Viscoplastic flows in narrow channels: Herschel–Bulkley model versus its regularizations

We investigated the two-dimensional flows of a viscoplastic fluid in symmetric channels with impermeable walls under no-slip boundary conditions. As response functions for the Cauchy stress tensor, we considered both the celebrated Herschel–Bulkley model and a very general class C of its regularizations that depend on a positive parameter known as the regularization parameter. The regularized models in C admit smooth response functions for the viscosity that tend to the non-smooth Herschel–Bulkley viscosity function as the regularization parameter tends to zero. To make the equations governing the flow amenable to analysis, we considered channels with small aspect ratio so that the lubrication approximation can be used. In this way, we were able to obtain analytical solutions, perform an asymptotic analysis of the regularized solutions, and compare the results predicted by the Herschel–Bulkley model and its regularizations. We found that for any given channel, the regularized flows predicted by the regularizations in C tend to the same velocity field in the limit as the regularization parameter tends to zero. The asymptotic flow coincides with that predicted by the Herschel–Bulkley model only if the viscoplastic fluid flows in plane channels. Instead, in channels with curved walls, the results are markedly different.