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Received 4 April 2006; received in revised form 14 July 2006; accepted 14 July 2006
Abstract
Many studies on the rheology of cement grouts have shown that these materials are viscoplastic fluids presenting a yield stress. They can
present a rheological behavior of shear-thinning type or shear-thickening type. In all the cases, this behavior can be described satisfactorily by the
Herschel–Bulkley model, characterized by three parameters τ 0 , K and n, which relate the shear stress to the shear rate. The present study aims at
relating the rheological parameters of cement grouts to their flow time through the Marsh cone which characterizes in a practical way the fluidity of
grouts. A semi-analytical approach has been established initially on simple assumptions and then corrected based on numerical simulation results.
It presents a deviation lower than 12% compared to numerical simulations for a wide range of rheological characteristics of the Herschel–Bulkley
fluids. It has also been validated experimentally with success on some studied cement grouts of various water/cement ratios.
© 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 134256935; fax: +33 134256941. When n = 1, the Herschel–Bulkley model is reduced to the
E-mail address: Viet-Hung.Nguyen@iupgc.u-cergy.fr (V.H. Nguyen). Bingham model which is also used in the literature to describe
0377-0257/$ – see front matter © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jnnfm.2006.07.009
V.H. Nguyen et al. / J. Non-Newtonian Fluid Mech. 139 (2006) 128–134 129
where α is a proportionality coefficient. In the present study, to the Reynolds number because the assumption of Poiseuille
it is determined by considering two particular cases of flow type in the nozzle is not verified.
Herschel–Bulkley fluids. The first case relates to the fluids of To take into account the length of establishment of the
yield stress equal to zero (power-law fluids), allowing to deter- Poiseuille flow field, we have introduced a corrective coefficient
mine the proportionality coefficient, denoted as α1 , according β so that the average velocity at the exit of the Marsh cone V̄β
to consistency K and exponent n. The second case which relates is determined by:
to the fluids whose exponent n is equal to 1 (Bingham fluids)
allows to determine the variation of the proportionality coeffi- V̄
V̄β = (14)
cient, denoted as α2 , according to yield stress τ 0 and consistency β
K. For the Herschel–Bulkley fluids presenting three parameters
The coefficient β is an increasing function of the Reynolds
τ 0 , K, n, the expression of the proportionality coefficient α must
number Re corresponding to the Poiseuille flow field in the
satisfy the two following conditions:
nozzle. This latter can be determined by the following rela-
α = α1 , if τ0 = 0 (8) tion which was originally established for the power-law fluids
[17], but which is also used for the Herschel–Bulkley fluids
α = α2 , if n = 1 (9) [18]:
β since the fluid density is taken into account indirectly through expression [20]:
the Reynolds number.
As the Marsh cone is axisymmetric, it is enough to model ⎧
⎪ τ0
the flow in a radial plane (2D) in cylindrical coordinates. In ⎪
⎨ µ = µ0 , if γ̇ ≤ γ̇0 =
µ0
this radial plane, the fluid flows only under the effect of gravity τ0 + K[γ̇ n − (τ0 /µ0 )n ] τ0 (18)
⎪
⎪
and the free surface goes down during the flow. This problem ⎩µ = , if γ̇ > γ̇0 =
can be calculated by using the Volume of Fluid (VOF) model γ̇ µ0
integrated in the commercial code Fluent 6.1. This model is
applied to the fixed mesh for two or more immiscible phases. where µ0 represents the viscosity above which the fluid behaves
In the case of the Marsh cone, two immiscible phases: air and like a solid. It must be sufficiently high to ensure a good regular-
Herschel–Bulkley fluid are present. For each phase, the volume ization of the Herschel–Bulkley model. In the present study, this
fraction (ratio between the volume occupied by the phase and viscosity µ0 has been taken equal to 106 Pa s because we have
the control volume) is introduced as a local variable and is cal- noted that, above this value, the numerical results are almost not
culated for each cell and at each moment based on the continuity changed (the deviation between the maximum average velocity
equation and the momentum equation by taking into account the at the exit of the Marsh cone obtained with µ0 = 106 Pa s and
initial and boundary conditions of the flow. As the volume frac- µ0 = 1012 Pa s is lower than 0.4%).
tions of the phases vary as a function of the position and time, To enhance and accelerate the convergence of the problem,
the free surface corresponding to the iso-surface of fluid (or air) the steady flow solution of a Newtonian fluid is taken as initial
volume fraction equal to 0.5 is moved. Indeed, it is impossi- condition for the transitory flow of the studied Herschel–Bulkley
ble, in our numerical simulations, to obtain an ideal free surface fluids [20]. The viscosity of this Newtonian fluid has been taken
which separates clearly the two phases because there is always sufficiently high (5 Pa s) to ensure that the velocity at the begin-
an intermediate layer in which both phases are present. How- ning of the transitory flow is low (initial average velocity at the
ever, the thickness of this intermediate layer is small (from 1 exit of the Marsh cone equal to 0.02 m/s). Actually, the veloc-
to 3 cells) which ensures that the iso-surface of fluid (or air) ity at the initial moment is zero in all the Marsh cone when
volume fraction equal to 0.5 satisfactorily represents the free the nozzle is opened. However, we have noted that the value
surface of the flow. Fig. 2 presents the Marsh cone mesh used in of this initial velocity hardly influences the numerical results
our numerical simulations as well as the initials and boundary when the flow is stabilized (the deviation between the maxi-
conditions of the flow. The parameters of the mesh such as the mum average velocities at the exit of the Marsh cone calculated
number of nodes, of faces (edges in 2D) and of cells are also with initial conditions generated by the steady flow of Newto-
given in this figure. nian fluids presenting viscosities of 5 and 1 Pa s is lower than
The rheological characteristics of the studied Herschel– 0.3%).
Bulkley fluids are introduced into the numerical computation In order to increase the speed of numerical calculation, the
code through the dynamic viscosity µ given by the following flow in the Marsh cone is considered as laminar shear. Indeed,
on the basis of results obtained by numerical simulation in this
flow regime, we have observed that most of flows (80%) are
satisfactory with this flow regime (Reynolds number lower than
3000). For the other fluids presenting higher Reynolds number,
the results obtained by numerical simulation in laminar regime
are also used to determine the corrective coefficient β because
we have observed that the difference between the two regimes
laminar and turbulent is weak (lower than 4%).
Because the computation time is long and we wish to model
the flow of numerous Herschel–Bulkley fluids presenting a wide
range of rheological characteristics, the flow of studied fluids
has been computed only for the first 0.5 s. During this period,
the flow has reached its maximum velocity and the fluid height
in the Marsh cone has almost not decreased. Fig. 3 presents
some examples of evolution of the average velocity at the exit
of the Marsh cone as a function of time. Similar evolutions have
been obtained for the other fluids. In the present study, we have
reasonably considered that the maximum value of this average
velocity corresponds to the initial fluid height (maximum) and
it is used to calculate the value of corrective coefficient β deter-
mined through Eq. (14).
From the boundary conditions (Eqs. (16) and (17)) and by
using the values of the corrective coefficient β deduced from
Fig. 2. Grid of the Marsh cone, initial and boundary conditions of the flow. the velocity obtained by numerical simulation, we propose the
132 V.H. Nguyen et al. / J. Non-Newtonian Fluid Mech. 139 (2006) 128–134
Fig. 6. Comparison of flow times of 1 l of grout through the Marsh cone given
Fig. 5. Some examples of descent flow curves, measured experimentally (points) by the semi-analytical approach (Eq. (21)) and the numerical simulation with
and fitted by the Herschel–Bulkley model (lines). the flow time measured experimentally.
rate comprised between 0.1 and 100 s−1 . In the present study, pursuing the numerical calculation until 1 l of grout flowing out.
the descent flow curves are used for the determination of the The numerical computation time is very long, varying from a
rheological characteristics of the studied cement grouts consid- few hours to several days, depending on the flow velocity of
ered as Herschel–Bulkley fluids. Fig. 5 presents some examples each grout. This is due to the fact that the lower the flow veloc-
of descent flow curves, measured experimentally (points) and ity of grout is, the more the time step must be decreased to ensure
fitted by the Herschel–Bulkley model (lines). the solution convergence and stability while the more the flow
In parallel, the flow time of 1 l of grout through the Marsh time of 1 l of grout increases. With a PC of processor Pentium IV
cone equipped of a nozzle of 8 mm in diameter has been mea- 2 GHz and of memory 512 M, the numerical computation time
sured (at 14 min after the introduction of cement into water) cumulated for these five grouts is 1 week approximately.
on the same batch of cement grouts and under the same envi- Fig. 6 presents the comparison of the flow times given by the
ronmental conditions. The density of the grouts has also been semi-analytical approach (Eq. (21)) and by numerical simula-
measured. tion with the flow time measured experimentally. It is noted that
All experimental measurements have been carried out at a the calculated flow time and the flow time obtained by numer-
constant temperature 23 ± 1 ◦ C. Table 1 presents the rheologi- ical simulation are very close to the measured flow time. The
cal characteristics and the flow time of the studied cement grouts, deviation is lower than 15% for the studied cement grouts. This
determined experimentally. On the basis of measured rheolog- allows to conclude that the numerical simulation of the flow of
ical characteristics, we have calculated the flow time of these Herschel–Bulkley fluids through the Marsh cone is good and that
cement grouts through the Marsh cone by numerical resolu- the semi-analytical approach is validated satisfactorily exper-
tion of the integral Eq. (21). We have also numerically modeled imentally. However, a larger number of tests is necessary to
(using the code Fluent 6.1) the flow of 5 grouts (water/cement ensure that the semi-analytical approach is verified in a wide
ratio: 0.60, 0.55, 0.50, 0.45, 0.42) through the Marsh cone by range of rheological characteristics of cement grouts.
Table 1
4. Conclusion
Rheological characteristics and flow time of the studied cement grouts, deter-
mined experimentally
The present study proposes a semi-analytical approach allow-
No. W/C Rheological characteristics Flow time (s)
ing to determine the flow time of cement grouts considered as
ρ (kg/m3 ) τ 0 (Pa) K (Pa sn ) n Herschel–Bulkley fluids through the Marsh cone. This approach
1 0.40 1931 15.7 14.28 0.390 107.7 has been established initially on the basis of the following
2 0.41 1919 15.1 7.45 0.472 63.0 assumptions: incompressible fluid, plane free surface and flow
3 0.42 1907 13.8 9.08 0.403 42.9 of the Poiseuille type in the cylindrical nozzle. Because the
4 0.43 1895 12.6 5.33 0.478 33.6 last assumption is not verified for all the fluids, a corrective
5 0.44 1884 11.6 4.99 0.478 27.9
coefficient of the velocity taking into account the length of
6 0.45 1873 10.8 4.90 0.455 24.1
7 0.46 1860 9.5 4.61 0.441 21.2 establishment of the Poiseuille flow field determined based on
8 0.48 1842 8.6 5.30 0.390 18.2 numerical simulation results has been introduced. With this cor-
9 0.50 1816 8.1 3.87 0.408 17.0 rection, the proposed approach presents a deviation lower than
10 0.52 1802 7.3 2.69 0.429 15.8 12% compared to numerical simulation. It has been validated
11 0.55 1766 5.6 1.84 0.454 14.4
satisfactorily by the experiment on some cement grouts of vari-
12 0.60 1726 3.2 1.32 0.447 12.8
ous water/cement ratios with a deviation lower than 15%.
134 V.H. Nguyen et al. / J. Non-Newtonian Fluid Mech. 139 (2006) 128–134
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