Unifying Viscocapillary and Inertial Regimes in Selective Withdrawal

TL;DR

This paper introduces a unified framework for understanding selective withdrawal across viscocapillary and inertial regimes, including transitional and non-Newtonian conditions, using a master curve that simplifies complex entrainment behaviors.

Contribution

It develops a comprehensive, regime-spanning model that unifies previous separate scalings for viscous and inertial entrainment in stratified fluid systems.

Findings

The master curve accurately predicts entrainment thresholds across regimes.

Shear thinning effects are incorporated through an effective viscosity.

The framework applies to both Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids.

Abstract

Selective withdrawal extracts only a single phase from a stratified multi-layer system. Entrainment occurs when a critical condition draws up the static layer which is not being withdrawn. Existing studies provide robust scalings within distinct limiting regimes. These include viscocapillary-dominated entrainment at low Reynolds number. They also include inertia-dominated entrainment at high Reynolds number. However, a single unifying representation remains to be explored in the literature. This limitation is most evident in transitional conditions between classical limits. It is also pronounced when the lower layer is non-Newtonian. Here we report selective-withdrawal experiments spanning these conditions. The upper layer is Newtonian, using PDMS or soybean oil. The lower layer is either Newtonian water or shear-thinning xanthan-gum solutions. We propose a unified framework that connects these previously separated regimes. The framework adopts a ``Moody diagram'' type representation for selective withdrawal. We collapse normalized critical submergence height using a Reynolds-like control parameter. Surface-tension effects enter subdominantly through the capillary length. The resulting master curve captures the transition between dominant balances. It connects viscous and shear-controlled entrainment to inertial entrainment. The collapse also clarifies how shear thinning enters the organization. Shear thinning primarily renormalizes the viscous correction through an effective viscosity. It does not alter the inertial baseline scale that anchors the normalization. This regime-spanning representation avoids regime-by-regime correlation switching. It provides a compact diagnostic for entrainment thresholds across fluid types. The diagnostic applies to Newtonian and generalized-Newtonian two-layer systems.