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Bulk turbulence in dilute polymer solutions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2009

NICHOLAS T. OUELLETTE ,
HAITAO XU  and
EBERHARD BODENSCHATZ
NICHOLAS T. OUELLETTE*
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA International Collaboration for Turbulence Research
HAITAO XU
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA International Collaboration for Turbulence Research
EBERHARD BODENSCHATZ
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA Institute for Nonlinear Dynamics, Universität Göttingen, D-37073 Göttingen, Germany International Collaboration for Turbulence Research
*
†Present address: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA. Email address for correspondence: nicholas.ouellette@yale.edu
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Abstract

By tracking small particles in the bulk of an intensely turbulent laboratory flow, we study the effect of long-chain polymers on the Eulerian structure functions. We find that the structure functions are modified over a wide range of length scales even for very small polymer concentrations. Their behaviour can be captured by defining a length scale that depends on the solvent viscosity, the polymer relaxation time and the Weissenberg number. This result is not captured by current models. Additionally, the effects we observe depend strongly on the concentration. While the dissipation-range statistics change smoothly as a function of polymer concentration, we find that the inertial-range values of the structure functions are modified only when the concentration exceeds a threshold of approximately 5 parts per million (p.p.m.) by weight for the 18 × 106 atomic mass unit (a.m.u.) molecular weight polyacrylamide used in the experiment.

Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 629 , 25 June 2009 , pp. 375 - 385
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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