Chemical Engineering Science 59 (2004) 4437 – 4447

www.elsevier.com/locate/ces

An explicit equation for the terminal velocity of solid spheres

falling in pseudoplastic liquids
Vassilios C. Kelessidis∗
Mineral Resources Engineering Department, Technical University of Crete, Polytechnic City, 73100 Chania, Greece

Received 18 February 2004; received in revised form 14 June 2004; accepted 7 July 2004

Abstract
An explicit equation is proposed which predicts directly the terminal velocity of solid spheres falling through stagnant pseudoplastic
liquids from the knowledge of the physical properties of the spheres and of the surrounding liquid. The equation is a generalization
of the equation proposed for Newtonian liquids. By properly defining the dimensionless diameter, d∗ , a function of the Archimedes
number, Ar, and the dimensionless velocity, U∗ , a function of the generalized Reynolds number, Re, to account for the non-Newtonian
characteristics of the liquid, the final equation relating these two variables has similar form to the Newtonian equation. The predictions
are very good when they are compared to 55 pairs of Re—CD for non-Newtonian data and 37 pairs for Newtonian data published
previously. The root mean square error on the dimensionless velocity is 0.081 and much better than the only other equation previously
proposed.
䉷 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Non-Newtonian fluids; Particle; Sedimentation; Suspension; Slurries; Explicit terminal velocity

1. Introduction
Knowledge of the terminal settling velocity of solids in
liquids is required in many industrial applications. Typi-
cal examples include drilling for oil and gas, geothermal
drilling, hydraulic transport systems, thickeners, mineral
processing, solid–liquid mixing, fluidization equipment.
The type of movement of single solid sphere in
Newtonian and non-Newtonian liquids is well-known; after
a short acceleration time, it will fall at its terminal settling
velocity V . For an unbounded liquid, V can be calculated
from the knowledge of the liquid and solid physical prop-
erties and from the drag coefficient, defined by
4 gd


CD =
3
V 2
∗ Tel.: +30-2821037621; fax: +30-2821037874.
E-mail address: kelesidi@mred.tuc.gr (V.C. Kelessidis).
so that


4 gd

0.5
V = . (2)
3
CD
Numerous attempts have been made to establish theoreti-
cal relationships of the terminal settling velocity of solid
spheres but the theoretical expressions are normally valid for
Re, based on the particle diameter, less than 200. For higher
Re, resort must be made to experimental and empirical
relationships.
There are over 50 correlations published relating the
Reynolds number to the drag coefficient for the case of
Newtonian fluids. In these correlations the terminal ve-
locity is implicitly derived, hence, resort must be made to
(1) trial and error procedure for deriving the terminal velocity.
There are not as many explicit relationships to predict V ,
with few equations for Newtonian liquids and even fewer
for non-Newtonian liquids.
Turton and Clark (1987) proposed an explicit rela-
tionship, where they defined a dimensionless particle

0009-2509/$ - see front matter 䉷 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ces.2004.07.008
4438 V.C. Kelessidis / Chemical Engineering Science 59 (2004) 4437 – 4447

diameter, d∗ , Hence, Eq. (7) becomes now, in terms of Re and Ar,

1/3    

3 g


1/3 18 0.824
d∗ = CD Re 2
=d (3) Re=Ar 1/3
4 2 1
Ar 2/3
and a dimensionless terminal velocity, U∗ ,
 1.214
3 0.428 0.412

  1/3 + . (12)
4 Re 1/3
2 4 Ar 1/3
U∗ = =V . (4)
3 CD g (
s −
)
This analysis shows that knowing the physical properties
They then combined the low Reynolds number range (Stokes and particle diameter one can estimate Ar (Eq. (9)) and then
law), where get Re from Eq. (12) from which V is readily evaluated.
24 Explicit relationships for the terminal velocity for Newto-
CD = (5) nian fluids have also been reported by Hartman et al. (1989)
Re
and Nguyen et al. (1997).
with the high Reynolds number range, where
Hartman et al. (1989) modified the implicit equation, pro-
CD = K1 (6) posed by Zigrang and Sylvester (1981), and using their own
data they proposed,
in the form
 
K2
0.5∗K2  K12 log Re = P (A) + log R(A), (13)
18 3 K1
U∗ = 1 + (7) P (A)=[(0.0017795A − 0.0573)A + 1.0315]A
d∗2 4 d∗
−1.26222, (13a)
so that the velocity could be directly estimated. (It should be
noted that this equation is listed with a mistake in the paper R(A) = 0.99947 + 0.01853 sin(1.848A − 3.14), (13b)
of Turton and Clark (1987) as well as in the paper of Heider
and Levenspiel (1989), with the square root shown on the A = log Ar (13c)
parameter d∗ in the second term, rather than the correct form
as an accurate solution—approximation to the equation of
shown above).
Zigrang and Sylvester (1981) in the sense of least-squares
Using the 408 data points (the ones used by Turton and
fit. They compared this equation together with the equa-
Levenspiel, 1986) and minimizing the RMS error, which is
tion proposed by Turton and Clark (1987), Eq. (12), with
defined as in the following equation:


 their own experimental data, which covered a range of
Q 5 < Re < 78 and 141 < Ar < 5720. They found relative de-
RMS_U∗ = , viations in velocity of (+1.7%)–(−1.3%) for their proposed
N
 equation, while for the equation of Turton and Clark (1987)
Q= (log10 U∗ exp − log10 U∗pred )2 (8) they found relative deviations of (+3.14%)–(−5.2%).
Nguyen et al. (1997) proposed a three parameter expres-
they found K1 = 0.428 and K2 = 0.824 with the value of K1 sion relating the ratio of the Stokes velocity to the particle
comparable to the value of the drag coefficient at high val- velocity with the Archimedes number, as in,
ues of Reynolds number (CD = 0.44). With these parameter
values, they found that Q = 0.244 and RMS_U∗ = 0.024. Vs Ar
=1+ [1 + 0.079Ar 0.749 ]−0.755 , (14)
It should be noted that Eq. (3) can be recast as V 96
 3 
d g




g
2 d 3

where Vs is the terminal velocity for the Stokes regime
d∗ =
3
= = ∗ Ga = Ar (9)
2
2
(Re < 0.1) and given by
with the dimensionless number Ga normally referred to as d 2 g


the Galileo number and Ar is the Archimedes number. Vs = . (15)
18
Similarly, Eq. (4) can be rearranged as
 2  This equation can be recast in the form Re–Ar as

V 3

V 3

2 d 3
U∗3 =V 3 = =
g 

 g

 2 Ar Ar 1
Re = Ar
. (16)
Re3 18 1 + [1 + 0.079Ar 0.749 ]−0.755
= (10) 96
Ar
The authors showed graphically that their data fall on the
from which finally,
predicted V -d curve, for the range of 1.68 < Re < 65, using
Re ballotini particles (diameters between 0.1 and 0.8 mm and
U∗ = . (11)
Ar 1/3 density of 2.5 g/cm3 ) falling in water.
 V.C. Kelessidis / Chemical Engineering Science 59 (2004) 4437 – 4447
2. Explicit equations for non-Newtonian liquids
Many investigators (Chhabra, 1990, 1993; Chhabra and
Richardson, 1999; Kelessidis, 2004) have established that
expressions relating the drag coefficient to Reynolds number
proposed for Newtonian liquids could be extended to non-
Newtonian liquids, provided that the Reynolds number is
estimated based on the apparent viscosity as

V 2−n d n
Re = Regen = . (17)
K Their equation covered the range 10 < Ar < 106 and
Others (Acharya et al., 1976; Kawase and Ulbrecht, 1981a,b;
Ceylan et al., 1999) have provided theoretical solutions valid
for creeping flow of pseudoplastic fluids around a falling
sphere, resulting in corrections to the Newtonian case of the
form, CD = Re 24
Xn with Xn = f (n), while also providing
equations of the form CD = f (Re, n) for higher Reynolds
numbers, derived from regression analysis of their own as
well as other investigators’ data, a procedure followed also
by Matijašić and Glasnović (2001) using their own data.
However, all the proposed equations by the aforementioned
authors are implicit in velocity. Reynolds and Jones (1989)
proposed to plot the logarithm of the ratio of the drag force
to the square of the sphere diameter against the logarithm of
the ratio of the settling velocity to the particle diameter in
order to determine the form of the function f (n) referenced
above and validated the procedure with a series of their own
data for Re < 0.1.
Koziol and Glowacki (1988) extended the approach of
Schiller and Nauman to non-Newtonian power law fluids by
forming the parameter

2−n
4 d 2+n g 2−n
2
2−n
A = CD Re2 =


3 K2
which is independent of velocity. They presented a general
plot of Re vs A based on their own data as well as data from
other investigators. The data and plot covered the range of
0.001 < Re < 10. From the results it is evident that such a
presentation can be of merit, however different curves are
obtained for different n values, indicating that a unique equa-
tion may not be possible to be obtained using the proposed
parameters.
Chhabra and Peri (1991) extended the approach of Koziol
and Glowacki (1988) to higher Reynolds numbers, seeking
a relationship of the form
Re = f (Ar, n)
with Re given by Eq. (17). They defined the non-Newtonian
Ar as


4gd (2+n)/(2−n)


Ar = CD Re 2/(2−n)
= . (19)
3K 2/(2−n)
2/(n−2)

They gathered 400 experimental data points pertaining to
Re
1 and derived an equation, by minimizing the RMS
4439
error in velocity, in the form of
Re = a Ar b (20)
with


0.51
a = 0.1 × exp − 0.73n , (21)
n
0.954
b= − 0.16. (22)
n
1 < Re < 104 . (It should be noted that in the original publi-
cation of Chhabra and Peri (1991), the expression for a is
erroneously printed without the multiplication factor of 0.1,
and using the equation with the wrong coefficients gives
always a considerably underestimated velocity. In a more
recent publication (Chhabra and Richardson, 1999) the
value of a is correctly reported, as in Eq. (21)). For given
values of d,

,
, K and n, Ar is calculated from Eq. (19)
and Re is then predicted using Eqs. (20)–(22). Once Re is
calculated, the terminal settling velocity can be predicted
from Eq. (17).
Briens (1991), using dimensionless diameter and velocity,
as in Newtonian fluids, proposes a graphical procedure to
determine directly the velocity from the fluid and solid prop-
erties. However, the graphical procedure makes it impracti-
cal for computational purposes and the results are given in
terms of the flow behavior index n.
Graham and Jones (1994) solved numerically the problem
of spheres moving through a quiescent power law fluid and
provided relationships of the form CD = f (Re, n) valid for
0.2(2)n  Re 100(2)n with the factor (2)n arising because
they had defined the Reynolds number based on the radius
(18) of the sphere. When the proposed equation was compared
to experimental data, different curves were produced for
different values of the power law coefficient. They could not
find closed form solutions and the authors proposed to follow
the graphical method used by Koziol and Glowacki (1988)
described above, in order to determine the settling velocity
given the particle size and density and the fluid properties.
Darby (1996) proposed a methodology which determines
not only the CD –Re relationship for spheres falling in power
law fluids but also the velocity directly, although there is still
a need for iteration in the final proposed equation. He ex-
tended the Dallavall equation proposed for Newtonian fluids
using correction factors, derived from various curves pro-
posed by Chhabra (1995), to account for the shear thinning
behavior which were finally given as functions of the power
law exponent n.
3. Comparison of explicit correlations for Newtonian
liquids
We attempt here to compare the predictions of the ter-
minal velocity from the proposed explicit correlations for
4440 V.C. Kelessidis / Chemical Engineering Science 59 (2004) 4437 – 4447

Newtonian fluids using Eqs. (12), (13), (16) and (20) and
quantify any differences. We include Eq. (20), proposed for
non-Newtonian fluids, since it is claimed to be valid for fluid
behavior index values of 0.38 n 1 (Chhabra and Peri,
1991). The range of validity of the proposed equations is
listed in Table 1. We see that the Archimedes number covers
a very extended range.
We will be comparing the predictions from the above
mentioned equations for 10 Ar  0.35 × 105 which covers
situations with particle diameters between 1–6 mm, with a
density of 2500 kg/m3 , fluid density of 1100 kg/m3 and
apparent liquid viscosities in the range of 10–30 cp.
For a combination of values of
,
s , d,  or a we com-
pute Ar and then Re from one of the equations listed above.
We compare the relative errors using two indicators, the
Root Mean Square Error on Reynolds, defined in a similar
manner as in Eq. (8),


QR
RMS_Re = ,
N Table 2
QR = (log10 ReT − log10 Rei )2 (23)
and the relative absolute error in velocity, defined as
N (1989), Eq. (13)
1  |VT − Vi |
EV = ∗ 100.
N VT
1
The results are shown in Fig. 1. It is evident that Eqs. (12),
(13) and (16) give very similar results, for the range of
Ar mentioned, while Eq. (20) progressively diverges from
the results of the others for Ar > 1.5 × 104 . We compute
the RMS error on Reynolds and the mean relative absolute
error in velocity, as stated above, where as reference we get
the Reynolds number and velocity predicted from Eq. (12).
These error values are shown in Table 2, for the range of
10 Ar  0.35 × 105 .
The values of the error indicators show that all three Eqs.
(12), (13) and (16), give very similar results, evident also in
Fig. 1, while the errors from Eq. (20) are much larger, prob-
ably because the parameter values were derived primarily
from non-Newtonian data.
Since Ar can take values outside the above range, we
have made similar computations for an extended range of
2 Ar  1010 . For this extended range, we get the error val-
ues shown in Table 3. We see that for this extended range,
Errors between predictions from different correlations and from correlation
of Turton and Clark (1987) (10 Ar  0.35 × 105 )
Hartman et al. Nguyen et al. Chhabra and Peri
(1997), Eq. (16) (1991), Eq. (20)
RMS_Re 0.20 0.18 0.36
(24) EV (%)
3.8 3.3 12.7

Table 1
Range of parameters for validity of proposed correlations Table 3
Errors between different correlations, for an extended range of Ar, com-
Source Ar Re n puted as per Table 2 (10 Ar  1010 )

Turton and Clark (1987) 1–108 0.1–2 × 104 1.0 Hartman et al. Nguyen et al. Chhabra and Peri
Hartman et al. (1989) 1–107 0.1–0.55 × 104 1.0 (1989), Eq. (13) (1997), Eq. (16) (1991), Eq. (20)
Nguyen et al. (1997) 1–8 × 104 0.1–450 1.0 RMS_Re 0.03 0.10 0.56
Chhabra and Peri (1991) 10–106 1–104 0.38–1.0 EV (%) 5.3 16.4 355

10 < Ar < 3.5*104

350

300

250
Reynolds number

200

150

100

50

0
0.0E+00 5.0E+03 1.0E+04 1.5E+04 2.0E+04 2.5E+04 3.0E+04 3.5E+04
Archimedes number

Turton & Clark, eqn.12 Hartman et al., eqn. 13 Nguyen et al., eqn. 16 Chhabra & Peri, eqn. 20

Fig. 1. Comparison of predictions of Reynolds number from Archimedes number from various correlations proposed for Newtonian fluids.
 V.C. Kelessidis / Chemical Engineering Science 59 (2004) 4437 – 4447 4441

Table 4 Table 5
Non-Newtonian data from other investigators Newtonian data from other investigators

Re CD Re CD Re CD Re CD
Kelessidis (2004), 15 pairs Kelessidis and Mpandelis Kelessidis (2004), 10 pairs Kelessidis and Mpandelis (2004),
(2004), 14 pairs 9 pairs
15.622 3.574 1166.04 0.46
0.112 174.572 9.04 3.79 55.243 1.849 657.44 0.57
0.568 35.534 4.09 7.01 67.611 1.463 215.09 0.67
0.723 26.059 0.78 20.35 120.236 1.174 2792.80 0.32
1.629 14.463 39.80 1.66 154.441 1.027 1.21 24.42
2.274 11.029 6.12 5.86 190.059 0.694 0.48 62.84
2.877 12.769 2.63 12.04 566.714 0.605 0.08 272.70
7.310 6.936 0.48 41.42 671.864 0.511 4.42 8.39
9.623 4.558 23.44 2.42 1049.610 0.531 4.65 7.97
11.969 3.481 23.34 2.40 1269.610 0.523
22.115 2.849 4.09 9.26
22.654 2.516 1.72 20.11
27.261 2.215 0.30 77.96 Di Felice (1999), 12 pairs Hartman et al. (1989), 6 pairs
29.595 2.130 15.71 3.33 0.016 1541.572 5.189 7.001
50.130 1.677 15.46 3.47 0.128 190.312 6.088 6.290
64.223 1.471 0.486 57.659 19.234 2.763
1.829 17.756 30.538 2.095
2.218 15.863 50.295 1.572
Miura et al. (2001), Pinelli and Magelli (2001), 7.523 6.010 78.249 1.246
18 pairs 8 pairs 29.574 2.558
0.445 59.698 1.246 16.222 53.740 1.800
2.613 12.639 1.889 9.885 98.780 1.161
6.561 6.253 4.779 5.447 237.122 0.675
7.408 5.405 5.640 4.197 365.800 1.004
8.614 4.007 9.902 3.366 928.550 0.500
24.024 2.527 14.075 2.305
32.464 1.542 19.264 1.922
43.644 1.402 28.012 1.287
53.654 1.497 Table 6
68.644 0.987 Range of Re and power law parameters for utilized data in this work
94.419 0.828 
153.220 0.598 dynes∗ s n
Source Re K 2 n
174.157 0.633 cm
257.458 0.511 non-Newtonian
269.090 0.501 Kelessidis and Mpandelis 0.3–40 0.85–1.15 0.75–0.91
406.838 0.511 (2004)
407.534 0.500 Kelessidis (2004) 0.1–64 0.16– 2.7 0.75–0.92
770.472 0.378 Miura et al. (2001) 0.4–770 0.17–5.90 0.56–0.75
Pinelli and Magelli (2001) 1.0–30 0.47–0.52 0.73
Newtonian
Kelessidis and Mpandelis 0.1–2800 0.01–1.35 1.0
(2004)
the predictions from Eqs. (12) and (13) are still very similar, Kelessidis (2004) 16.0–1270 0.01–0.06 1.0
the errors from Eq. (16) are larger, while the errors from Di Felice (1999) 0.01–929 0.23–1.74 1.0
Eq. (20) are very large, primarily because the data used is Hartman et al. (1989) 5.0–78 13.2 1.0
outside the validity range of Eq. (20).

4. Scope of work
The purpose of this work was to evaluate the different
approaches for the direct determination of velocity of spher-
ical particles falling in non-Newtonian liquids and to de-
termine which equation better describes the experimental
data, and if possible, propose a new equation. The data uti-
lized include non-Newtonian data of Miura et al. (2001),
Pinelli and Magelli (2001), Kelessidis (2004), Kelessidis
and Mpandelis (2004), listed in Table 4, and Newtonian
data of Di Felice (1999), Hartman et al. (1989), Kelessidis
(2004) and Kelessidis and Mpandelis (2004), which are
listed in Table 5. The range of parameters covered is listed
in Table 6.
We have shown above that Eq. (12) proposed for Newto-
nian data provides similar predictions to the other equations
(Eqs. (13) and (16)). Hence, we will be extending (generaliz-
ing) this equation to cover non-Newtonian fluids, we would
then be comparing the predictions with measured data and
finally we will be comparing the predictions from this equa-
tion to predictions derived with the explicit equation pro-
posed for non-Newtonian data (Eq. (20)).
4442 V.C. Kelessidis / Chemical Engineering Science 59 (2004) 4437 – 4447

5. Theory Chhabra and Peri (1991) nor from the approach of Koziol
and Glowacki (1988) nor from Briens (1991), pointing to
In accordance to the work of Turton and Clark (1987), we the fact that Eq. (25) is the proper generalization of Eq. (3)
define, using the generalized Reynolds number (Eq. (17)), a used for Newtonian liquids.
dimensionless diameter, d∗ = (Ar)(2−n)/(2+n) , as We seek therefore an expression similar to the Newtonian
 (2−n)/(2+n) liquids, Eq. (7), but care should be exercised on the way the
(2−n)/(2+n) 3 generalization is made for the pseudoplastic fluids. Accord-
d∗ =(Ar) = CD Re 2/(2−n)
4 ingly, we perform the generalization as per the following


g

(2−n)/(2+n) 
2/(2+n) steps.
=d . (25) We combine the low Reynolds range, Eq. (5),

K
24
For n = 1 this equation gives the value of d∗ , given above CD =
(Eq. (3)) and defined by Turton and Clark (1987). Re
Similarly we define a dimensionless velocity, U∗ , as with the high Reynolds number range, Eq. (6),
 1/(2+n)  1/(2+n)
Re
n+1 CD = K1
U∗ = =V (26)
((3/4)CD )n g n K

n since, as stated above, the Newtonian relationships could be
which for n = 1 gives the value of U∗ as in Newtonian fluids extended to non-Newtonian fluids provided that the gener-
(Eq. (4)). alized Reynolds number is used.
Eq. (26) can be recast to give From Eq. (26) and Eq. (5), we can get,

2+n 
 Re1+n
V

n 2+n
U∗1 = ,
U∗2+n = . (27) 18n
K g


(2+n)/(1+n) Re
Since U∗1 = (31)
18n/(1+n)
g


2/(2−n) d (2+n)/(2−n)
Ar = , and from Eq. (25),

K 2/(2−n)  


g

K 2/(2−n) (2+n)/(2−n)
d∗ =
3
CD Re 2/(2−n)
,
= (Ar) 2/(2−n) (2+n)/(2−n) . (28)


d 4
(2+n)/n
Combination of (27) and (28) gives, d∗ = 18(2−n)/n Re. (32)
Re1/(2−n) Combining (31) and (32) and eliminating Re, we get,
U∗ = . (29)
Ar n/(2+n) (2+n)/n
(2+n)/(1+n) d∗
It should be noted that Eq. (25) should be the proper way U∗1 = ,
18(2+n)/n(1+n)
of defining the dimensionless diameter. If we define d∗  1/n
(1+n)
as other investigators did, as for e.g. for the derivation of d∗
Eq. (20) (Chhabra and Peri, 1991) and denote it as dc∗ , it U∗1 = . (33)
18
can be shown that
3 gd (2+n)/(2−n)

/
Now, for the second branch and from Eqs. (6) and (25), we
dc∗ = CD Re2/(2−n) = . (30) get
4 K 2/(2−n)
2/(n−2)
 (2−n)/(2+n)
If the published data mentioned above is plotted as U∗ − dc∗ , 3
d∗ = K1 Re2/(2−n) ,
as in Fig. 2, it is clear that there is not a unique relationship 4
between the two variables with dc∗ so defined. There is vari-
(2−n)/2
(2+n)/2 3
ation among the data from different investigators, indicating d∗ = K1 (Re). (34)
that the relationship is not independent of the value of n, a 4
fact also evident from Chhabra and Peri (1991), where the For the dimensionless velocity, from Eqs. (6) and (26) we
values of the correlation parameters a and b are functions get,
of n (Eqs. (21) and (22)). However, when we define the di-  1/(2+n)
mensionless diameter as in Eq. (25) above and plot the same Re
U∗2 = ,
data, we get Fig. 3. Here we see that all data, Newtonian [(3/4)K1 ]n
and non-Newtonian, fall along the same curve thus getting a
(2+n) Re
unique relationship between the two dimensionless param- U∗2 = . (35)
eters, something not possible neither from the approach of [(3/4)K1 ]n
 V.C. Kelessidis / Chemical Engineering Science 59 (2004) 4437 – 4447 4443

Fig. 2. Relationship between experimental values of U∗ and dimensionless diameter, dc∗ , defined by Chhabbra and Peri (1991). Open symbols=Newtonian
data, closed symbols = non-Newtonian data.

Fig. 3. Relationship between U∗ and dimensionless diameter, d∗ . Open symbols = Newtonian data, closed symbols = non-Newtonian data.

Hence, combining (34) and (35) and eliminating Re, we get, This can be rearranged in order to finally get,

  

4 d∗ 1/2 K2 /n
K2 /2  1/K2
U∗2 = . (36) 18 3 K1
3 K1 U∗ = 1/ + . (38)
d∗1+n 4 d∗
Hence, in a similar fashion as in Turton and Clark (1987),
we combine the two dimensionless velocities, as in Eq. (38) is the generalization of Eq. (7) to cover the case
of pseudoplastic fluids since we claim that the general-
1 1 1
= + . (37) ized equation should hold both for Newtonian and non-
U∗K2 K2
U∗1 K2
U∗2 Newtonian fluids.
4444 V.C. Kelessidis / Chemical Engineering Science 59 (2004) 4437 – 4447
Fig. 4. Comparison of predicted with measured dimensionless velocities for non-Newtonian data.
The parameters K1 , K2 derived for Newtonian fluids by
Turton and Clark (1987) should be the same as the parame-
ters for the generalized equation. We therefore compare the
predictions from Eq. (38) using the Newtonian K1 , K2 val-
ues determined by Turton and Clark (1987) with previously
gathered data. We determine its validity by plotting mea-
sured and predicted values of the dimensionless velocity and
by calculating the RMS error in U∗ , as in Turton and Clark
(1987) (Eq. (8)).
Using the Newtonian values of K1 =0.428 and K2 =0.824,
Eq. (38) finally becomes
 
 1.214


18 0.824/n 0.321 0.412
U∗ = 1 + .
d∗1+n d∗
(39)
The predicted values of U∗ are compared with the values
of U∗ from experimental data, as computed using the data
from Table 4 for non-Newtonian data and from Table 5 for
Newtonian data. This comparison is depicted in Fig. 4 for the
non-Newtonian data and in Fig. 5 for the Newtonian data.
From Fig. 4 it is evident that the data is predicted well
with the new proposed explicit equation for the range of pa-
rameters which give dimensionless velocity values from 0.1
to 16 corresponding to terminal velocities between 1.2 and
60.0 cm/s. The RMS error on U∗ (Eq. (8)) is 0.10, indicat-
ing the good accuracy of the predictions. This value should
be compared to the value of 0.024 derived for the 408 New-
tonian data points from Turton and Clark (1987).
From Fig. 5 we see that we have good predictions for
the range of U∗ between 0.02 and 15, with the one point
at U∗,meas ∼ 23 underpredicted severely with an error of
(U∗,meas − U∗,pred )/U∗,meas of around −22%. This point
corresponds to Re = 2800, a terminal velocity of 100 cm/s.
For the next lower value of U∗ ∼ 15, we have a Reynolds
number of 1200 and a velocity of 37 cm/s. Hence, if we
restrict the predictions to the range of U∗ between 0.02 and
15, the comparison is very good and the root mean square
error for these data points is 0.041.
Combining all data, except for the one of U∗ = 23, we
see that for both Newtonian and non-Newtonian data the
predictions are satisfactory, particularly in view of the ranges
of the parameters K, n, which are listed in Table 6, with an
RMS error on U∗ of 0.081, indicating the good accuracy of
the predictions.
In order to compare the predictions from (39) with the
predictions from (20), we put them in comparable form. We
recast the new proposed equation, Eq. (39), in a similar form
to Eq. (20),
Re = (U∗ )2−n (Ar)n(2−n)/(2+n) . (40)
We compare then the Reynolds numbers predicted from Eq.
(40) with the Reynolds number predicted from Eq. (20) for
the non-Newtonian data of Table 4 and for the Newtonian
data of Table 5. The comparison is shown in Figs. 6 and 7,
respectively.
From Fig. 6 we see that for the non-Newtonian data, the
predictions of Eq. (40) compare very well with the mea-
sured Reynolds numbers. However, Eq. (20) does a poor job
and over predicts the generalized Reynolds number for a
given Archimedes number for the whole range of Reynolds
numbers studied (0.1–1000). On the other hand, for the
 V.C. Kelessidis / Chemical Engineering Science 59 (2004) 4437 – 4447 4445

Fig. 5. Comparison of predicted with measured dimensionless velocities for Newtonian data.

Fig. 6. Comparison of predicted and measured Reynolds, non-Newtonian data.

Newtonian data, shown in Fig. 7, both equations predict very
similar values to the measured values of Reynolds number,
except for the higher Reynolds number range, where Eq.
(20) tends to over predict the dimensionless velocity, while
Eq. (40) does as good a job for the whole range of Reynolds
numbers tested. The RMS error on Reynolds number (com-
puted from Eq. (23)) for the non-Newtonian data is 0.12 for
Eq. (40) and 0.54 for Eq. (20). The corresponding errors
for the Newtonian data are 0.04 for Eq. (40) and 0.18 for
Eq. (20), a considerable improvement with respect to the
non-Newtonian data.
It has therefore been shown that Eq. (39), which is the
generalization of the Newtonian equation (12), describes ex-
tremely well reported Newtonian data, as it should. It has
also been shown that it describes very well reported non-
Newtonian data which cover a rather extensive range of
power law parameters and of generalized Reynolds numbers.
Furthermore, this equation outperforms the only other ex-
4446 V.C. Kelessidis / Chemical Engineering Science 59 (2004) 4437 – 4447

Fig. 7. Comparison of predicted and measured Reynolds, Newtonian data.

plicit equation proposed for non-Newtonian data (Eq. (20)) while results from both equations are very good for Newto-
as the graphical comparison (Fig. 6) and the comparison of nian data.
the RMS errors of Reynolds number have shown.

Notation
6. Conclusions
a parameter, given in Eq. (21), dimensionless
The various explicit equations for the terminal velocity of b parameter, given in Eq. (22),
 dimensionless 
g


2/(2−n) d (2+n)/(2−n)
spheres falling through Newtonian liquids have been com- Ar Archimedes number,
K 2/(2−n)
,
pared and it has been shown that all predict similar values of dimensionless
Reynolds numbers for typical ranges of Archimedes num- CD drag coefficient, dimensionless
bers. d particle diameter, L
The Newtonian variables, dimensionless velocity and d∗ dimensionless diameter, Eq. (25), dimensionless
dimensionless diameter, proposed by Turton and Clark dc∗ dimensionless diameter from Chhabra and Peri
(1987), have been generalized to cover non-Newtonian (Eq. (30)), dimensionless
pseudoplastic fluids. It has been shown that if reported ex- EV percent relative absolute error in velocity,
perimental data are recast in the proposed form, with the Eq. (24), %
dimensionless variables given by Eqs. (25) and (26), all g acceleration of gravity, L/T2
experimental data fall along the same curve, thus eliminat- 2/(2−n) (2+n)/(2−n)
Ga Galileo number,
K 2/(2−n)
d
, dimensionless
ing the need for having multiple curves, functions of the n
power law index, as was the case from previously suggested K consistency index, M/LT
correlations. n power law index, dimensionless
The predictions from the new generalized equation (Eq. N number of samples used in Eq. (23) and Eq. (24),
(39)) are compared with previously reported experimental dimensionless
data from other investigators which cover non-Newtonian Re Reynolds number based on particle diameter,
V d ,
and Newtonian liquids. The comparison is very satisfactory dimensionless
2−n n
and the root mean square error in the dimensionless velocity Regen generalized Reynolds number,
V K d , dimen-
for all data points is 0.081, a similar order of accuracy as sionless
for the Newtonian data. ReT Reynolds number predicted from correlation of
Comparison of the predictions derived from the new equa- Turton and Clark (1987), dimensionless
tion with predictions derived from another correlation (Eq. Rei Reynolds number predicted from other correla-
(20)) shows that the new generalized equation outperforms tions, dimensionless
the predictions from Eq. (20) for the non-Newtonian data, V solid terminal velocity, L/T
 V.C. Kelessidis / Chemical Engineering Science 59 (2004) 4437 – 4447 4447

Vs solid terminal velocity in the Stokes region Chhabra, R.P., Peri, S.S., 1991. Simple method for the estimation of
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liquid density, M/L3 Reynolds numbers. Chemical Engineering Communications 13, 55–64.
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Acknowledgements terminal velocity of solid spheres falling through stagnant pseudoplastic
liquids, Powder Technology (accepted).
The author would like to thank the two anonymous ref- Koziol, K., Glowacki, P., 1988. Determination of the free settling
erees for their valued suggestions. He would also like to parameters of spherical particles in power law fluids. Chemical
acknowledge the continuous support from the Department Engineering Processing 24, 183–188.
Matijašić, G., Glasnović, A., 2001. Measurement and evaluation of drag
of Mineral Resources Engineering of Technical University
coefficient for settling of spherical particles in pseudoplastic fluids.
of Crete. Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Quarterly 15, 21–24.
Miura, H., Takahashi, T., Ichikawa, J., Kawase, Y., 2001. Bed expansion
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