Selective withdrawal of polymer solutions: Computations

This paper reports numerical simulations of selective withdrawal of Newtonian and polymeric liquids, and complements the experimental study reported in the accompanying paper (Zhou and Feng [2]). We use finite elements to solve the Navier–Stokes and constitutive equations in the liquid on an adaptively refined unstructured grid, with an arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian scheme to track its free surface. The rheology of the viscoelastic liquids are modeled by the Oldroyd-B and Giesekus equations, and the physical and geometric parameters are matched with those in the experiments. The computed interfacial deformation is in general agreement with the experimental observations. In particular, the critical condition for interfacial rupture is predicted to quantitative accuracy. Furthermore, we combine the numerical and experimental data to explore the potential of selective withdrawal as an extensional rheometer. For Newtonian fluids, the measured steady elongational viscosity is within 47% of the actual value, apparently with better accuracy than other methods applicable to low-viscosity liquids. For polymer solutions, an estimated maximum error of 300% compares favorably with prior measurements.     

流场中聚合物共混体系液滴形变的理论模型

讨论了两相聚合物共混体系中，悬浮于另一种牛顿（或粘弹）液体中的牛顿（或粘弹）液滴的形变理论模型．影响液滴形变的主要因素有两相的组成、粘度比和弹性比、动态界面张力、临界界面张力系数，外流场形式及其强度．对于两相均为牛顿流体的体系，理论预测能够与实验相符；对于两相（或其中一相）为粘弹流体的体系，由于弹性的影响而使液滴形变的研究变得复杂，理论模型尚需完善．建立完整的液滴形变理论模型还需深入研究界面层、微观分子形变、液滴之间及液滴和连续相介质之间的相互作用对液滴形变的影响     

Motion of a slender body in quiescent polymer solutions

The motion of a slender body falling in quiescent polymer solutions is investigated experimentally. It represents the simplest model of motion of single fibers in the flow of fiber suspensions. The fall behavior in quiescent polymer solutions is compared with that in water. It is demonstrated that a slender body falling in Newtonian liquids rotates to adopt a horizontal orientation, whereas in non-Newtonian liquids it rotates towards a vertical orientation but for less concentrated solutions is not able to reach the vertical orientation and moves sideways with a constant orientation angle. The effects of shear thinning and elasticity on the motion of the body are discussed.     

Extensional behavior influence on viscoelastic turbulent channel flow

In this work we use in the simulation of a viscoelastic turbulent channel flow a modification of the finitely extensible of non-linear elastic dumbbells with the Peterlin approximation (FENE-P) constitutive model for dilute polymer solutions, applicable to high extensional deformations. The new feature introduced by this modification is that the free energy of the polymer (since it is assumed to be entirely entropically driven) remains always bounded (FENE-PB). The characteristics of the model under steady shear flow, pure elongational flow and transient extensional behavior are presented. It is found that the FENE-PB model is more shear thinning than FENE-P. Most importantly, it also shows a higher extensional viscosity than the FENE-P model. Although the steady-state Trouton ratio asymptotically reaches at high extensional rates the same limit as the FENE-P model, the transition from the Newtonian value is sharper and faster. We use the FENE-PB model in direct numerical simulations (DNS) of viscoelastic turbulent channel flow using spectral approximations. The results for various statistics of the flow and the polymer conformation, when compared against those obtained with the original FENE-P model and the same rheological parameters, show an enhanced polymer-induced drag reduction effect and enhanced deformation of the polymer molecules. This indicates that it is not only the asymptotic but also details from the extensional rheological behavior that matter in quantitatively specifying turbulent viscoelastic flow behavior.     

Rheology of oil-in-water emulsions

The effect of interfacial tension on the steady-flow and dynamic viscoelastic behavior of emulsions are studied experimentally. At very low inter-facial tensions and low volume fractions, the viscosity decreases with increasing shear rate and becomes constant at high shear rates. The high-shear-rate Newtonian viscosity is not affected by interfacial tension, but the transition from pseudoplastic to Newtonian flow shifts to lower shear rates as the interfacial tension decreases. At an interfacial tension of 5 × 10^–3 Nm^–1, the viscosity decreases, passes through a minimum, and then increases as the shear rate is increased. The dilatant behavior may be attributed to elastic responses of interfaces during collision of drops. At high volume fractions, the emulsions show remarkable elasticity resulting from the interfacial energy associated with deformation of liquid films. The modulus and viscosity are proportional to interfacial tension and inversely proportional to drop size.     

A simple extensional viscometer

An extensional viscometer is described in which the liquid filament leaving a capillary is subjected to a stretching deformation. In order to keep the flow rate through the capillary unaltered upon inception of stretching, the pressure head at the capillary entrance has to be reduced by an amount equal to the extensional viscoelastic stress at the capillary exit. This affords a simple means of measuring small fluid forces such as those that occur in the stretching of dilute polymer solutions. Since stretch rates can be obtained from a knowledge of the mass flow rate and the filament diameter profile, extensional viscosities can be computed. The efficacy of the technique is demonstrated by obtaining the anticipated results for Newtonian liquids.     

Gas displacement of viscoplastic liquids in capillary tubes

The displacement of viscoplastic liquids in capillary tubes by gas injection is examined. The viscoplasticity alters the flow kinematics and changes dramatically the amount of mass left attached at the tube wall as compared to the Newtonian case, studied experimentally by G.I. Taylor in 1961 [G.I. Taylor, Deposition of a viscous fluid on the wall of a tube, J. Fluid Mech. 10 (1961) 161–165]. Experiments with Carbopol aqueous solutions were performed for different flow rates. A recently proposed viscosity function for viscoplastic liquids was fitted to the rheological data of the Carbopol solutions. A new dimensionless rheological property – the jump number – arises in the dimensionless version of this viscosity function. The results show the effect of the viscoplastic character of the liquid on the free surface shape and on the thickness of the film of liquid left attached to the wall. This thickness decreases with the jump number and increases with the flow rate. It is also observed that there is a critical dimensionless flow rate below which the displacement is apparently perfect, i.e. there is no observable liquid left attached to the wall. This behavior is shown to be directly related to the fully developed flow far ahead the air–liquid interface.     

Forward roll coating flows of viscoelastic liquids

Roll coating is distinguished by the use of one or more gaps between rotating cylinders to meter and apply a liquid layer to a substrate. Except at low speed, the two-dimensional film splitting flow that occurs in forward roll coating is unstable; a three-dimensional steady flow sets in, resulting in more or less regular stripes in the machine direction. For Newtonian liquids, the stability of the two-dimensional flow is determined by the competition of capillary and viscous forces: the onset of meniscus nonuniformity is marked by a critical value of the capillary number. Although most of the liquids coated industrially are non-Newtonian polymeric solutions and dispersions, most of the theoretical analyses of film splitting flows relied on the Newtonian model. Non-Newtonian behavior can drastically change the nature of the flow near the free surface; when minute amounts of flexible polymer are present, the onset of the three-dimensional instability occurs at much lower speeds than in the Newtonian case.Forward roll coating flow is analyzed here with two differential constitutive models, the Oldroyd-B and the FENE-P equations. The results show that the elastic stresses change the flow near the film splitting meniscus by reducing and eventually eliminating the recirculation present at low capillary number. When the recirculation disappears, the difference of the tangential and normal stresses (i.e., the hoop stress) at the free surface becomes positive and grows dramatically with fluid elasticity, which explains how viscoelasticity destabilizes the flow in terms of the analysis of Graham [M.D. Graham, Interfacial hoop stress and instability of viscoelastic free surface flows, Phys. Fluids 15 (2003) 1702–1710].     

A photographic study of shapes of bubbles and coalescence in non-Newtonian polymer solutions

This communication reports (photographically) on the shapes of bubbles of different gases in several Newtonian and polymer solutions, encompassing a wide range of rheological behavior. Effects of a surface active agent are mentioned and bubble coalescence in viscoelastic solutions is visualized.     

Linear rheology of viscoelastic emulsions with interfacial tension

Emulsions of incompressible viscoelastic materials are considered, in which the addition of an interfacial agent causes the interfacial tension to depend on shear deformation and variation of area. The average complex shear modulus of the medium accounts for the mechanical interactions between inclusions by a self consistent treatment similar to the Lorentz sphere method in electricity. The resulting expression of the average modulus includes as special cases the Kerner formula for incompressible elastic materials and the Oldroyd expression of the complex viscosity of emulsions of Newtonian liquids in time-dependent flow.     

Dynamics of formation and dripping of drops of deformation-rate-thinning and -thickening liquids from capillary tubes

Dynamics of formation of drops of non-Newtonian liquids from capillary tubes is studied computationally. The rheology of the drop liquids is described by a constitutive relation that accounts for both deformation-rate-thinning and -thickening. The analysis is expedited by reducing the original system of three-dimensional but axisymmetric equations to a system of one-dimensional slender-jet equations. The slender-jet equations are solved by a method of lines using a finite element method for spatial discretization and an adaptive finite difference method for time integration. The simulations follow the formation in time of thousands of drops in sequence, including any satellites that may be produced upon the breakup of a thin thread connecting an about-to-form primary drop to the rest of the liquid attached to the tube. Rate-thickening is shown to produce bead-on-string patterns, which are typically attributed to viscoelastic effects, along the thin threads as they near pinch-off. Rate-thinning, on the other hand, is demonstrated to reduce the length of such thin threads. Simulations are used to identify conditions that may lead to minimization and/or elimination of unwanted satellites. Analysis of dripping or leaky faucets of non-Newtonian liquids reveals rich nonlinear dynamical behavior. As with Newtonian liquids, simple periodic or P-1, where P stands for period, dripping at low flow rates gives way to more complex responses as flow rate is increased. In addition to P-1, P-2, and P-4 responses seen in recent computational analyses of dripping faucets of Newtonian liquids, the new non-Newtonian simulations have also uncovered difficult-to-find P-3 responses as well as chaotic states. Rate-thinning and low viscosities are shown to enhance the complexity of observed responses. Rate-thickening, on the other hand, lowers the critical value of the flow rate for the onset of complexity but narrows the range of flow rates over which the dynamics is complex. The possibility of hysteresis is demonstrated and the effect of fluid rheology on the value of the flow rate for transition from dripping to jetting is determined.     

Rising behavior of single bubble in infinite stagnant non-Newtonian liquids

This work is an experimental study of the rising behavior of single air bubbles in infinite stagnant non-Newtonian liquids. Aqueous solutions of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) are selected to study the effect of rheological properties. The high speed photography is employed to record the bubble motion in CMC solutions. The bubble size, rising trajectory, bubble shape and velocities are determined by digital image processing technique. As expected, the rheological properties have great influence on the rising behavior of single bubble. In the less concentrated CMC solutions, the bubble rising process can be divided into three stages according to spatial evolution of bubble shape. The deformation changes the trajectories of rising bubbles and bubble hydrodynamics. As the solution concentration increases, the transitional stage gradually disappears. In the most concentrated CMC solution, the first continuous shape flattening stage is directly followed by a rising process with bubble shape basically constant, the rectilinear path and constant rising velocity. Dimensional analysis is performed to formulate a general dimensionless correlation for the deformation and motion of bubbles in infinite liquids by considering the rheological properties.     

A model of elastic deformation for the description of withdrawal of polymer solutions

Based on the hypothesis of fluidity loss, which arises as a result of deformative orientation developing in polymer liquids at large elastic strains, the problem of the withdrawal of polymer solutions from a reservoir with a free liquid surface as well as the open-channel siphon problem have been treated theoretically. The assumption is made that after fluidity loss occurs the polymer solution deforms like a highly elastic cross-linked rubber. A quantitative comparison between the theoretical results and some experiments is also given.     

The spatial development of transient couette flow and shear wave propagation in polymeric liquids by flow birefringence

In this paper the method of polarization modulated flow birefringence is us used to analyze the spatial and temporal dependence of the inception and cessation of Couette flow of polymeric liquids. Data are presented for both a Newtonian but birefringent polybutene oil and two solutions of poly(oxyethylene). The stress-optical rule is used to obtain the corresponding 'shear and normal stresses as functions of both time and space. The data for the Newtonian fluid are compared with analytical solutions to the momentum equations and are found to accurately follow the theoretical predictions. The polymer solutions, on the other hand, show a complex response with evidence for shear stress propagation as a wave of finite, constant speed. The measured wave speeds agree well with recent data reported by Joseph. Riccius and Arney [JFM 171(1986)309] on the same polymer solutions.     

Dynamics of a Taylor bubble in steady and pulsatile co-current flow of Newtonian and shear-thinning liquids in a vertical tube

A computational analysis is carried out to ascertain the effects of steady and pulsatile co-current flow, on the dynamics of an air bubble rising in a vertical tube containing water or a solution of Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) in water. The mass fraction (m_f) of CMC in the solution is varied in the range 0.1% ⩽ m_f ⩽ 1% to accommodate zero-shear dynamic viscosities in the range 0.009–2.99 Pa-s. It was found that the transient and time-averaged velocities of Taylor bubbles are independent of the bubble size under both steady as well as pulsatile co-current flows. The lengths of the Taylor bubbles under the Newtonian conditions are found to be consistently greater than the corresponding shear-thinning non-Newtonian conditions for any given zero-shear dynamic viscosity of the liquid. In contrast to observations in stagnant liquid columns, an increase in the dynamic viscosity of the liquid (under Newtonian conditions) results in a concomitant increase in the bubble velocity, for any given co-current liquid velocity. In shear-thinning liquids, the change in the bubble velocity with an increase in m_f is found to be relatively greater at higher co-current liquid velocities. During pulsatile shear-thinning flows, distinct ripples are observed to occur on the bubble surface at higher values of m_f, the locations of which remain stationary with reference to the tube for any given pulsatile flow frequency, while the bubble propagated upwards. In such a pulsatile shear-thinning flow, a localised increase in dynamic viscosity is accompanied near each ripple, which results in a localised re-circulation region inside the bubble, unlike a single re-circulation region that occurs in Newtonian liquids, or shear-thinning liquids with low values of m_f. It is also seen that as compared to frequency, the amplitude of pulsatile flow has a greater influence on the oscillating characteristics of the rising Taylor bubble. The amplitude of oscillation in the bubble velocity increases with an increase in the CMC mass fraction, for any given value of pulsatile flow amplitude.     

Experimental and numerical investigations of pressure drop in a rectangular duct with modified power law fluids

Numerical solutions are presented for fully developed laminar flow for a modified power law fluid (MPL) in a rectangular duct. The solutions are applicable to pseudoplastic fluids over a wide shear rate range from Newtonian behavior at low shear rates, through a transition region, to power law behavior at higher shear rates. The analysis identified a dimensionless shear rate parameter which, for a given set of operating conditions, specifies where in the shear rate range a particular system is operating, i.e. in the Newtonian, transition, or power law regions. The numerical results of the friction factor times Reynolds number for the Newtonian and power law region are compared with previously published results showing agreement within 0.05% in the Newtonian region, and 0.9% and 5.1% in the power law region. Rheological flow curves were measured for three CMC-7H4 solutions and were found to be well represented by the MPL constitutive equation. The friction factor times Reynolds number values were measured in the transition region for which previous measurements were unavailable. Good agreement was found between experiment and calculation thus confirming the validity of the analysis.     

Modeling macromolecular movement in polymer melts and its relation to nonlinear rheology

We present direct evidence of the macromolecular network behavior at high deformation rates based on macroscopic simulation of these systems by a group of elastics as a model of flexible-chain polymer concentrated solutions or melts. It was shown that at low deformation rates, the disentanglement process really takes place providing a possibility to irreversible deformations (flow), while at high deformation rates, the dominating effect is the formation of large inhomogeneous structures (??grains?? or ??bundles??) consisting of flocks of entangled chains. This is a model of the deformation induced flow-to-rubbery transition, which makes the irreversible flow impossible. The attempt to increase the deformation rate leads to the rupture of elastics. So, we constructed a model for the deformation-induced fluid-to-rubber transition at high rates and confirmed it by direct measurements of elastic-to-plastic strain ratio as a function of deformation rate.     

Rheological relationships for concentrated polymer solutions

Using a network model for concentrated polymer solutions, an expression is calculated for the stress tensor, defined in terms of the moments of the distribution function and the kinetic equation for these moments. In the limiting case the results obtained coincide with known results for normal Newtonian liquids.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, No. 2, pp. 126–132, March–April, 1976.     

The effect of polymer additives which lower the friction resistance on flow in smoothly contracting and expanding channels

Vortical formations near the wall and their subsequent disintegration are sources of turbulization of the flow [1, 2]. Their intensity at smooth walls depends on the magnitude and the sign of the longitudinal pressure gradient [1]. With considerable values of a negative pressure gradient, vortices do not develop. In a number of publications, for example [3], note is taken of the special importance of vortices of the transition layer in the phenomenon of the lowering of the friction resistance by polymer additives. In this work, experimental investigations were made of flows with negative and positive pressure gradients. Data are obtained which attest to the fact that the flow of weak solutions of polymers with negative pressure gradients does not differ from the flow of Newtonian liquids, while, with positive gradients, the effect of polymer additives manifests itself fully.