Bingham Fluid Flow in the Entrance Region of a Pipe

Abstract

The isothermal laminar flow of a Bingham fluid in the entrance region of a circular pipe has been studied previously by many authors using different approaches. As current research stands, the momentum integral approach provides analytical results that do not match the boundary-layer thickness experimental data for Newtonian fluid flow. No experimental data is currently available for the velocity profiles in the entrance region for Bingham fluids. The objective of this investigation is to determine the entrance region length in addition to the velocity and pressure profiles in the entrance region using a modified momentum integral method that improves the previously published boundary-layer model. The present work results reach asymptotically the fully developed values and show good agreement with published experimental data for pressure drop in the entrance region. The results are also in good agreement with the boundary-layer thickness experimental data for Newtonian fluid flow.