Growth of viscoelastic wings and the reduction of particle mobility in a viscoelastic shear flow

William L. Murch, Sreenath Krishnan, Eric S. G. Shaqfeh, and Gianluca Iaccarino

Phys. Rev. Fluids 2, 103302 – Published 25 October 2017

Abstract

The motion of a rigid spherical particle in a sheared polymeric fluid is studied via experiments and numerical simulations. We study particle mobility in highly elastic fluids, where the deformation due to the sphere's movement and the shear flow both result in significant stretching of the polymer. The shear flow is imposed in a plane perpendicular to the sphere's movement, resulting in regions of high polymer tension in the wake of the sphere that can extend well into the shear flow and gradient directions. We observe that these viscoelastic wake structures, resembling wings, are linked to an increase in the form drag, providing a mechanism for a dramatic decrease in the particle mobility.

13 More

Received 29 January 2017
Revised 15 July 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.2.103302

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Fluid-particle interactions Polymer conformation changes Shear flows Viscoelasticity

Non-Newtonian fluids Polymer solutions

Bead-spring models Rheology techniques

Fluid DynamicsPolymers & Soft Matter

Authors & Affiliations

William L. Murch^1,*, Sreenath Krishnan², Eric S. G. Shaqfeh^1,2,3,†, and Gianluca Iaccarino^2,3

¹Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA
²Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA
³Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA

^*murch@stanford.edu
^†esgs@stanford.edu

Article Text (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand

References (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand

Issue

Vol. 2, Iss. 10 — October 2017

Reuse & Permissions

Access Options

Article Available via CHORUS

Download Accepted Manuscript

Author publication services for translation and copyediting assistance advertisement

Physical Review Fluids