Slip flows of a Bingham fluid in curved channels

Abstract

Motivated by the treatment of varicose veins with aqueous foams, we determine the velocity profiles and yield surface positions for pressure-driven flows of a Bingham fluid in curved channels, incorporating Navier wall slip to capture the slip behavior of aqueous foams. Assuming a constant pressure gradient -- consistent with syringe-driven injection in sclerotherapy -- we reproduce a closed-form analytic solution for the flow in a straight channel, and extend this to a uniformly curved channel consisting of a section of an annulus. We find that increasing the slip length in the curved channel moves the unyielded fluid, or plug, towards the inside of the channel and slightly decreases the plug width. Channels with a change in curvature are tackled numerically, with a procedure that is validated against the analytic results. We solve for the flow of a Bingham fluid in the transition region between a straight and a uniformly curved channel and in a non-uniform sinusoidal channel where the wall curvature changes continuously. We find that there is greater yielding of the fluid in curved channels, caused by an increase in the shear stresses. As the slip length increases, there is a reduction in the area of unyielded fluid in regions of high wall curvature. In the context of varicose vein sclerotherapy, our results suggest that slip has both positive and negative consequences: it reduces the possibility of static regions of foam developing in areas of high curvature in the vein, but also reduces the plug width in general, reducing the efficacy with which the foam displaces blood from the vein.