Yielding transition of Carbopol gel in a vertical pipe*

We have investigated the yielding transition of a simple yield-stress fluid (Carbopol 940) in a vertical pipe. The Carbopol gel was displaced by a Newtonian liquid injected at a constant, controlled rate at the bottom of the pipe. Rough- and smooth-walled pipes were used to study the effects of wall boundary conditions. The pressure in the Carbopol was measured by a pressure gauge fixed on the pipe wall, and the velocity profile in the Carbopol was measured by particle-image velocimetry (PIV). When the Newtonian liquid was injected, the rate of pressure increase was initially high, then decreased to a constant slow rate at later times. A time tc was defined by the intersection of straight lines fit to the pressure-time data at early and late times. In the rough pipe, the wall shear stress at tc is equal to the yield stress, suggesting that this time corresponds to yielding of the fluid. The velocity profiles were parabolic before yielding, and nearly a plug-like afterwards. In the smooth pipe, the pressure and velocity profiles appeared to show similar behavior to that in the rough pipe, but the wall shear stress at tc is substantially smaller than the yield stress and fluid motion was due to wall slip.