Elastic instabilities of polymer solutions in cross-channel flow

When polymer molecules pass near the hyperbolic point of a microchannel cross flow, they are strongly stretched. As the strain rate is varied at low Reynolds number (< 10(-2)), tracer and particle-tracking experiments show that molecular stretching produces two flow instabilities: one in which th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2006-04, Vol.96 (14), p.144502-144502, Article 144502
Main Authors: Arratia, P E, Thomas, C C, Diorio, J, Gollub, J P
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:When polymer molecules pass near the hyperbolic point of a microchannel cross flow, they are strongly stretched. As the strain rate is varied at low Reynolds number (< 10(-2)), tracer and particle-tracking experiments show that molecular stretching produces two flow instabilities: one in which the velocity field becomes strongly asymmetric, and a second in which it fluctuates nonperiodically in time. The flow is strongly perturbed even far from the region of instability, and this phenomenon can be used to produce mixing.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.96.144502