Elasto-inertial Chains in a Two-dimensional Turbulent Flow

TL;DR

This paper investigates how elasticity and inertia influence the transport and flow sampling of bead-spring chains in 2D turbulence, revealing complex behaviors distinct from inertial particles and highlighting the importance of mass distribution.

Contribution

It demonstrates the significant impact of elastic interactions on filamentary object transport in turbulence, introducing new insights into the role of inertia and elasticity in flow sampling behaviors.

Findings

Elastic interactions cause non-trivial flow sampling, including vortex entrapment and straining region preference.

Transport behavior varies with inertia and elasticity, differing from inertialess chains and free particles.

Mass distribution critically affects the turbulent transport of extended objects.

Abstract

The interplay of inertia and elasticity is shown to have a significant impact on the transport of filamentary objects, modelled by bead-spring chains, in a two-dimensional turbulent flow. We show how elastic interactions amongst inertial beads result in a non-trivial sampling of the flow, ranging from entrapment within vortices to preferential sampling of straining regions. This behavior is quantified as a function of inertia and elasticity and is shown to be very different from free, non-interacting heavy particles, as well as inertialess chains [Picardo et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 244501 (2018)]. In addition, by considering two limiting cases, of a heavy-headed and a uniformly-inertial chain, we illustrate the critical role played by the mass distribution of such extended objects in their turbulent transport.