Direct numerical simulation of particle sedimentation in a Bingham fluid

Abstract: The settling efficiency, and stability with respect to settling, of a dilute suspension of infinite circular cylinders in a quiescent viscoplastic fluid is examined by means of direct numerical simulations with varying solid volume fraction, $\phi$, and yield number, $Y$ . For $Y$ sufficiently large we find higher settling efficiency for increasing $\phi$, similar to what is found in shear-thinning fluids and opposite to what is found in Newtonian fluids. The critical yield number at which the suspension is held stationary in the carrier fluid is found to increase monotonically with $\phi$, while the transition to settling is found to be diffuse: in the same suspension, particle clusters may settle while more isolated particles remain arrested. In this regime, complex flow features are observed in the sedimenting suspension, including the mobilization of lone particles by nearby sedimentation clusters. Understanding this regime, and the transition to a fully arrested state, is relevant to many industrial and natural problems involving the sedimentation of viscoplastic suspensions under quiescent flow conditions.