Effect of viscoelasticity on the soft-wall transition and turbulence in a microchannel

2017 ◽  
Vol 812 ◽  
pp. 1076-1118 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. S. Srinivas ◽  
V. Kumaran

The modification of soft-wall turbulence in a microchannel due to small amounts of polymer dissolved in water is experimentally studied. The microchannels are of rectangular cross-section with height ${\sim}$160 $\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$, width ${\sim}$1.5 mm and length ${\sim}$3 cm, with three walls made of hard polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) gel, and one wall made of soft PDMS gel with an elasticity modulus of ${\sim}$18 kPa. Solutions of polyacrylamide of molecular weight $5\times 10^{6}$ and mass fraction up to 50 ppm, and of molecular weight $4\times 10^{4}$ and mass fraction up to 1500 ppm, are used in the experiments. In all cases, the solutions are in the dilute limit below the critical overlap concentration, and the solution viscosity does not exceed that of water by more than 10 %. Two distinct types of flow modifications are observed below and above a threshold mass fraction for the polymer, $w_{t}$, which is ${\sim}$1 ppm and 500 ppm for the solutions of polyacrylamide with molecular weights $5\times 10^{6}$ and $4\times 10^{4}$, respectively. At or below $w_{t}$, there is no change in the transition Reynolds number, but there is significant turbulence attenuation, by up to a factor of 2 in the root-mean-square velocities and a factor of 4 in the Reynolds stress. When the polymer concentration increases beyond $w_{t}$, there is a decrease in the transition Reynolds number and in the intensity of the turbulent fluctuations. The lowest transition Reynolds number is ${\sim}$35 for the solution of polyacrylamide with molecular weight $5\times 10^{6}$ and mass fraction 50 ppm (in contrast to 260–290 for pure water). The fluctuating velocities in the streamwise and cross-stream directions are lower by a factor of 5, and the Reynolds stress is lower by a factor of 10, in comparison to pure water.

1970 ◽  
Vol 92 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. D. White ◽  
D. M. McEligot

Data are presented for the flow of deionized water solutions of linear, unbranched polymers—Separan AP-30, Polyox WSR-35 and Polyox WSR-301, and mixtures of the latter two in a 0.0235 in. tube. The Reynolds numbers vary from about 1200 to about 12,000. Measurements were made at 4 deg C and near room temperature. Occurrence of transition is confirmed by oscillograph traces and pressure ratio calculations in addition to the usual “break” on a friction factor-Reynolds number graph. From the calibration data, it appears that for small tubes there is a critical parameter, such as molecular weight or polymer length, below which transition occurs as for water, but above which the transition Reynolds number depends on polymer concentration. The low and high polymers were mixed to vary molecular weight distribution of samples. It was found that the higher molecular weight polymer dominates the transition process, but in the turbulent regime the effects are roughly additive.


Author(s):  
R. Örlü ◽  
T. Fiorini ◽  
A. Segalini ◽  
G. Bellani ◽  
A. Talamelli ◽  
...  

This paper reports the first turbulence measurements performed in the Long Pipe Facility at the Center for International Cooperation in Long Pipe Experiments (CICLoPE). In particular, the Reynolds stress components obtained from a number of straight and boundary-layer-type single-wire and X-wire probes up to a friction Reynolds number of 3.8×10 4 are reported. In agreement with turbulent boundary-layer experiments as well as with results from the Superpipe, the present measurements show a clear logarithmic region in the streamwise variance profile, with a Townsend–Perry constant of A 2 ≈1.26. The wall-normal variance profile exhibits a Reynolds-number-independent plateau, while the spanwise component was found to obey a logarithmic scaling over a much wider wall-normal distance than the other two components, with a slope that is nearly half of that of the Townsend–Perry constant, i.e. A 2, w ≈ A 2 /2. The present results therefore provide strong support for the scaling of the Reynolds stress tensor based on the attached-eddy hypothesis. Intriguingly, the wall-normal and spanwise components exhibit higher amplitudes than in previous studies, and therefore call for follow-up studies in CICLoPE, as well as other large-scale facilities. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Toward the development of high-fidelity models of wall turbulence at large Reynolds number’.


2017 ◽  
Vol 822 ◽  
pp. 267-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. S. Srinivas ◽  
V. Kumaran

The flow in a rectangular channel with walls made of polyacrylamide gel is experimentally studied to examine the effect of soft walls on transition and turbulence. The bottom wall is fixed to a substrate and the top wall is unrestrained. As the Reynolds number increases, two different flow regimes are observed. The first is the ‘soft-wall turbulence’ (Srinivas & Kumaran,J. Fluid Mech., vol. 780, 2015, pp. 649–686). There is a large increase in the magnitudes of the velocity fluctuations after transition and the fluid velocity fluctuations appear to be non-zero at the soft walls, although higher resolution measurements are required to establish the nature of the boundary dynamics. The fluid velocity fluctuations are symmetric about the centreline of the channel, and they show relatively little downstream variation. The wall displacement measurements indicate that there is no observable motion perpendicular to the surface to within the experimental resolution, but displacement fluctuations parallel to the surface are observed after transition. As the Reynolds number is further increased, there is a second ‘wall-flutter’ transition, which involves visible downstream travelling waves in the top (unrestrained) wall alone. Wall displacement fluctuations of frequency less than approximately$500~\text{rad}~\text{s}^{-1}$are observed both parallel and perpendicular to the wall. The mean velocity profiles and turbulence intensities are asymmetric, with much larger turbulence intensities near the top wall. The transitions are observed in sequence from a laminar flow at Reynolds number less than 1000 for a channel of height 0.6 mm and from a turbulent flow at a Reynolds number greater than 1000 for a channel of height 1.8 mm.


1990 ◽  
Vol 221 ◽  
pp. 641-673 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. G. Lai ◽  
R. M. C. So

The characteristics of near-wall turbulence are examined and the result is used to assess the behaviour of the various terms in the Reynolds-stress transport equations. It is found that all components of the velocity-pressure-gradient correlation vanish at the wall. Conventional splitting of this second-order tensor into a pressure diffusion part and a pressure redistribution part and subsequent neglect of the pressure diffusion term in the modelled Reynolds-stress equations leads to finite near-wall values for two components of the redistribution tensor. This, therefore, suggests that, in near-wall turbulent flow modelling, the velocity-pressure-gradient correlation rather than pressure redistribution should be modelled. Based on this understanding, a methodology to derive an asymptotically correct model for the velocity-pressure-gradient correlation is proposed. A model that has the property of approaching the high-Reynolds-number model for pressure redistribution far away from the wall is derived. A similar analysis is carried out on the viscous dissipation term and asymptotically correct near-wall modifications are proposed. The near-wall closure based on the Reynolds-stress equations and a conventional low-Reynolds-number dissipation-rate equation is used to calculate fully-developed turbulent channel and pipe flows at different Reynolds numbers. A careful parametric study of the model constants introduced by the near-wall closure reveals that one constant in the dissipation-rate equation is Reynolds-number dependent, and a preliminary expression is proposed for this constant. With this modification, excellent agreement with near-wall turbulence statistics, measured and simulated, is obtained, especially the anisotropic behaviour of the normal stresses. On the other hand, it is found that the dissipation-rate equation has a significant effect on the calculated Reynolds-stress budgets. Possible improvements could be obtained by using available direct simulation data to help formulate a more realistic dissipation-rate equation. When such an equation is available, the present approach can again be used to derive a near-wall closure for the Reynolds-stress equations. The resultant closure could give improved predictions of the turbulence statistics and the Reynolds-stress budgets.


1993 ◽  
Vol 46 (11S) ◽  
pp. S63-S70 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. Mu¨ller ◽  
L. I. Medina ◽  
O. Pe´rez-Martin ◽  
S. Rodriguez ◽  
C. Romero ◽  
...  

The flow of aqueous poly(ethylene oxide) solutions through nonconsolidated porous media has been experimentally investigated. Three aspects of practical relevance have been addressed: the effect of polymer on flow distribution under nonuniform flow conditions, the mechanical degradation of the polymer in the porous media, and the effect of molecular weight on flow resistance. The nonuniform flow results indicate that, although the presence of polymer changes the distribution of the flow by affecting the region of the medium that is swept by the fluid, a significant increase in flow resistance is still observed above a critical Reynolds number, as it happens under uniform flow conditions. The degradation experiments show that the polymer is significantly degraded only in the region where a sizable increase in flow resistance is obtained with respect to the Newtonian behavior. The most significant effect of the molecular weight of the polymer is the fact that an increase in that parameter results in a substantial reduction of the Reynolds number at which the increased flow resistance is observed. Furthermore, the rate of change of this onset Reynolds number with polymer concentration appears to be independent of molecular weight. The results presented here indicate that the increase in flow resistance is not exclusively determined by the shear viscosity of the polymer solution.


2021 ◽  
Vol 926 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander J. Smits ◽  
Marcus Hultmark ◽  
Myoungkyu Lee ◽  
Sergio Pirozzoli ◽  
Xiaohua Wu

A new scaling is derived that yields a Reynolds-number-independent profile for all components of the Reynolds stress in the near-wall region of wall-bounded flows, including channel, pipe and boundary layer flows. The scaling demonstrates the important role played by the wall shear stress fluctuations and how the large eddies determine the Reynolds number dependence of the near-wall turbulence behaviour.


Fluids ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 195
Author(s):  
George Sofiadis ◽  
Ioannis Sarris

Fluid microstructure nature has a direct effect on turbulence enhancement or attenuation. Certain classes of fluids, such as polymers, tend to reduce turbulence intensity, while others, like dense suspensions, present the opposite results. In this article, we take into consideration the micropolar class of fluids and investigate turbulence intensity modulation for three different Reynolds numbers, as well as different volume fractions of the micropolar density, in a turbulent channel flow. Our findings support that, for low micropolar volume fractions, turbulence presents a monotonic enhancement as the Reynolds number increases. However, on the other hand, for sufficiently high volume fractions, turbulence intensity drops, along with Reynolds number increment. This result is considered to be due to the effect of the micropolar force term on the flow, suppressing near-wall turbulence and enforcing turbulence activity to move further away from the wall. This is the first time that such an observation is made for the class of micropolar fluid flows, and can further assist our understanding of physical phenomena in the more general non-Newtonian flow regime.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ing Jiat Kendrick Wong ◽  
Ngieng Tze Angnes Tiong

AbstractThis paper presents the numerical study of thermal performance factor of Al2O3-Cu/water hybrid nanofluid in circular and non-circular ducts (square and rectangular). Turbulent regime is studied with the Reynolds number ranges from 10000 to 100000. The heat transfer performance and flow behaviour of hybrid nanofluid are investigated, considering the nanofluid volume concentration between 0.1 and 2%. The thermal performance factor of hybrid nanofluid is evaluated in terms of performance evaluation criteria (PEC). This present numerical results are successfully validated with the data from the literature. The results indicate that the heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt number of Al2O3-Cu/water hybrid nanofluid are higher than those of Al2O3/water nanofluid and pure water. However, this heat transfer enhancement is achieved at the expense of an increased pressure drop. The heat transfer coefficient of 2% hybrid nanofluid is approximately 58.6% larger than the value of pure water at the Reynolds number of 10000. For the same concentration and Reynolds number, the pressure drop of hybrid nanofluid is 4.79 times higher than the pressure drop of water. The heat transfer performance is the best in the circular pipe compared to the non-circular ducts, but its pressure drop increment is also the largest. The hybrid nanofluid helps to improve the problem of low heat transfer characteristic in the non-circular ducts. In overall, the hybrid nanofluid flow in circular and non-circular ducts are reported to possess better thermal performance factor than that of water. The maximum attainable PEC is obtained by 2% hybrid nanofluid in the square duct at the Reynolds Number of 60000. This study can help to determine which geometry is efficient for the heat transfer application of hybrid nanofluid.


Membranes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 143
Author(s):  
Lara Grünig ◽  
Ulrich A. Handge ◽  
Joachim Koll ◽  
Oliver Gronwald ◽  
Martin Weber ◽  
...  

In this study, a triblock copolymer was used as additive to fabricate new dual layer hollow fiber membranes with a hydrophilic active inner surface in order to improve their fouling resistance. The polymeric components of the solutions for membrane fabrication were poly(ether sulfone), poly(N-vinyl pyrrolidone), and the triblock copolymer. The additive consists of three blocks: a middle hydrophobic poly(ether sulfone) block and two outer hydrophilic alkyl poly(ethylene glycol) blocks. By varying the additive concentration in the solutions, it was possible to fabricate dual layer hollow fiber membranes that are characterized by a hydrophilic inner layer, a pure water permeance of over 1800 L/(m2 bar h) and a molecular weight cut-off of 100 kDa similar to commercial membranes. Contact angle and composition determination by XPS measurements revealed the hydrophilic character of the membranes, which improved with increasing additive concentration. Rheological, dynamic light scattering, transmission, and cloud point experiments elucidated the molecular interaction, precipitation, and spinning behavior of the solutions. The low-molecular weight additive reduces the solution viscosity and thus the average relaxation time. On the contrary, slow processes appear with increasing additive concentration in the scattering data. Furthermore, phase separation occurred at a lower non-solvent concentration and the precipitation time increased with increasing additive content. These effects revealed a coupling mechanism of the triblock copolymer with poly(N-vinyl pyrrolidone) in solution. The chosen process parameters as well as the additive solutions provide an easy and inexpensive way to create an antifouling protection layer in situ with established recipes of poly(ether sulfone) hollow fiber membranes. Therefore, the membranes are promising candidates for fast integration in the membrane industry.


1957 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 315-325
Author(s):  
R. B. MacFarlane ◽  
L. A. McLeod

Abstract Production of high molecular weight copolymers of butadiene and styrene for use in oil-extended rubbers has aroused interest in the solution properties of copolymers above the molecular weight range commonly encountered in commercial practice. It has been observed that solubility of such polymers in toluene is a time-dependent phenomenon and the apparent solubility can increase continuously, in the absence of agitation, for as long as 800 hours. Although a standard Harris cage solubility test may show the presence of 50% gel, other properties do not confirm the presence of any appreciable quantities of insoluble material. Mild agitation rapidly promotes almost complete solubility. Dilute solution viscosity measurements are very misleading unless the influence of solution time is recognized and apparent intrinsic viscosities rise progressively with time of contact of the sample with solvent. This time-dependence of solution has been found to occur at conversions higher than 50% and is also a function of the amount of modifier used in the polymerization recipe. It has not been possible to shorten the solution time for viscosity measurements by mild heating or gentle agitation. Mixed solvents cause a change in the amount of increase of the apparent intrinsic viscosity but do not shorten the time to equilibrium. Measurement of the slope constant in the Huggins viscosity equation indicate that these solubility and viscosity effects coincide with the appearance of a marked degree of branching in the polymer molecules. The effect is, therefore, interpreted as being caused by the relatively slow disentanglement of molecules of complex structure.


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