the center of the channel. As the volume fraction of the solid phase is increased, the various transitions in the flow fields are discussed using phase space methods for a boundary value problem, that is derived from the full model. The predictions of this analysis is then compared to the direct finite-element numerical solutions of the full model.