The isolated effect of yield stress in viscoplastic turbulent flow

Turbulent flows of viscoplastic fluids are present in several industrial and natural applications. The effects of yield stress on this problem have always been studied as a part of a larger physical context, because real viscoplastic materials have many properties that cannot be easily isolated. Direct numerical simulations have recently emerged as a viable tool for investigating non-Newtonian fluid flow in turbulent regimes. In the present work, we solve the turbulent flow of an ideal Bingham fluid, focusing on the isolated effect of yield stress. A numerical scheme for viscoplastic flows was implemented based on the lattice Boltzmann method. An outstanding characteristic of this scheme is the possibility of representing infinite viscosity by setting the relaxation frequency to zero, enabling the representation of the Bingham constitutive equation without artifacts, and producing a more accurate representation of the yield surfaces. In the turbulent channel flow simulations, the friction Reynolds number was fixed at 180, while the Bingham number varied from 0 (Newtonian) to 0.15. It is shown that unyielded portions of material travel along with the flow near the centerline. These unyielded spots do not disappear quickly, but rather have a significant lifetime. Another interesting outcome is that the yield stress increases the turbulence anisotropy, by lowering the spanwise and normal velocity fluctuations, while the streamwise component becomes higher. Reynolds stresses and budgets of turbulent kinetic energy have been analyzed regarding the increased bulk velocities that were found by increasing the yield stress.