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1. Introduction
The transition to turbulence in soft-walled tubes and channels, due to a dynamical
instability involving a coupling between the fluid flow and wall dynamics, could
take place at a Reynolds number significantly lower than the transition Reynolds
number for rigid tubes and channels (Kumaran 2000, 2003, 2015; Shankar 2015).
The transition was first reported by Lahav, Eliezer & Silberberg (1973) and Krindel
& Silberberg (1979) in the flow through a gel-walled tube. The authors observed a
transition from a laminar flow to a more complicated velocity profile, as evidenced
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Effect of viscoelasticity on soft-wall turbulence 1077
by the breakup of a stream of dye introduced at the centre of the tube. The pressure
difference required to drive the flow after transition was also larger than that required
for a laminar flow at the same flow rate. There have been some doubts raised (Yang
et al. 2000) that the observations of Krindel & Silberberg (1979) could be explained
by the tube deformation due to the applied pressure gradient instead of a dynamical
transition. However, the experiments of Krindel & Silberberg (1979) motivated many
subsequent studies on the flow through soft tubes and channels.
1.5. Objective
For the flow of water through a soft-walled microchannel, our objective is to study
(i) the effect of polymer addition on the transition Reynolds number, and
(ii) the turbulence modification by polymer addition.
As summarised in the previous discussion, there are linear stability results (Chokshi
et al. 2015) which indicate that the addition of small amounts of polymers could
result in a significant decrease in the transition Reynolds number. Our first objective
is to specifically examine whether such reductions are observed in experiments. Drag
reduction due to dissolved polymers in turbulent wall-bounded flows is a well-studied
subject, but the phenomenon is still not well understood. A recent study (Srinivas
& Kumaran 2015) has shown that the turbulent flow in a soft channel has many
characteristic features in common with, but also significant differences from, turbulent
flows bounded by hard walls. However, the effect of added polymers on the turbulence
in the flow through soft channels, a subject of considerable interest in physiological
applications, has not been studied so far. The second objective is to examine the effect
of polymer addition on the turbulence, and compare this with the effect of polymers
on turbulent flows bounded by hard walls.
The experimental configuration and the different experimental techniques used
are presented in the next section. The fabrication of the microchannels and the
measurement of the wall deformation and fluid velocity profiles are only briefly
summarised, since they are discussed in detail in 2 of Verma & Kumaran (2013)
and 2 of Srinivas & Kumaran (2015). The preparation and characterisation of
the polymer solutions, and the dimensionless numbers used for characterising the
experiments are discussed in further detail. The main results are presented in 3,
beginning with the transition Reynolds number for different polymer molecular
weights and mass fractions in 3.1. Results from the visualisation of dye mixing,
indicative of cross-stream mixing in the spanwise direction, are presented, and the
effect of polymer addition on the cross-stream mixing is discussed in 3.2. After
this, the profiles of the mean and fluctuating velocities in the channel are analysed
in 3.3. The fluctuations in the soft wall induced by the fluid velocity fluctuations
are discussed in 3.4. The important conclusions of the present study are presented
in 4. The present results are placed in the context of previous studies, relating to
both the transition Reynolds number and the turbulence intensities, in 5.
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1080 S. S. Srinivas and V. Kumaran
2. Experimental set-up
The experimental set-up is identical to that used in Srinivas & Kumaran (2015), and
so the description here is brief.
x
1.5 mm
Inlets
Development section Test section
(b) Syringe
pump 3 cm
1 cm
y
Hard gel
x
Hard gel Soft gel
Hard y 2 mm Hard
A B
z F y
E h
D zC
Soft 2 mm
Soft
F IGURE 1. The schematic of the top view (a) of the PDMS stamp bonded onto the bottom
polymer film, the side view (b) of the deformed channel when there is an applied pressure
difference, the channel cross-section in the absence of deformation (c) and when there is
deformation due to applied pressure gradient (d). The maximum height h is a function of
the downstream position, as shown in (b). The locations I, II and III, where the particle
image velocimetry measurements are carried out, are shown in (a).
of the wall is measured as a function of the downstream distance using images taken
from the side in the configuration shown in figure 2(a), using a Photron FastCam
SA-Z camera with an attached Navitar 48X Zoom Tube for magnification. The outline
of the channel in the images provides the maximum height along the central plane
of the channel shown by the dashed line in figure 1(d). The shape of the bottom
wall is then reconstructed using a cubic spline fit at each downstream location. In
appendix B, the results for the change in height of the channel due to the applied
pressure gradient are presented.
The deformed shape of the channel is reconstructed, and ANSYS FLUENT
simulations in the deformed channel are used to determine the velocity profile
for the laminar flow of a Newtonian fluid with the same viscosity as the polymer
solution. These are then compared with the experimental velocity profiles, to examine
whether the flow is laminar. The procedure is as follows.
(i) Multiple images of the side of the channel are captured at predefined locations
using a zoom tube, and these are combined as shown in figure 3. From this side
view, the maximum height of the channel along the central plane in the spanwise
direction, the vertical line DF in figure 1(d), is measured. The maximum height is
shown as a function of downstream distance in appendix B in figures 23 and 24.
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1082 S. S. Srinivas and V. Kumaran
Glass substrate h
Goniometers
Translation stages
Motorised stage
Zoom tube 1.5 mm
Imaging area
Camera
(b) Camera
Zoom tube
Syringe
pump y
z
x
Glass substrate
Goniometers
Translation stages
Motorised stage
Light source
F IGURE 2. The configuration used (a) for the PIV measurements and for determining
the channel deformation, and (b) for the dye-stream imaging and the wall oscillations; (c)
shows the cross-sectional view of the masking tape used for confining the laser sheet in
the PIV measurements.
(ii) The shape of the deformed bottom surface in figure 1(d) is reconstructed using
a cubic spline procedure, from the maximum height DF along the central plane,
the undeformed heights AE and BC along the side walls, and the condition that
the variation of the height in the z direction is zero by symmetry at the point D.
An example of the side view and the cross-section of the reconstructed channel
is shown in figure 4.
(iii) The deformed cross-section of the channel at each downstream location is then
used to reconstruct the three-dimensional channel shape using Autodesk Inventor.
The mesh generation in the channel was carried out using Gambit 2.4.6; the
smallest spatial dimension in the cross-stream direction was 20 m; this level
of discretisation required 106 grid points. The procedure and validation has been
discussed earlier in 3.1 of (Verma & Kumaran 2013).
(iv) The flow simulations were carried out using ANSYS FLUENT 14.0 computational
fluid dynamics software, using the laminar flow model for a Newtonian fluid,
and the pressure velocity formulation for solving the NavierStokes equations.
The boundary conditions at all the bounding surfaces were the zero-velocity
boundary conditions. The velocity profile was specified to be a plug flow at the
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Effect of viscoelasticity on soft-wall turbulence 1083
(a)
(b)
F IGURE 3. The side view, imaged using the configuration in figure 2(a), of the
undeformed microchannel (a) and the deformed microchannel for the flow of
polyacrylamide solution with molecular weight 5 106 , mass fraction 50 ppm and
Reynolds number 406 (b). The streamwise locations where the height was measured
are shown by the vertical lines, and x = 0 corresponds to the entrance of the test (soft)
section.
(a)
10 mm
x (cm) 0 0.2 0.8 1.5 2.1 2.7 3.0
F IGURE 4. Side view (a) and cross-sectional views at different downstream locations in
the test section (b) and at locations I (c), II (d) and III (e) (in figure 1a) of the channel
reconstructed from the images in figure 3(b). In (be), the width of the channel, which is
1.5 mm, serves as a reference length.
inlet to the development section, zero pressure at the outlet and zero velocity
as the initial condition. The validation for this procedure is provided in 3.5 of
Srinivas & Kumaran (2015), and further details are provided in 2.2 of Srinivas
& Kumaran (2015). When compared with a parabolic velocity profile for a
laminar flow, the difference between the simulation and analytical results was
reported to be 2 % in Srinivas & Kumaran (2015).
where N is the total number of pixels in each frame. The segregation index is obtained
by taking the ratio of the r.m.s. of the grey scale intensity fluctuations and dividing it
by the maximum difference in the grey scale intensities in the dye and the clear fluid,
p
h(1G)2 i
SI = , (2.3)
Gw Gd
where Gw and Gd are the grey scale intensities of clear water stream and the dye
stream. The segregation index is close to zero if the two streams are fully mixed, and
has a maximum of 0.5 when the two streams are perfectly segregated with no lateral
mixing. The segregation index is used to quantify the effect of polymer addition on
the cross-stream mixing after transition.
For the dye concentrations we have used here, the grey scale intensity is not a linear
function of the concentration. When the dye that was initially restricted to one half of
the channel mixes throughout the channel, the dye concentration decreases by a factor
of 2, but there is virtually no change in the colour. Thus, the colour cannot be used
as a quantitative measure of the concentration. It can only be used to infer the spatial
extent to which the dye has mixed into the clear fluid, and to distinguish the extent
of mixing for different polymer concentrations. Quantitative measures of mixing have
been analysed in an earlier study of Kumaran & Bandaru (2016).
The segregation index is calculated at locations I, II and III in figure 1(a), using
images of the type shown in figures 57 presented in 3.2.
measured from the displacement of the dye spot in the streamwise direction observed
using a camera above the channel as shown in figure 2(b). There are also displacement
fluctuations in the streamwise and spanwise directions due to the fluid turbulence,
and the r.m.s. values of these fluctuations are designated u0x and u0z , respectively. The
variation of the displacement with time is captured, and the Fourier transform of
this time series is used to determine the spectra of the displacement fields, u x ()
and u z (),
1 T
Z
u x () = dt exp(it)ux (t). (2.4)
T 0
Since the maximum frame rate is 1000 frame s1 , the Nyquist frequency is
500 frame s1 or 3000 rad s1 . The time period T in (2.4) was set equal to
1 s in most experiments, but longer runs up to 30 s have also been used to ensure
that there are no systematic low-frequency oscillations.
3. Results
To place the results in context, the transition Reynolds numbers for polymer
solutions with different mass fractions at the three locations I, II and III (figure 1a),
are first provided in table 2. After this, the different indicators of transition, such
as dye-stream mixing, wall motion and fluid fluctuating velocities, are discussed in
detail.
Reynolds number is almost the same as that of pure water. The small variation in
the transition Reynolds number is due to the slight increase in the viscosity due to
polymer addition, as shown in table 1. Above the threshold mass fraction, there is a
sharp decrease in the transition Reynolds number, and the transition is observed at a
Reynolds number as low as 116 for the solution of polyacrylamide with molecular
weight 4 104 and mass fraction 1500 ppm, and as low as 35 for the solution of
polyacrylamide with molecular weight 5 106 and mass fraction 50 ppm.
For pure water, transition is observed when the Reynolds number is increased
from 277 to 305 at the downstream locations I and II, and from 250 to 277 at
the downstream location III. This slight variation is consistent with the earlier
experimental results of Verma & Kumaran (2013) and Srinivas & Kumaran (2015)
for the flow of water in a microchannel, where it was observed that the disruption
of the laminar flow first takes place at the downstream locations when the Reynolds
number is increased, and then progresses upstream.
It is important to note that there is a significant increase in the height of the
microchannel due to the applied pressure gradient. As shown in figure 1(d), there
is no discernible deformation of the three hard walls of the microchannel, but there
is a significant compression of the soft wall. The height of the microchannel first
increases downstream from the start of the developing section (joint between the hard
and soft sections in figure 1b), and then decreases further downstream as the pressure
decreases. The deformation is discussed in detail in appendix B.
(a)
1.5 mm
(b)
(c)
F IGURE 5. Images of, left to right, the entrance to the test section, location I, location
II and location III, in figure 1(a), for the flow of water at Reynolds numbers 250 (a),
305 (b) and 444 (c). The water pumped into the bottom inlet is mixed with black ink for
visualisation. The development section is to the left of the arrow, and the test section to
the right of the arrow.
The images in figure 5 show the results for the flow of pure water. No cross-stream
mixing is observed below transition. There is intense cross-stream mixing at the
downstream locations I, II and III at a Reynolds number of 305, which is higher than
the transition Reynolds number, and the extent of mixing increases with downstream
distance. The images for polymer solutions with mass fraction just above wt are shown
in figure 6. In this case, there is no mixing below the transition Reynolds number, but
cross-stream mixing is observed when the transition Reynolds number is exceeded.
However, the mixing is clearly imperfect, and the mixing intensities are significantly
lower than those for pure water. Complete cross-stream mixing is not observed even
at the highest experimental Reynolds numbers of 400. In figure 7, the polymer
mass fraction is increased to 50 ppm for the polyacrylamide with molecular weight
5 106 . In this case, there is very little cross-stream mixing. However, fluctuations at
the interface are clearly observed when the transition Reynolds number is exceeded,
and in video recordings, motion of the interface between the transparent and coloured
fluid is clearly visible, indicating that there is an instability of the laminar flow.
The segregation index SI , defined in (2.3), is shown as a function of Reynolds
number in figure 8 at two locations, I and III. For pure water, the segregation index
is close to 0.5 when the Reynolds number is below Ret , and it decreases steeply when
the Reynolds number crosses Ret . The segregation index is lower at the downstream
location III in comparison to the upstream location I, indicating greater mixing at the
downstream location, as observed in figure 5. The results for mass fractions below
wt are qualitatively similar to that for water; these are not shown in figure 8 in
order to enhance clarity. When the mass fraction increases beyond wt , two effects are
clearly visible. Firstly, there is a decrease in the transition Reynolds number at which
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Effect of viscoelasticity on soft-wall turbulence 1091
(a)
(b)
(c)
F IGURE 6. Images of, left to right, the entrance to the test section, location I, location II
and location III in figure 1(a), for the flow of a solution of polyacrylamide of molecular
weight 5 106 and mass fraction 2 ppm at Reynolds numbers 193 (a), 231 (b) and 441
(c). The solution pumped into the bottom inlet is mixed with black ink for visualisation.
The development section is to the left of the arrow, and the test section to the right of
the arrow.
SI decreases sharply. Secondly, the segregation index is higher than that for pure
water, and it increases with polymer mass fraction. At the highest mass fraction of
50 ppm for the polyacrylamide with molecular weight 5 106 , the segregation index
decreases to 0.35 at location I and 0.3 at location III, indicating that the mixing is
very imperfect; this is evident in the images in figure 7, where there is poor mixing
even at the downstream location III. There is better mixing for the polyacrylamide
with molecular weight 4 104 at the highest mass fraction of 1500 ppm, but, even
here, the segregation index decreases to 0.25 at location I and 0.2 at location III.
This is much higher than the minimum value of 0.05 at the location III for pure
water.
(a)
(b)
(c)
F IGURE 7. Images of, left to right, the entrance to the test section, location I, location II
and location III in figure 1(a), for the flow of a solution of polyacrylamide of molecular
weight 5 106 and mass fraction 50 ppm at Reynolds numbers 20 (a), 41 (b) and 101
(c). The solution pumped into the bottom inlet is mixed with black ink for visualisation.
The development section is to the left of the arrow, and the test section to the right of
the arrow.
for the fluctuating velocity within a distance of 15 m from the wall are not
shown, and the results for the mean velocity at the wall are extrapolated to zero
velocity. In the figures 912, the absolute mean and fluctuating velocities before
and after transition are discussed; this is not a measure of the relative magnitudes
of the fluctuations to the mean velocity. In the following figures 14 and 15, the
dimensionless measures of the mean and fluctuating velocities are shown and
discussed.
The mean velocity profiles at different Reynolds numbers are compared in figure 9
for the flow of pure water, and polymer solutions of molecular weight 5 106 with
mass fraction 2 ppm just above wt and the maximum mass fraction of 50 ppm. In this
figure, the velocity profiles for a laminar flow obtained using the ANSYS FLUENT
computational fluid dynamics software for the same channel shape and flow velocity
are shown by the dashed lines. The velocity profiles are in close agreement with the
computed velocity profiles for a laminar flow below the transition Reynolds number
in table 2, but there is a clear difference between the experimental velocity profile
and the laminar profile when the transition Reynolds number is exceeded. For flow
of pure water in figure 9(a), it is observed that the experimental velocity profile is in
quantitative agreement with that from the ANSYS FLUENT simulations for a laminar
flow up to a Reynolds number of 277. When the Reynolds number is increased to
305, the velocity profile is distinctly different from the laminar profiles obtained in the
simulations, with a smaller curvature at the centre and sharper gradients at the walls.
It is shown a little later that the quantitative measure of the departure from a laminar
profile, vdiff , defined in (3.1), exhibits a discontinuous increase at this transition point.
For the flow of a solution of polyacrylamide of molecular weight 5 106 and mass
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Effect of viscoelasticity on soft-wall turbulence 1093
0.4 0.4
0.3 0.3
0.2 0.2
0.1 0.1
0 100 200 300 400 500 0 100 200 300 400 500
Re Re
fraction 2 ppm, figure 9(b) shows that the velocity profile is in close agreement with
the laminar profile for a Newtonian fluid for Reynolds number up to 178, but there is
a distinct departure from the laminar profile at a Reynolds number of 211 and higher.
It is also evident from figure 9(b) that the extent of departure from the laminar profile
is lower for the polymer solution than for pure water in figure 9(a). When the polymer
concentration is further increased to 50 ppm, the velocity profiles appear to be close
to the laminar profiles at all Reynolds numbers. However, a closer examination of
figure 9(c) suggests that there is a small but discernible departure of the profile from
the laminar profile when the Reynolds number is increased from 30 to 40. This
distinction will also be evident in the discussion of the measure vdiff in figures 14
and 15. Based on figure 9, it can be concluded that there is a significant decrease
in the Reynolds number for transition when the polymer mass fraction is 2 ppm or
higher, and there is also a significant decrease in the departure of the velocity profile
from the laminar profile.
The profiles of the r.m.s. of the velocity fluctuations, vx0 and vy0 , are shown in
figures 10 and 11. It is important to reiterate that, in the experiments, there is a
non-zero level of fluctuations even in the laminar flow, and this level of fluctuations
also decreases significantly as the polymer mass fraction is increased. For pure water,
the streamwise r.m.s. velocity vx0 is 15 % of the average velocity, but this decreases
to 5 % of the average velocity for the highest polymer mass fractions used here.
Similarly, the r.m.s. velocity in the cross-stream direction vy0 is 3 % of the average
velocity for pure water, but it decreases to 1 % of the average velocity for the
highest polymer mass fractions used here. Thus, the addition of polymer appears to
have a significant damping effect on the fluctuations in the laminar flow as well.
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1094 S. S. Srinivas and V. Kumaran
1.5
1.5
1.0
1.0
0.5 0.5
(c) 1.0
0.5
Corresponding to the departure of the mean velocity profile from the laminar profile
in figure 9, there is also a distinct increase in the amplitude of the velocity fluctuations
in figures 10 and 11. The profiles are also asymmetric, and the amplitude of the
fluctuations near the bottom (soft) wall is higher by a factor of 2 in comparison to
that near the top (hard) wall. This indicates that the soft wall has a significant role to
play in the generation of turbulent fluctuations. Most importantly, there is a significant
increase in the amplitude of vx0 and vy0 , by more than a factor of 2, when the Reynolds
number exceeds the transition Reynolds number shown in table 2 at each polymer
mass fraction. This coincides with the Reynolds number at which the velocity profile
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Effect of viscoelasticity on soft-wall turbulence 1095
(a) (b)
0.4
0.10
0.3
0.2
0.05
0.1
(c)
0.04
0.03
0.02
0.01
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3
y (mm)
F IGURE 10. The r.m.s. of the fluctuating velocity vx0 as a function of the cross-stream
distance y for pure water (a), and for a solution of polyacrylamide with molecular weight
5 106 and mass fraction 2 ppm (b) and 50 ppm (c) at location II (in figure 1a). In
(a), the Reynolds numbers are Re = 133 (E), 277 (A), 305 (C) and 388 (6). In (b), Re =
133 (E), 178 (A), 211 (C) and 333 (6). In (c), Re = 20.29 (E), 30.44 (A), 40.59 (C) and
121.8 (6). The bottom wall is at y = 0, and the dashed lines on the right show the location
of the top wall at different Reynolds numbers.
shows a distinct departure from the laminar profile in figure 9, indicating that the
transition is accompanied by a distinct shift in the form of the velocity profile as well
as a significant increase in the amplitude of the fluctuations in both the streamwise
and the cross-stream directions.
There is a decrease in the amplitude of the fluctuations in both the streamwise and
cross-stream directions as the polymer concentration is decreased. The maximum of
vx0 decreases by a factor of 3 in vx0 when the polymer concentration is increased from
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1096 S. S. Srinivas and V. Kumaran
(a) (b)
0.05
0.10
0.05
(c)
0.010
0.005
F IGURE 11. The r.m.s. of the fluctuating velocity vy0 as a function of the cross-stream
distance y for pure water (a), and for a solution of polyacrylamide with molecular weight
5 106 and mass fraction 2 ppm (b) and 50 ppm (c) at location II (in figure 1a). In
(a), the Reynolds numbers are Re = 133 (E), 277 (A), 305 (C) and 388 (6). In (b), Re =
133 (E), 178 (A), 211 (C) and 333 (6). In (c), Re = 20.29 (E), 30.44 (A), 40.59 (C) and
121.8 (6). The bottom wall is at y = 0, and the dashed lines on the right show the location
of the top wall at different Reynolds numbers.
0 ppm to 2 ppm and another factor of 3 when the polymer concentration is decreased
to 50 ppm.
The profiles of the correlation hvx0 vy0 i at different polymer concentrations are shown
in figure 12. This correlation is related to the Reynolds stress xyR by the relation
xyR = hvx0 vy0 i, where the Reynolds stress is the rate of transport of momentum due
to the turbulent velocity fluctuations. For pure water, when the Reynolds number is
below 277, there is a background level of Reynolds stress fluctuations even in the
laminar flow. However, at the Reynolds number of 305, there is a sharp increase
in hvx0 vy0 i by a factor of 3. When the polymer concentration is increased, there is a
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Effect of viscoelasticity on soft-wall turbulence 1097
(a) (b)
5 3
0 1
5 1
10 3
15 5
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0 0.1 0.2 0.3
y (mm) y (mm)
(c)
2
3
0 0.1 0.2 0.3
y (mm)
F IGURE 12. The correlation hvx0 vy0 i as a function of the cross-stream distance y for
pure water (a), and for a solution of polyacrylamide with molecular weight 5 106
and mass fraction 2 ppm (b) and 50 ppm (c) at location II (in figure 1a). In (a), the
Reynolds numbers are Re = 133 (E), 277 (A), 305 (C) and 388 (6). In (b), Re =
133 (E), 178 (A), 211 (C) and 333 (6). In (c), Re = 20.29 (E), 30.44 (A), 40.59 (C)
and 121.8 (6). The bottom wall is at y = 0, and the dashed lines on the right show the
location of the top wall at different Reynolds numbers.
significant decrease in hvx0 vy0 i, as shown in figure 12, by a factor of 5 when the
polymer mass fraction is increased from 0 ppm to 2 ppm, and a factor of 10 when
the polymer mass fraction is increased from 2 ppm to 50 ppm. For each polymer
concentration, there is a sharp increase in hvx0 vy0 i, by a factor of 3 or more, when the
Reynolds number exceeds the transition Reynolds number listed in table 2. Thus, the
indicators of a transition are consistently observed in the mean velocity as well as the
r.m.s. fluctuating velocity at the same transition Reynolds number where cross-stream
mixing is observed in the dye-stream experiments.
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1098 S. S. Srinivas and V. Kumaran
The value of hvx0 vy0 i appears to extrapolate to zero at the top (hard) wall, as
required by the condition that the velocity fluctuations should decrease to zero at
the wall. However, at the bottom wall, it is difficult to extrapolate these to zero,
indicating that the fluctuations at the soft surface may be non-zero. A similar feature
was observed for pure water in Srinivas & Kumaran (2015). As noted in the first
paragraph of this section, we do not have direct measurements of the mean and
fluctuating velocities within a distance of 15 m from the walls. The fluctuating
velocities vx0 and vy0 in figures 10 and 11 could plausibly be extrapolated to zero at
the bottom wall. However, it is very difficult to extrapolate hvx0 vy0 i to zero at the wall.
More sophisticated measurements are required to determine the exact nature of the
fluctuations at the wall and in the near-wall region.
Figure 13 shows the viscous stress (dashed lines) and total stress (solid lines) as
a function of the cross-stream distance. For a proper interpretation of this figure,
it is important to clearly specify the procedure used for calculating these stresses.
The viscous stress is defined as xyv = (dvx /dy), where is considered a constant
equal to the viscosity of the polymer solution. Here, the velocity gradient (dvx /dy)
is measured by numerically taking the derivative of the mean velocity profile using
a second-order central difference scheme. The total stress is the sum of the viscous
and the Reynolds stresses, xy = (dvx /dy) hvx0 vy0 i. The error bars in the stress
calculations are primarily due to the error bars in the correlation hvx0 vy0 i, since the
errors in the derivative of the mean velocity are much smaller. For pure water
(figure 13a), there is very little difference between the total and viscous stresses
when the Reynolds number is below the transition Reynolds number. However,
there is a significant difference above the transition Reynolds number, due to the
contribution of the Reynolds stress. This Reynolds stress contribution decreases to
zero at the upper hard wall, but is significant at the lower soft wall. The stress
is close to a linear function of the cross-stream distance below the transition
Reynolds number, as expected for a rigid channel when the pressure gradient is
a constant. The stress does depart from a linear function at higher Reynolds numbers
due to the channel deformation. However, it should be noted that the viscous
stress departs significantly from a linear function of y. It is necessary to add the
Reynolds stress, which is non-zero at the soft wall, to the viscous stress in order
to obtain a total stress profile that is closer to a linear function of cross-stream
distance.
At the highest polymer mass fraction considered in figure 13(c), the stress profiles
are linear functions of cross-stream distance. This is because the transition Reynolds
number is low, and the channel deformation is small at the Reynolds numbers
under consideration. Moreover, the linear variation of the stress with cross-stream
distance indicates that the fluid viscosity can be considered a constant across the
channel. At the polymer mass fraction just above wt in figure 13(b), the difference
between the total stress and viscous stress is comparable to the experimental
error bars when the Reynolds number is less than Ret , but there is a difference
between the total and viscous stresses when the Reynolds number is greater than
Ret . Thus, there is a discernible contribution to the total stress due to velocity
fluctuations.
An important point to note is that the stress profiles are not linear functions of
cross-stream distance in figure 13(b). Moreover, the curvature of the stress profiles is
the opposite of that expected due to channel deformation, shown in figure 13(a) for
pure water. This is possibly related to the non-uniform viscosity of the fluid across the
channel, a phenomenon also observed in the flow through a rigid channel considered
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Effect of viscoelasticity on soft-wall turbulence 1099
(a) (b) 25
40
20
30 15
10
20
5
10
0
0 5
10
10
15
20
20
30 25
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0 0.1 0.2 0.3
y (mm) y (mm)
(c)
10
10
F IGURE 13. The total stress xy (solid lines) and the viscous stress xy = (dvx /dy)
(dashed lines) as a function of the cross-stream distance y for pure water (a), and for
a solution of polyacrylamide with molecular weight 5 106 and mass fraction 2 ppm
(b) and 50 ppm (c) at location II (in figure 1a). In (a), the Reynolds numbers are Re =
133 (E), 277 (A), 305 (C) and 388 (6). In (b), Re = 133 (E), 178 (A), 211 (C) and 333 (6).
In (c), Re = 20.29 (E), 30.44 (A), 40.59 (C) and 121.8 (6). The bottom wall is at y = 0,
and the dashed lines on the right show the location of the top wall at different Reynolds
numbers. To enhance clarity, only the error bars for the highest Reynolds number are
shown.
0.02
0.3
0.2
0.01
0.1
0 100 200 300 400 500 0 100 200 300 400 500
(c) (d)
0.10
0.010
0.05
0.005
0 100 200 300 400 500 0 100 200 300 400 500
Re Re
F IGURE 14. The measure vdiff of the departure of the velocity profile from the
laminar profile (a), and the scaled maximum of the velocity fluctuations max(vx0 )/v (b),
max(vy0 )/v (c) and max(h|vx0 vy0 |i)/v 2 (d), all at location II (in figure 1a), for a solution
of polyacrylamide with molecular weight 4 104 and with mass fraction 1500 ppm (E),
1000 ppm (A), 700 ppm (C), 500 ppm (B), 100 ppm (D) and pure water (6). The
vertical dashed lines show the transition Reynolds numbers (table 2) at different polymer
concentrations.
between polymers at very high shear rates (Hatzikiriakos & Vlassopoulos 1996).
This effect, which requires further study possibly by direct measurement of polymer
mass fraction, is numerically small but discernible in both hard- and soft-walled
channels. Since the computation of the stress assumes a constant viscosity, we find
that the stress is no longer linear, but the magnitude of the slope of the xy y curve
seems to decrease near the walls. This subtle effect is similar to that of added
polymers on the solution viscosity, which is also small but discernible. However,
this has a significant effect on the transition, and the flow dynamics in a turbulent
flow.
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Effect of viscoelasticity on soft-wall turbulence 1101
0.02
0.3
0.2
0.01
0.1
0 100 200 300 400 500 0 100 200 300 400 500
0.05
0.005
0 100 200 300 400 500 0 100 200 300 400 500
Re Re
F IGURE 15. The measure vdiff of the departure of the velocity profile from the
laminar profile (a), and the scaled maximum of the velocity fluctuations max(vx0 )/v (b),
max(vy0 )/v 2 (c) and max(h|vx0 vy0 |i)/v (d), all at location II (in figure 1a), for a solution
of polyacrylamide with molecular weight 5 106 and with mass fraction 50 ppm (u),
30 ppm (E), 10 ppm (A), 2 ppm (C), 1 ppm (B), 0.5 ppm (D) and pure water (6). The
vertical dashed lines show the transition Reynolds numbers (table 2) at different polymer
concentrations.
where vx (y) is the experimental measurement, vx(l) (y) is the laminar velocity profile
from the ANSYS FLUENT simulations for a channel of the same shape and with the
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1102 S. S. Srinivas and V. Kumaran
same flow rate as in the experiments, and vx( p) is the profile-averaged velocity,
h
1
Z
vx( p) = vx dy. (3.2)
h 0
The fluctuations are characterised by the scaled fluctuation intensities, max(vx0 )/v,
max(vy0 )/v and max(|hvx0 vy0 i|)/v 2 , where max(?) is the maximum value of ? across the
channel, and the mean velocity v is the ratio of the flow rate and the cross-sectional
area.
Figures 14(a) and 15(a) show vdiff as a function of Reynolds number for different
polymer mass fractions. This measure vdiff is numerically small when the flow is
laminar, but it exhibits a sharp increase by a factor of 1.52 at transition, indicating
a qualitative change in the form of the velocity profile. The difference between the
experimental and laminar profiles decreases systematically with an increase in the
polymer mass fraction. However, a sharp change in the value of vdiff is evident at the
transition Reynolds number for all values of the polymer mass fraction.
Figures 14(bd) and 15(bd) show the maximum values of vx0 , vy0 and |hvx0 vy0 i|
across the channel, scaled by suitable powers of v as a function of the Reynolds
number. At transition, there is a discontinuous change in max(vx0 )/v, max(vy0 )/v and
max(|hvx0 vy0 i|)/v 2 for all values of the polymer mass fraction. For the solution of
polyacrylamide with molecular weight 4 104 , max(vx0 )/v and max(vy0 )/v decrease
by 30 % when the polymer mass fraction is increased from 0 ppm to 500 ppm,
and the correlation max(hvx0 vy0 i)/v 2 decreases by more than 50 %. For the solution of
polyacrylamide with molecular weight 5 106 , there is a larger decrease of 50 %
in max(vx0 )/v and max(vy0 )/v, and 80 % reduction in max(hvx0 vy0 i)/v 2 when the
polymer mass fraction is increased from 0 ppm to 1 ppm. When the polymer mass
fraction exceeds the threshold value, there is a further decrease in the amplitude of
the fluctuations, accompanied by a decrease in the transition Reynolds number. At
the highest polymer mass fractions, the values of max(vx0 )/v and max(vy0 )/v are lower
by a factor of 5, and the value of max(hvx0 vy0 i)/v 2 is lower by a factor of 10, in
comparison to that of pure water. Even at the highest polymer mass fractions studied
here, there is a sharp increase by a factor of 2 in max(vx0 )/v and max(vy0 )/v and a
factor of 4 in max(hvx0 vy0 i)/v 2 at transition. This increase is observed at a Reynolds
number as low as 139 for the polymer solution with molecular weight 4 104 and
mass fraction 1500 ppm, and as low as 35 for the polymer solution with molecular
weight 5 106 and mass fraction 50 ppm.
(a) 10 (b) 10
5 5
0 100 200 300 400 500 0 100 200 300 400 500
Re Re
F IGURE 16. The mean wall displacement as a function of the Reynolds number Re
for (a) polymer with molecular weight 4 104 and mass fraction 1500 ppm (E),
1000 ppm (A), 700 ppm (C), 300 ppm (B) and 100 ppm (D), and (b) polymer with
molecular weight 5 106 and mass fraction 50 ppm (u), 30 ppm (E), 10 ppm (A),
2 ppm (C), 1 ppm (B) and 0.5 ppm (D). The results for pure water are shown by
the 6 symbols in both panels. The vertical dashed lines show the transition Reynolds
numbers (table 2) at different polymer concentrations as indicated by the symbols.
resulting in a lower strain rate for the same flow rate. As the mass fraction is further
increased, there is an increase both in the area of cross-section and in the viscosity;
the combination of these two effects results in a net increase in the wall shear stress
and consequently the wall displacement.
The r.m.s. of the wall displacement fluctuations in the streamwise direction, u0x , is
shown in figure 17. The r.m.s. of the displacement in the spanwise direction, u0z , is
25 % smaller than u0x , but it has the same qualitative characteristics, and so it is not
shown separately. For pure water and for low polymer mass fraction below wt , the
variation of u0x with the Reynolds number is in agreement with the earlier study of
Srinivas & Kumaran (2015). A baseline fluctuation level is observed even in a laminar
flow due to experimental noise, but there is a sharp increase in the level of fluctuations
at transition in both the streamwise and spanwise directions, confirming the onset of
wall motion along with the fluctuations in the fluid. As the polymer concentration was
increased, the magnitude of the fluctuations decreased below the detection limit in our
experiments, which is 0.5 m, and so we were not able to detect a change in the
fluctuations.
The frequency spectrum of the fluctuations has also been examined in the
range of 0500 rad s1 at low polymer concentrations. It should be noted that
the fluctuations were measured using a high-speed imaging system with a frame
rate of 1000 frame s1 , and so the Nyquist frequency for the measurements
is 500 frame s1 , or 3000 rad s1 . The measurements have been restricted
to 500 rad s1 in order to provide adequate oversampling. The low-frequency
structure in the spectrum is evident in figure 18(a) for the flow of pure water,
and is similar to the results reported in Srinivas & Kumaran (2015). There is
no sharp maximum in the range 0500 rad s1 , and there is no clear scaling in
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1104 S. S. Srinivas and V. Kumaran
1.0
1.0
0.5
0.5
0 100 200 300 400 500 0 100 200 300 400 500
Re Re
F IGURE 17. The r.m.s. of the fluctuations in the wall displacement as a function of
the Reynolds number Re for (a) polymer with molecular weight 4 104 and mass
fraction 1500 ppm (E), 1000 ppm (A), 700 ppm (C), 300 ppm (B) and 100 ppm (D), and
(b) polymer with molecular weight 5 106 and mass fraction 50 ppm (u), 30 ppm (E),
10 ppm (A), 2 ppm (C), 1 ppm (B) and 0.5 ppm (D). The results for pure water are
shown by the 6 symbols in both panels. The vertical dashed lines show the transition
Reynolds numbers (table 2) at different polymer concentrations as indicated by the
symbols.
with frequency, but the appearance of a broad spectrum at frequencies less then
100 rad s1 is observed in the experiments. When the polymer concentration is
increased just above the threshold concentration, the amplitude of the spectrum
decreases significantly, as shown in figure 18(b), and we do not observe any coherent
spectrum. This is probably because the amplitude of the velocity fluctuations
has decreased below 0.5 m, which is the limit of resolution of our optical
measurement technique. A similar result is obtained when the polymer concentration
is further increased. More advanced techniques for the measurement of displacement
fluctuations are required in order to detect the low-amplitude fluctuations for polymer
solutions.
4. Conclusions
The primary result of the experimental analysis is that polymer addition has two
types of effects on transition and turbulence in a soft-walled microchannel.
(1) When the polymer mass fraction is below a threshold value wt , there is a
reduction in the turbulence intensities after transition, but there is no change
in the transition Reynolds number. The value of wt is 1 ppm for the
polyacrylamide with molecular weight 5 106 , and 500 ppm for the polymer
with molecular weight 4 104 . The turbulence reduction is significant. When
scaled by suitable powers of the average flow velocity, the dimensionless
streamwise and cross-stream r.m.s. velocities decrease by a factor of 2, and
the correlation hvx0 vy0 i (scaled by the square of the average velocity) decreases by
a factor of 4, when the polymer weight fraction increases from 0 to wt .
(2) There is a systematic decrease in the transition Reynolds number with increasing
mass fraction when the polymer concentration increases beyond wt . For the
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Effect of viscoelasticity on soft-wall turbulence 1105
50
40
500 30
20
10
0 5 10 15 20 0 10 20
F IGURE 18. The spectra of the streamwise wall displacement, u x , at different Reynolds
numbers for r.m.s. of the fluctuations in the wall displacement as a function of the
Reynolds number for pure water (a) and a solution of polyacrylamide with molecular
weight 5 106 and mass fraction 2 ppm (b). Vertical offsets are added to the baselines
at different Reynolds numbers to distinguish the different curves.
highest mass fraction of 1500 ppm for the polymer of molecular weight 4 104 ,
the transition Reynolds number is 139, and for the highest mass fraction of
50 ppm for the polymer of molecular weight 5 106 , the transition Reynolds
number is 35. This is in contrast to the transition Reynolds number of 291
when the mass fraction is below wt . The decrease in the transition Reynolds
number is accompanied by a significant decrease in the scaled turbulence
intensities, by a factor of 5 for the streamwise and cross-stream velocity
fluctuations, and by a factor of more than 10 for the correlation hvx0 vy0 i, in
comparison to pure water.
(3) The turbulence damping results in very poor cross-stream mixing even at very
small polymer concentrations.
There are three other incidental observations which may be of relevance in
microfluidics and in the flow of polymer solutions.
(i) It is observed that addition of small amounts of polymers causes a significant
damping of fluctuations even in the laminar flow. In the flow configurations
used here and in many other microfluidic devices, the inlets are perpendicular
to the microchannels and there are often sharp or gentle bends in the channels.
These generate significant velocity fluctuations even in the laminar flow. Here,
we observe that, even in the laminar flow, there is a significant damping of flow
disturbances due to the addition of small amounts of polymer, even when there
is very little change in the solution viscosity. Thus, polymer addition seems to
have a disproportionate effect on the fluctuations in comparison to the mean
flow.
(ii) For mass fractions around the threshold mass fraction wt , there is a small but
discernible change in the shape of the mean velocity profiles, for both rigid and
flexible channels. The strain rate appears to be smaller near the wall, and larger
near the centre, in comparison to that for a parabolic profile with the same flow
rate. This effect is not observed either for pure water or for the largest polymer
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1106 S. S. Srinivas and V. Kumaran
concentrations used here. This implies that the effective viscosity is higher near
the wall and lower near the centre the opposite of the effect expected either
due to shear-thinning or due to shear migration from high- to low-shear regions.
This is also not likely to be due to polymer adsorption on the wall, because
the radius of gyration of the molecules is only 0.5 m for the polymer with
molecular weight 5 106 (Kulicke et al. 1982), which is two orders of magnitude
smaller than the channel height. Further study is required to explain this
effect.
(iii) A transition is observed even in a rigid channel for relatively large polymer mass
fractions (30 and 50 ppm) of the solution of polyacrylamide with molecular
weight 5 106 at Reynolds numbers around 300, as discussed in appendix A.
In the dye-stream experiments, disturbances are observed at the interface
between the inlet streams, and there is a sharp increase in the magnitude of
the velocity fluctuations. This instability is not observed for the polyacrylamide
with molecular weight 4 104 even at the largest mass fraction of 1500 ppm.
5. Discussion
It should be emphasised that the polymer mass fractions used in this study are
sufficiently low that there is very little change in the viscosity of the polymer
solutions. For the solution of polyacrylamide of molecular weight 5 106 , even at
the maximum concentration of 50 ppm, the viscosity exceeds that of water by less
than 10 %. Thus, the modification of the steady shear viscosity due to the addition of
polymers is very small. However, as our study reveals, the polymers have a significant
and disproportionate effect on the soft-wall transition and turbulence.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Department of Science and Technology,
Government of India, for financial support. The authors gratefully acknowledge
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1110 S. S. Srinivas and V. Kumaran
the experimental facilities made available and advice provided by Professors O. N.
Ramesh, J. Dey, R. Govardhan, J. H. Arakeri, A. Ghosh, S. Basu, S. Bose and
S. V. Kailas. The authors are grateful to Professor A. C. Mandal, Dr M. K. S. Verma,
Mr J. Suryanarayana Murthy, Mr P. Kumar, Mr N. Jha, Mr V. Swamybabu, Mr S. Jaju,
Mr A. Tyagi and Mr U. Abbasi for instructive discussions and help with the
experiments.
4.5
4.0
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
F IGURE 19. The mean velocity profiles for the flow of pure water through a rigid
microchannel at different Reynolds numbers of 133 (6), 200 (D), 333 (B) and 444 (E).
The solid lines are the velocity profiles along the central plane in the spanwise direction
from experiments, and the dashed lines are parabolic profiles with the same flow rate.
F IGURE 20. The mean velocity profiles for the flow of a solution of polyacrylamide with
molecular weight 5 106 and (a) mass fraction 2 ppm at Reynolds numbers of 132 (6),
198 (D), 331 (B) and 441 (E) and (b) mass fraction 50 ppm at Reynolds numbers of
162 (6), 244 (C), 325 (A) and 406 (E). The solid lines are the velocity profiles along
the central plane in the spanwise direction from experiments, and the dashed lines are
parabolic profiles with the same flow rate.
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1112 S. S. Srinivas and V. Kumaran
0.05
0.1
0 100 200 300 400 500 0 100 200 300 400 500
0.04
0.003
0.03
0.002
0.02
0.001
0.01
0 100 200 300 400 500 0 100 200 300 400 500
Re Re
F IGURE 21. The measure vdiff of the departure of the velocity profile from the laminar
profile (a), the scaled maximum of the velocity fluctuations max(vx0 )/v (b), max(vy0 )/v (c)
and max(h|vx0 vy0 |i)/v 2 (d), in a rigid microchannel for a solution of polyacrylamide with
molecular weight 5 106 and with mass fraction 50 ppm (u), 30 ppm (E), 10 ppm (A),
2 ppm (C), 1 ppm (B), 0.5 ppm (D) and pure water (6). The vertical dashed lines show
the transition Reynolds numbers for polymer concentrations 50 ppm (u) and 30 ppm (E).
high Weissenberg number, of the order of 250, which are not normally accessible in
the flow of dilute polymer solutions. This transition is not observed for molecular
weight 4 104 , possibly because the Weissenberg number is too low. More work is
necessary to determine the reasons for this instability.
(a)
(b)
(c)
F IGURE 22. Images from, left to right, the entrance to the test section, location I, location
II and location III (in figure 1a), for the flow of a solution of polyacrylamide of molecular
weight 5 106 and concentration 50 ppm in a rigid microchannel of height 160 m at
Reynolds numbers 266 (a), 311 (b) and 333 (c). The clear solution is pumped into the
top inlet, and solution mixed with dye is pumped into the bottom inlet. The developing
section is to the left of the arrow, and the test section is to the right of the arrow.
entrance to the soft test section. The maximum height increases from 300 m at a
Reynolds number of 200, to a maximum of 550 m at the largest Reynolds number
of 388 considered here. It is noteworthy that there is no sharp change in the height
of the channel between the Reynolds numbers 250277 (where transition is observed
at location III) and 277305 (where transition is observed at locations I and II). Thus,
the transition in the flow characteristics is not accompanied by a discontinuous change
in the channel height. Another important observation is that the slope of the wall is
small even for the highest Reynolds numbers considered here. At the entrance to the
test section, the maximum wall slope is less than 8 % at the Reynolds number is 388,
and the slope decreases with downstream distance. At the locations I, II and III where
the results are reported, the maximum slope is 3 % or less at the highest Reynolds
number of 388.
Figure 24 shows the height profiles along the central plane in the spanwise direction
for solutions of polyacrylamide of molecular weight 5 106 with mass fraction just
above wt , 2 ppm, and for the maximum mass fraction, 50 ppm. There is an increase
in the maximum height with polymer mass fraction, from 550 m for pure water
to a little above 600 m when the polymer mass fraction is 2 ppm, and then a larger
increase to 800 m when the mass fraction is 50 ppm. This is expected due to the
normal stress difference in polymer solutions, which tends to push the channel walls
apart, and which increases as the polymer mass fraction increases. The maximum
slope of the wall at the entrance to the test section also increases to a maximum of
12 % for the polymer with molecular weight 5 106 and mass fraction 50 ppm.
However, at the locations I, II and III where the flow and wall characteristics are
measured, the maximum slope is only 5 %.
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1114 S. S. Srinivas and V. Kumaran
0.6 I II III
0.5
0.4
h (mm)
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
x (cm)
F IGURE 23. The channel height h as a function of streamwise distance x measured from
the joint between the hard and soft sections (figure 1a) for pure water at Reynolds number
200 (E), 222 (A), 250 (C), 277 (B), 305 (D), 333 (6) and 388 (). The locations I, II
and III, where the PIV measurements are carried out, are shown by the dashed vertical
lines.
vx( p) hmax
Rep = , (B 1)
where vx( p) is the profile-averaged velocity in (3.2), and is the kinematic viscosity.
The Reynolds number Rep is shown as a function of the Reynolds number Re (2.6)
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Effect of viscoelasticity on soft-wall turbulence 1115
0.5 0.7
0.6
0.4
h (mm)
0.5
0.3 0.4
0.2 0.3
0.2
0.1
0.1
0 0
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
x (cm) x (cm)
F IGURE 24. The channel height as a function of streamwise distance x measured from
the joint between the hard and soft sections (figure 1a) for a solution of polyacrylamide
of molecular weight 5 106 and mass fraction 2 ppm (a) and 50 ppm (b). In (a), the
Reynolds numbers are 110 (E), 154 (A), 209 (C), 231 (B), 264 (D), 308 (6) and 396 ().
In (b), the Reynolds numbers are 20.3 (E), 30.4 (A), 40.6 (C), 81.2 (B), 121.8 (D), 244 (6)
and 365 (). The locations I, II and III, where the PIV measurements are carried out, are
shown by the dashed vertical lines.
0 100 200 300 400 500 0 100 200 300 400 500
Re Re
F IGURE 25. The maximum height as a function of the Reynolds number Re for
(a) polymer with molecular weight 4 104 and mass fraction 1500 ppm (E),
1000 ppm (A), 700 ppm (C), 300 ppm (B) and 100 ppm (D) and (b) polymer with
molecular weight 5 106 and mass fraction 50 ppm (u), 30 ppm (E), 10 ppm (A),
2 ppm (C), 1 ppm (B) and 0.5 ppm (D). The results for pure water are shown by
the 6 symbols in both panels. The vertical dashed lines show the transition Reynolds
numbers (table 2) at different polymer concentrations as indicated by the symbols.
500 500
400 400
300 300
200 200
100 100
0 100 200 300 400 500 0 100 200 300 400 500
Re Re
Reynolds number is 400, due to the large increase in the height. However, at location
III, the profile-averaged Reynolds number is quite close to that based on flow rate
even when the Reynolds number is as large as 400, since the deformation of the
channel is relatively small.
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