Role of shear-thinning and viscoelasticity on the onset of instability of glass fiber suspensions in the concentric spherical gap between an inner rotating hemisphere and an outer stationary sphere

An experimental study investigated the effects of glass fiber suspensions on the onset of instability in the non-Newtonian fluid flow in the concentric spherical gaps between an inner rotating hemisphere and an outer stationary whole sphere. Glass fibers with different aspect ratios were mixed with a macromolecule polymeric solution to obtain different suspension fluids. For comparison, the pure macromolecule polymeric fluid was also investigated. The torques on the inner sphere were measured for various spherical gaps and various rotational Reynolds numbers. The onset of instability of the polymeric fluid flows was delayed by adding glass fibers to the polymeric solution for all tested gap ratios.