Role of centrifugal force on solid-liquid two-phase flow through rotating channel

The work reveals an interesting and contra-intuitive observation in numerically simulating the solid-liquid flow field through a straight rotating channel. A previous study (Gupta and Pagalthivarthi, 2007) showed that at moderate rotation rates, increase in rotational speed results in an asymmetric velocity profile, because the Coriolis acceleration tends to increase the level of turbulence on the pressure-side and decrease on the suction-side. The present work contra-intuitively shows that higher rotation rates enhance centrifugal acceleration that pushes the velocity maxima towards the pressure-side of the channel. Centrifugal acceleration is also seen to play a prominent role with increase in inlet concentration.