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Center for Nonlinear Studies |
Flexible polymer molecule in a shear flow is stretched along the direction of the flow and experiences aperiodic tumbling type motion due to orientational diffusion. The elastic stress that a polymer exerts on a flow is strongly dependent on its orientation and is highly intermittent. Hydrodynamic interactions of individual polymers can enhance the fluctuations of individual molecules and result in a different non-equilibrium steady state. The transition to this new steady state can be related to the "Elastic Turbulence" phenomena observed in dilute polymer solutions.
Host: Konstantin Turitsyn