Introduction
In industrial applications, we can meet several projects where non-Newtonian fluids has to be convey to certain points in the system,
or in a given technological step, the need for mixing or even dropping. For instance: mixing and transporting slurry from coal-fired
power plants from mixing equipment to deposit site. Or we can mention pumping sludge from wastewater treatment, moving the polymer
melt in the chemical industry, the yoghurt process in the food industry, creams, gels, etc. in the pharmaceutical industry.
For appropriate hydrodynamic sizing of these systems, the different behavior of the flow caused by non-Newtonian rheology should
be known. This can be seen, for instance, in the pressure drop in the pipeline system, in the modification of the characteristic
curves of radial pumps, in the flow field of the cyclone-type mixers, or in the jet breakup of slurries. Accurate flow geometry,
however, means increasing operational safety and energy efficiency, which is now a major engineering task.
Keywords: affinity laws, CFD, energy efficiency, laboratory experiments, loss coefficient, non-Newtonian fluids, pipe elements, pumps.