Flow enhancement in pulsating flow of non-colloidal suspensions in tubes

• We studied the flow enhancement of particle suspension in pulsating flow.
• We found flow enhancement at low-pressure gradients.
• Slightly flow reduction can be found at high-pressure gradients.
• Flow enhancement is insensitive to the pressure gradient at low-pressure gradients.
• Particle migration might be an important factor to affect the flow enhancement.

The flow enhancement of non-colloidal suspensions in pulsating flow is experimentally investigated. At low flow-rate range, a flow enhancement of up to 10% was observed due to the shear thinning of viscosity, while a slightly negative flow enhancement can be observed at high flow-rate range, maybe due to the Newtonian plus a slight amount of shear thickening nature of the suspension at high shear rates. At low flow rates, the flow enhancement is found to be insensitive to the mean pressure gradient.