Flow past a rotating sphere in a Bingham plastic fluid, up to a Reynolds number of 10,000.

The flow induced by a sphere rotating inside a non-Newtonian, Bingham fluid has been investigated numerically. The rotating sphere is enclosed in a concentric cubic box with solid boundaries. The Bingham number varied between 0.01 and 100,000 and the Reynolds number varied between 0.01 and 10,000. The torque increases with the Bingham number and reaches an asymptotic state at large Bn. The torque is independent of the Reynolds number at high Bn. The yielded region around the sphere has been determined and an empirical equation is found for its extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]