Flow of non-Newtonian fluid through circular tubes

Summary According to Newton's law of viscosity _y = Dv_y/dy. But experiments have shown that _y is indeed proportional to –dv _x/dy for all gases and for homogeneous nonpolymeric liquids. There are however, a few industrially important materials, e.g. plastics, asphalts, crystalline materials that are not described by the equation given by Newton's law of viscosity and they are referred to as non-Newtonian fluids. The steady state rheological behaviour of most fluids can be expressed by the generalised form, _y = –(dv_y/dy) where may be expressed as a function of eitherdv _x/dy or _y (where is independent of the rate of shear, the behaviour is Newtonian with =). Numerous empirical equations or models have been proposed to express the steady-state relation between _y anddv _x/dy. The flow of Newtonian fluids through circular tubes have been discussed before by many. Here we shall discuss the case of two such models of non-Newtonian fluids through circular tubes. The flow of fluids in circular tubes is encountered frequently in Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Engineering.