Departmental Papers (MEAM)
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of this Version
4-14-2006
Abstract
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.
Date Posted: 11 August 2010
This document has been peer reviewed.
Comments
Suggested Citation: P. Arratia, C. Thomas, J. Diorio, and J. Gollub, (2006) Elastic Instabilities of Polymer Solutions in Cross-Channel Flow . Physical Review Letters. Vol 96(14).
Copyright 2006 American Physical Society.
Publisher URL: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.144502