Many complex biological systems, such as blood and polymeric materials,
can be approximated as single constituent homogeneous fluids whose properties
can change because of the chemical reactions that take place. For instance, the
viscosity of such fluids could change because of the chemical reactions and the
flow. Here, I investigate the pulsatile flow of a chemically-reacting fluid whose
viscosity depends on the concentration of a species (constituent) that is governed
by a convection-reaction-diffusion equation and the velocity gradient, which can
thicken or thin the fluid. I study the competition between the chemical reaction
and the kinematics in determining the response of the fluid.
The solutions to the equations governing the steady flow of a chemicallyreacting,
shear-thinning fluid are obtained analytically. The solution for the velocity
exhibits a parabolic-type profile reminiscent of the Newtonian fluid profile, if
the fluids are subject to the same boundary conditions. The full equations associated
with the fluid undergoing a pulsatile flow are studied numerically. A comparison
of the shear-thinning/chemical-thinning fluid to the shear-thinning/chemicalthickening
fluid using a new non-dimensional parameterâÂÂthe competition number
(CN) shows that both the shear-thinning effects and the chemical-thinning/thickening
effects play a vital role in determining the response of the fluid. For the parameter
values chosen, the effects of chemical-thinning/thickening dominate the majority
of the domain, while the effects due to shear-thinning are dominant only in a small
region near the boundary.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/5892 |
| Date | 17 September 2007 |
| Creators | Bridges, Ronald Craig, II |
| Contributors | Rajagopal, K.R. |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | 361519 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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