Related papers: Polymer stretching in laminar and random flows: en…
By quantitative studies of statistics of polymer stretching in a random flow and of a flow field we demonstrate that the stretching of polymer molecules in a 3D random flow occurs rather sharply via the coil-stretch transition at the value…
Fluid transport in microfluidic systems typically is laminar due to the low Reynolds number characteristic of the flow. The inclusion of suspended polymers imparts elasticity to fluids, allowing instabilities to be excited when substantial…
The interaction of polymers with small-scale velocity gradients can trigger a coil-stretch transition in the polymers. We analyze this transition within a direct numerical simulation of shear turbulence with an Oldroyd-B model for the…
A polymer in a turbulent flow undergoes the coil-stretch transition when the Weissenberg number, i.e. the product of the Lyapunov exponent of the flow and the relaxation time of the polymer, surpasses a critical value. The effect of…
The statistics of polymers advected by a turbulent flow are investigated. To limit the polymer lengths above to coil-stretch transition, a FENE-P type relaxation law is used. The turbulence is modeled by a random strain, delta-correlated in…
Polymer stretching in random smooth flows is investigated within the framework of the FENE dumbbell model. The advecting flow is Gaussian and short-correlated in time. The stationary probability density function of polymer extension is…
Extensional rheometry and Brownian Dynamics simulations of flexible polymer solutions confirm predictions based on blob concepts that coil--stretch hysteresis in extensional flows increases with concentration, reaching a maximum at the…
Behavior of a dilute polymer solution in a random three-dimensional flow with an average shear is studied experimentally. Polymer contribution to the shear stress is found to be more than two orders of magnitude higher than in a laminar…
Taking into account the nonequivalence of fixed-force and fixed-length ensembles in the weak-force regime, equations of state are derived that describe the equilibrium extension or compression of an ideal Gaussian polymer chain in response…
The stretching of a polymer chain by a large scale chaotic flow is considered. The steady state which emerges as a balance of the turbulent stretching and anharmonic resistance of the chain is quantitatively described, i.e. the dependency…
Stretching dynamics of polymers in microfluidics is of particular interest for polymer scientists. As a charged polymer, a polyelectrolyte can be deformed from its coiled equilibrium configuration to an extended chain by applying uniform or…
Considering the dynamics of a polymer with finite extensibility placed in a chaotic flow with large mean shear, we explain how the statistics of polymer extension changes with Weissenberg number, ${\it Wi}$, defined as the product of the…
The influence of an external flow on the relaxation dynamics of a single polymer is investigated theoretically and numerically. We show that a pronounced dynamical slowdown occurs in the vicinity of the coil-stretch transition, especially…
The effect of concentration on coil-stretch hysteresis in extensional flows of polymer solutions is examined with insights from Brownian dynamics simulations of isolated chains and scaling theory for non-dilute solutions. In the hysteresis…
When injected through a contraction, high molecular weight polymer solutions exhibit a sharp increase of apparent viscosity which originates from stretching polymer chains above a critical extension rate. This chain stretching can also…
Statistical mechanics is an important tool for understanding polymer electroelasticity because the elasticity of polymers is primarily due to entropy. However, a common approach for the statistical mechanics of polymer chains, the Gaussian…
We analyze the statistics of work generated by a gradient flow to stretch a nonlinear polymer. We obtain the Large Deviation Function (LDF) of the work in the full range of appropriate parameters by combining analytical and numerical tools.…
Polymers in a turbulent flow are stretched out by the fluctuating velocity gradient; the stationary probability distribution function (p.d.f.) of extensions $R$ has a power-law tail with an exponent that increases with the Weissenberg…
We study the behavior of threads and polymers in a turbulent flow. These objects have finite spatial extension, so the flow along them differs slightly. The corresponding drag forces produce a finite average stretching and the thread is…
We analyze the conformational dynamics and statistical properties of an active polymer model. The polymer is described as a freely-jointed bead-rod chain subject to stochastic active force dipoles that act on the suspending solvent where…