In Bingham plastic fluids, a central pre-yield or plug region exists in the middle of the concentric annular flow. In this region, the local shear stress is less than the dynamic yield stress, so the plug behaves like a rigid solid. This is the main feature that distinguishes the flow of a Bingham plastic fluid from that of a power law fluid. In this work, a simple-to-use correlation is developed to predict the boundaries of the plug of Bingham plastic fluids for laminar flow through annulus as a function of dimensionless yield stress and aspect ratio parameters for given values of the rheological constants, pressure gradient and the dimensions of the annulus. The results are found to be in excellent agreement with reported data in the literature with an average absolute deviation of less than 1.7%.
The predictive tool is simple and straightforward and can be readily implemented in a standard spreadsheet program. The prime application of the method is as a quick-and-easy evaluation tool in engineering studies where plug boundaries of Bingham plastic fluids for laminar flow through annulus are being considered. The method may also serve as a benchmark in numerical and rigorous simulation studies. © 2012 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering