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Polymer scission in turbulent flows

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2021

Dario Vincenzi Open the ORCID record for Dario Vincenzi [Opens in a new window] ,
Takeshi Watanabe Open the ORCID record for Takeshi Watanabe [Opens in a new window] ,
Samriddhi Sankar Ray Open the ORCID record for Samriddhi Sankar Ray [Opens in a new window]  and
Jason R. Picardo Open the ORCID record for Jason R. Picardo [Opens in a new window]
Dario Vincenzi*
Affiliation:
Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS, LJAD, 06100Nice, France
Takeshi Watanabe
Affiliation:
Department of Physical Science and Engineering, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Gokiso, Nagoya466-8555, Japan
Samriddhi Sankar Ray
Affiliation:
International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bangalore560089, India
Jason R. Picardo
Affiliation:
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai400076, India
*
†Email address for correspondence: [email protected]
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Abstract

Polymers in a turbulent flow are subject to intense strain, which can cause their scission and thereby limit the experimental study and application of phenomena such as turbulent drag reduction and elastic turbulence. In this paper, we study polymer scission in homogeneous isotropic turbulence, through a combination of stochastic modelling, based on a Gaussian time-decorrelated random flow, and direct numerical simulations (DNS) with both one-way (passive) and two-way (active) coupling of the polymers, modelled as bead-spring chains, and the flow. For the first scission of passive polymers, the stochastic model yields analytical predictions which are found to be in good agreement with results from the DNS, for the temporal evolution of the fraction of unbroken polymers and the statistics of the survival of polymers. The impact of scission on the dynamics of a turbulent polymer solution is investigated through DNS with two-way coupling (active polymers). Our results indicate that the reduction of kinetic energy dissipation due to feedback from stretched polymers is an inherently transient effect, which is lost as the polymers break up. Thus, the overall dissipation reduction is maximized by an intermediate polymer relaxation time, for which polymers stretch significantly but without breaking too quickly. We also study the dynamics of the polymer fragments which form after scission; these daughter polymers can themselves undergo subsequent, repeated, breakups to produce a hierarchical population of polymers with a range of relaxation times and scission rates.

JFM classification

Non-Newtonian Flows: Polymers Turbulent Flows: Isotropic turbulence
Type
JFM Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 912 , 10 April 2021 , A18
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

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