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Biochem Group 4
Biochem Group 4
ChE 526
Biochemical Engineering
CHAPTER 7
FLUID FLOW
FLUID FLOW
Introduction
Fluid flow is a sub discipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids (liquids
and gases). It has several sub disciplines, including aerodynamics (the study of air and other
gases in motion) and hydrodynamics (the study of liquids in motion). Fluid dynamics has a wide
range of applications, including calculating forces and moments on aircraft, determining
the mass flow rate of petroleum through pipelines, predicting weather patterns,
understanding nebulae in interstellar space and modeling fission weapon detonation.
Classifications of fluids
When a fluid flows past a point or through a path different parameters associated with
the flow of the fluid vary in different patterns. In this article we will study classification of fluid
flow in different types according to the conditional variations of the flow parameters with space
and time.
When a fluid flows past a point or through path different parameters associated with the
flow of the fluid, certain parameters vary and others may remain constant.
The two basic parameters of any fluid flow are velocity of the fluid particle or element
and the pressure of the fluid at the point under consideration. The flow of fluids can be classified
in different patterns based on the variation of the flow parameters with time and distance. The
benefit of characterizing the fluid flow as certain patterns helps in analyzing it under the
appropriate solution paradigm.
The classification of the fluid flow based on the variation of the fluid flow parameters with
time characterizes the flow in two categories, steady and unsteady flow. If the flow parameters,
such as velocity, pressure, density and discharge do not vary with time or are independent of
time then the flow is steady. If the flow parameters vary with time then the flow is categorized as
unsteady.
In real conditions it is very rare to have such flows with parameters exactly constant with
time. The parameters usually vary with time but variation is within a small range such as the
average of particular parameter is constant for certain duration of time.
The other classification criterion for the fluid flow is based on the variation of the flow
parameters with distance or space. It characterizes the flow as uniform or non-uniform. The fluid
flow is a uniform flow if the flow parameters remain constant with distance along the flow path.
And the fluid flow is non-uniform if the flow parameters vary and are different at different points
on the flow path.
For a uniform flow, by its definition, the area of the cross section of the flow should
remain constant. So a fitting example of the uniform flow is the flow of a liquid thorough a
pipeline of constant diameter. And contrary to this the flow through a pipeline of variable
diameter would be necessarily non-uniform.
Fluids in motion
Streamline the path of a particle in a fluid relative to a solid body past which the fluid is
moving in smooth flow without turbulence
Shear stress
Any real fluids (liquids and gases included) moving along solid boundary will incur a
shear stress on that boundary. The no-slip condition dictates that the speed of the fluid at the
boundary (relative to the boundary) is zero, but at some height from the boundary the flow
speed must equal that of the fluid. The region between these two points is aptly named
the boundary layer. For all Newtonian fluids in laminar flow the shear stress is proportional to
the strain rate in the fluid where the viscosity is the constant of proportionality. However,
for non-Newtonian fluids, this is no longer the case as for these fluids the viscosity is not
constant. The shear stress is imparted onto the boundary as a result of this loss of velocity.
Reynolds number
The Reynolds number is the ratio of inertial forces to viscous forces within a fluid which
is subject to relative internal movement due to different fluid velocities, in what is known as
a boundary layer in the case of a bounding surface such as the interior of a pipe. A similar effect
is created by the introduction of a stream of higher velocity fluid, such as the hot gases from a
flame in air. This relative movement generates fluid friction, which is a factor in developing
turbulent flow. Counteracting this effect is the viscosity of the fluid, which as it increases,
progressively inhibits turbulence, as more kinetic energy is absorbed by a more viscous fluid.
The Reynolds number quantifies the relative importance of these two types of forces for given
flow conditions, and is a guide to when turbulent flow will occur in a particular situation.
When fluid flows along a wall, the fluid right next to the wall sticks to the wall. That fluid
shears the fluid next to it and slows it down. As you move farther out in the flow, you go through
a region (called a boundary layer) in which the fluid farther out is moving faster than the fluid
closer to the wall. By the time you have gotten out to the place where the speed is essentially
equal to the wind speed away from the wall, then you are outside the boundary layer. Typically
the boundary layer is quite thin. This is the hydrodynamic boundary layer,
Boundary layer separation
Boundary layer separation is the detachment of a boundary layer from the surface into a
broader wake. Boundary layer separation occurs when the portion of the boundary layer closest
to the wall or leading edge reverses in flow direction. The separation point is defined as the
point between the forward and backward flow, where the shear stress is zero. The overall
boundary layer initially thickens suddenly at the separation point and is then forced off the
surface by the reversed flow at its bottom.
Viscosity
Viscosity is a property of the fluid which opposes the relative motion between the two
surfaces of the fluid in a fluid that are moving at different velocities. When the fluid is forced
through a tube, the particles which compose the fluid generally move more quickly near the
tube's axis and more slowly near its walls; therefore some stress (such as a pressure difference
between the two ends of the tube) is needed to overcome the friction between particle layers to
keep the fluid moving. For a given velocity pattern, the stress required is proportional to the
fluid's viscosity.
Viscosity of a fluid expresses its resistance to shearing flows, where adjacent layers
move parallel to each other with different speeds. It can be defined through the idealized
situation known as a Couette flow, where a layer of fluid is trapped between two horizontal
plates, one fixed and one moving horizontally at constant speed {\displaystyle u}This fluid has to
be homogeneous in the layer and at different shear stresses.
Kinematic Viscosity
Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids
Newton's law of viscosity is a constitutive equation (like Hooke's law, Fick's law, Ohm's
law): it is not a fundamental law of nature but an approximation that holds in some materials and
fails in others.
A fluid that behaves according to Newton's law, with a viscosity μ that is independent of
the stress, is said to be Newtonian. Gases, water, and many common liquids can be considered
Newtonian in ordinary conditions and contexts. There are many non-Newtonian fluids that
significantly deviate from that law in some way or other. For example:
Shear-thickening liquids, whose viscosity increases with the rate of shear strain.
Shear-thinning liquids, whose viscosity decreases with the rate of shear strain.
Thixotropic liquids, that become less viscous over time when shaken, agitated, or
otherwise stressed.
Rheopectic liquids, that become more viscous over time when shaken, agitated, or
otherwise stressed.
Bingham plastics that behave as a solid at low stresses but flow as a viscous fluid at
high stresses.
Shear-thinning liquids are very commonly, but misleadingly, described as thixotropic.
Even for a Newtonian fluid, the viscosity usually depends on its composition and
temperature. For gases and other compressible fluids, it depends on temperature and varies
very slowly with pressure.
The viscosity of some fluids may depend on other factors. A magnetorheological fluid,
for example, becomes thicker when subjected to a magnetic field, possibly to the point of
behaving like a solid.
MOMENTUM TRANSFER
Viscous drag forces responsible for the velocity gradient are the instrument of
momentum transfer. Momentum transfer in fluid is represented by,
dv
dy
According the equation given, the flux of momentum is directly proportional to the
velocity gradient dv/dy. The negative sign means that momentum is transferred from
regions of high velocity to regions of low velocity, thus slope is also negative.
Non-Newotnian Fluid
In contrast to Newtonian fluids, the flow curves are not straight lines in this kind
of fluid. Apparent viscosity ( a ) can be used to define non-Newtonian fluids. Samples of
Bingham plastic, Bingham pseudoplastic, dilatants and pseudoplastics.
a
Two-Parameter Models
K n
Where: τ = shear stress
K = consistency index
Γ = shear rate
n>1 dilatant
Time-Dependent Viscosity
o Rheopectic –apparent viscosity increases with time
o Thixotropic – apparent viscosity decreases with time. It is common in
cultures containing fungal mycelia or extracellular microbial
polysaccharides . It appears to be related to reversible structure effects
associated with the orientation of cells and macromolecules in the fluid
Viscoelasticity
Viscosity Measurement
Cone-and-plate
Coaxial cylinder
- Designed to shear
fluid located in the
annulus between two
concentric cylinders.
Impeller
3. Cell clumps of about the same size as the gap in the coaxial cyclinder
viscometer or cone angle in the cone-and-plate device, interfere with
accurate measurement
5. Some types of cell begin to flocculate or deflocculate when the shear field
is applied
Changes in the rheology of fermentation are caused by variation in one or more of the
following properties:
Cell Concentration
Cell Morphology, including size, shape, mass and vacuolation
Flexibility and deformability of cells
Osmotic Pressure of the suspending fluid
Concentration of polymeric substrate
Concentration of polymeric product
Rate of shear
1. Cell Concentration
VAND EQUATION: 𝝁 = 𝝁𝑳 (𝟏 + 𝟐. 𝟓𝝋 + 𝟕. 𝟐𝟓𝝋𝟐 )
where:
𝜇𝐿 = 𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑢𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑙𝑖𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑑
𝜑 = 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑑𝑠
This equation has been found to hold for yeast and spore suspensions at
concentrations up to 14% solids. Many other cell suspensions do not obey this
equation; cell concentrations can have a much stronger influence on rheological
properties than is predicted by the Vand equation.
2. Cell Morphology
Small mono-dispersed cells such as bacteria and yeast do not significantly
affect the properties of fermentation broths. However, the morphological
characteristics of other cell types, particularly filamentous organisms and plant
cells, can exert a profound influence on broth rheology. Filamentous fungi and
actinomycetes produce a variety of morphologies depending on the culture
conditions.
Factors influencing the morphology of filamentous organism and their
tendency to clump include pH, growth rate, medium composition and ionic
strength, dissolved oxygen tension, and agitation intensity.
3. Osmotic Pressure
The osmotic pressure of the culture medium affects cell turgor pressure.
This in turn affects the hyphal flexibility of filamentous cells; increased osmotic
pressure gives a lower turgor pressure, making the hyphae more flexible.
Improved hyphal flexibility reduces broth viscosity and can also have a marked
effect on yield stress.
4. Product and Substrate Concentrations
When the product of fermentation is a polymer, continued excretion of the
product in batch culture raises broth viscosity. Cell concentration usually has a
negligible effect on the overall viscosity in these fermentations; the rheological
properties of the fluid are dominated by the dissolved polymer.
In contrast, when the fermentation medium contains a polymeric substrate
such as starch, the apparent viscosity will decrease as the fermentation
progresses and the polymer is broken down. In mycelial fermentations this
change is usually short-lived; as the cells grow and develop a structures
filamentous network, the broth becomes increasingly pseudoplastic and viscous
even though the polymeric substrate is being consumed.
7.9 TURBULENCE
1. Nature of Turbulent Flow
As the Reynolds Number increases , inertial forces dominate viscous forces in
the fluid, thus overcoming the tendency of viscous effects to dampen flow
instabilities. Turbulence can be regarded as highly disordered fluid motion
resulting from the growth of instabilities in an initially laminar flow field.
TURBULENT FLOW
An important property of turbulent flow is its velocity and the way in which
local velocities fluctuate with time.
Instantaneous velocity components are comprised of two parts: a time-averaged
value reflecting the overall or gross characteristics of the flow, and a fluctuating element
representing the irregular, secondary motion. Therefore:
Where; 𝑣=
𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑟
𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦
The extent to which the turbulent velocity in the x,y, or z direction deviates from the
mean flow velocity is usually reported as the root mean square of the fluctuating velocity
component, commonly known as rms fluctuating velocity. For n values of 𝑣′𝑥 , 𝑣′𝑦 , 𝑣′𝑧
2. Turbulence Properties
Turbulence Intensity
The intensity of turbulence depends on the magnitude of the fluctuating
components of the velocity. Because this property is incorporated into the definition of
rms fluctuating velocity, the rms velocities are direct indicators of turbulence intensity. It
can also be reported as dimensionless quantity relative to some characteristic or
reference velocity;
Typically, turbulence intensities range from 0.01 t0 0.2 of the average flow
velocity. However, in stirred tanks, the turbulence intensity can be as high as 1
close to the impeller, blades, dropping rapidly to a maximum of about 0.1 in the
rest of the vessel.
Turbulence kinetic energy is one of the most important parameters used to characterize
flow fields in stirred bioreactors.
Reynolds Stresses
Shear stress 𝜏 for laminar flow of a Newtonian fluid was given by Newton’s law of
viscosity.
In Laminar flow, shear stresses exist in fluids because of molecule interchange
between adjacent fluid layers and cohesive forces between liquid molecules.
The much higher shear stresses are generated for a given velocity gradient in
turbulent flow
𝝉 = 𝝉𝒍𝒂𝒎 + 𝝉′
where ; 𝝉 is the total shear stress in the turbulent flow field, 𝝉𝒍𝒂𝒎 is the
contribution from the mechanisms of momentum transfer in laminar flow, and 𝝉′
in the turbulence shear stress due to the fluctuating velocities and eddy motion in
turbulent flow.
In the bulk fluid away from the walls and boundary layers:
𝝉′ ≫ 𝝉𝒍𝒂𝒎
Homogeneous Turbulence
In homogeneous turbulence, the time averaged properties of the flow are
uniform and independent of position.
Although such a state of motion is not realised readily in experiments,
homogeneous turbulence has been given much attention because it greatly
simplifies the theoretical treatment of turbulent flow.