Role of viscoelasticity and non-linear rheology in flows of complex fluids at high deformation rates

Abstract

We combine pressure, velocimetry and birefringence measurements to study three phenomena for which the fluid rheology plays a dominant role: 1) shear banding in micellar fluids, 2) extension-dominated flows in microfluidic devices, and 3) flow-induced particle migration in microchannels. Firstly, worm-like micellar solutions are model non-Newtonian fluids having a single relaxation time [beta]. At shear rates larger than ... however, these systems exhibit shear banding and non-linear rheological behavior, whose importance is characterized by the Weissenberg number ... We develop a stability criterion for the onset of a purely viscoelastic instability for shear-banding fluids, to establish the limitations of conventional rheometric techniques for studying these fluids. A second challenge for conventional rheometers is inertially-driven secondary flows. The onset of these flows is governed by the Reynolds number ... where U is the velocity, D is the flow geometry length and v is the fluid kinematic viscosity. We develop microfluidic devices to impose shear and extensional deformation rates up to ...at low Re. These experiments combine pressure measurements, micro-particle image velocimetry ([mu]-PIV) and birefringence measurements. We develop a microfluidic chip that enables applied rheologists to quantitatively differentiate between fluid formulations intended for applications at high deformation rates. Finally, we study the interplay between fluid inertia and elasticity on particle migration. The inertially-dominated case is governed by the channel Reynolds number Re, and particle Reynolds number ... where a is the particle diameter. In a microfluidic device, the particle and channel size are on the same order, and hence migration occurs at ... in the so-called 'inertial focusing' regime which may have applications in clinical medicine. However, most physiological fluids are viscoelastic and therefore particle migration in these fluids occurs at high Reynolds and Weissenberg numbers, which is a mostly unstudied regime. We combine pressure measurements, streak imaging, [my]-PIV and particle trajectory analysis (PTA) to study the migration of polystyrene beads. Inertia drives particles toward the channel walls, whereas elasticity drives particles toward the channel centerline even at Re, ~ 2000.