Emergence of chaos in a viscous solution of rods.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 29347655.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1103/PhysRevE.96.053108.
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Abstract
It is shown that the addition of small amounts of microscopic rods in a viscous fluid 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 flow. 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.