Laminar flow of soursop juice through concentric annuli: Friction factors and rheology

Laminar axial flow of a pseudoplastic fluid food (soursop juice) in annular ducts has been experimentally investigated. In the first part of the manuscript, the rheological behavior of soursop juice, being essential for the annular flow analysis, was completely determined from 9.3 to 49.4 °Brix and temperatures from 0.4 °C to 68.8 °C, using a rotational rheometer equipped with coaxial cylinders. In order to test the adequacy of the rheology results, pressure loss data in the laminar pipe flow were collected and then experimental and theoretical friction factors were compared, showing excellent agreement, which indicated the reliability of the Power-Law model for describing the soursop juices. In the second part, pressure loss in annular regions was measured and used to estimate friction factors, which were then compared to those resulted from analytical and semi-analytical equations. The principal contributions of this article are to provide a review on the determination of friction factors-Reynolds number of pseudoplastic fluids in annuli, and also supply extensive new experimental data on the rheological properties and pressure loss of an important shear-thinning fluid food, which is of particular interest for the food engineering process design.