Polymer dynamics in chaotic flows with strong shear component

TL;DR

This paper investigates the statistical behavior of polymer molecules in chaotic flows with strong shear, focusing on orientation, tumbling intervals, and size distribution, inspired by elastic turbulence experiments.

Contribution

It provides detailed statistical analysis of polymer dynamics in shear-dominated chaotic flows, including orientation, tumbling, and size distributions, based on theoretical modeling.

Findings

Stationary distribution of polymer orientation derived

Distribution of tumbling time intervals characterized

Tails of polymer size distribution analyzed

Abstract

We consider the internal dynamics of the polymer molecule which is injected in the chaotic flow with strong mean shear component. The flow geometry corresponds to the recent experiments on the elastic turbulence (Groisman, Steinberg 2000). The passive polymer in such flows experiences aperiodic tumbling. We present a detailed study of the statistical properties of such polymer dynamics. First we obtain the stationary probability distribution function of the polymer orientation. Secondly we find the distribution of the time periods between consequent events of tumbling, and finally we find the tails of the polymer size distribution.