Emergence of chaos in a viscous solution of rods

Emmanuel L. C. Vi M. Plan (1) , Stefano Musacchio (1) , Dario Vincenzi (2)

1 LJAD - Laboratoire Jean Alexandre Dieudonné
2 JAD - Laboratoire Jean Alexandre Dieudonné

It is shown that the addition of small amounts of microscopic rods in a viscous uid at low Reynolds number causes a significant increase of the flow resistance. Numerical simulations of the dynamics of the solution reveal that this phenomenon is associated to a transition from laminar to chaotic ow. Polymer stresses give rise to flow instabilities which, in turn, perturb the alignment of the rods. This coupled dynamics results in the activation of a wide range of scales, which enhances the mixing efficiency of viscous flows.

Domaines: Dynamique des Fluides [physics.flu-dyn]

Emmanuel L. C. Vi M. Plan, Stefano Musacchio, Dario Vincenzi. Emergence of chaos in a viscous solution of rods. Physical Review E : Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics, 2017. ⟨hal-01636084⟩