Modeling the Deformation of Shear Thinning Droplets Suspended in a Newtonian Fluid

Abstract

In this work, we carried out numerical modeling of the large deformation of a shear thinning droplet suspended in a Newtonian matrix using the constrained volume model. The adopted approach was to consider making incremental corrections to the evolution of the droplet anisotropy equation in order to capture the experimental behavior of a shear thinning droplet when subjected to deformation due to imposed flow. The constrained volume model was modified by using different models to describe the viscosity of droplet phase: the Bautista et al. model, the Carreau-Yasuda model and the Power-law model. We found that by combining the constrained volume model with a simple shear thinning viscosity model we were able to describe the available experimental data for large deformation of a shear thinning droplet suspended in a Newtonian matrix. Moreover, we developed an equation approximating flow strength during droplet retraction, and we found that the model can accurately describe the experimental data of the retraction of a shear thinning droplet.