Mixing of non-Newtonian fluids in steadily forced systems
Paulo E Arratia1, Troy Shinbrot, Mario M Alvarez
1Department of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering, 98 Brett Road, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08855, USA.
Abstract:
We investigate mixing in a viscoelastic and shear-thinning fluid-a very common combination in polymers and suspensions. We find that competition between elastic and viscous forces generates self-similar mixing, lobe transport, and other characteristics of chaos. The mechanism by which chaos is produced is evaluated both in experiments and in a simple model. We find that chaotic flow is generated by spontaneous oscillations, the magnitude and frequency of which govern the extent of chaos and mixing.
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