Reversal of effects from gel production in a reacting flow dependent on gel strength

Abstract

In reacting flows, changes in fluid physical properties induced by chemical reactions can alter the flow dynamics. Generally, flows change more significantly with larger changes in properties. However, here we demonstrate that the effect on the flow reverses depending on the degree of change in the properties due to the reaction in a reacting flow with gel production, through experiments involving high-precision rheological measurements and our proposed theory. This occurs because viscoelastic properties of the gel differently affect flow dynamics depending on the gel strength.