Polymer stretching in the inertial range of turbulence.

Abstract

We study the deformation of flexible polymers whose contour length lies in the inertial range of a homogeneous and isotropic turbulent flow. By using the elastic dumbbell model and a stochastic velocity field with nonsmooth spatial correlations, we obtain the probability density function of the extension as a function of the Weissenberg number and of the scaling exponent of the velocity structure functions. In a spatially rough flow, as in the inertial range of turbulence, the statistics of polymer stretching differs from that observed in laminar flows or in smooth chaotic flows. In particular, the probability distribution of polymer extensions decays as a stretched exponential, and the most probable extension grows as a power law of the Weissenberg number. Furthermore, the ability of the flow to stretch polymers weakens as the flow becomes rougher in space.