Lagrangian chaos and multiphase processes in vortex flows

Abstract

We discuss experimental and numerical studies of the effects of Lagrangian chaos (chaotic advection) on the stretching of a drop of an immiscible impurity in a flow. We argue that the standard capillary number used to describe this process is inadequate since it does not account for advection of a drop between regions of the flow with varying velocity gradient. Consequently, we propose a Lagrangian-generalized capillary number C L number based on finite-time Lyapunov exponents. We present preliminary tests of this formalism for the stretching of a single drop of oil in an oscillating vortex flow, which has been shown previously to exhibit Lagrangian chaos. Probability distribution functions (PDFs) of the stretching of this drop have features that are similar to PDFs of C L. We also discuss on-going experiments that we have begun on drop stretching in a blinking vortex flow.