The rheology of three-phase suspensions at low bubble capillary number

Truby, J.M.; Mueller, S.P.; Llewellin, E.W.; Mader, H.M.

Abstract

We develop a model for the rheology of a three-phase suspension of bubbles and particles in a Newtonian liquid undergoing steady flow. We adopt an ‘effective-medium’ approach in which the bubbly liquid is treated as a continuous medium which suspends the particles. The resulting three-phase model combines separate two-phase models for bubble suspension rheology and particle suspension rheology, which are taken from the literature. The model is validated against new experimental data for three-phase suspensions of bubbles and spherical particles, collected in the low bubble capillary number regime. Good agreement is found across the experimental range of particle volume fraction (0≤ϕp≲0.5) and bubble volume fraction (0≤ϕb≲0.3). Consistent with model predictions, experimental results demonstrate that adding bubbles to a dilute particle suspension at low capillarity increases its viscosity, while adding bubbles to a concentrated particle suspension decreases its viscosity. The model accounts for particle anisometry and is easily extended to account for variable capillarity, but has not been experimentally validated for these cases.

Citation

Truby, J., Mueller, S., Llewellin, E., & Mader, H. (2015). The rheology of three-phase suspensions at low bubble capillary number. Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 471(2173), Article 20140557. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2014.0557

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 28, 2014
• Online Publication Date: Jan 8, 2015
• Publication Date: Jan 8, 2015
• Deposit Date: Oct 21, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 22, 2015
• Journal: Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
• Print ISSN: 1364-5021
• Electronic ISSN: 1471-2946
• Publisher: The Royal Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 471
• Issue: 2173
• Article Number: 20140557
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2014.0557
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1443451