Shear-thinning Polymer Solutions Research Articles

Lubrication with Non-Newtonian Fluids

Hydrodynamic lubrication is studied for both shear thinning and viscoelastic polymer solutions. We find that elasticity, notably strong normal stresses, does not change the friction significantly for the range of parameters tested in this manuscript. Shear-thinning properties, on the other hand, do change the formation of the lubricating layer thickness and the dependence of friction on velocity relative to Newtonian fluids. A hydrodynamic model that includes shear thinning is developed and compared to experimental data. The model describes the dependence on lubrication parameters well, but underestimates the lubricating layer thickness by a constant factor of roughly 1.5. The theory allows us to define a Hersey-like number for shear-thinning fluids that describes the lubricating layer thickness as a result of the balance between normal load and viscous force. For each tested liquid it succeeds in collapsing friction measurements onto the same curve. The friction analysis for both lubrication theory and experiments then reveals that shear thinning mainly changes the layer thickness, which is the main determinant of the friction coefficient.

Recursive Settling of Particles in Shear Thinning Polymer Solutions: Two Velocity Mathematical Model.

Processing of the available experimental data on particles settling in shear-thinning polymer solutions is performed. Conclusions imply that sedimentation should be recursive, since settling also occurs within the sediment. To capture such an effect, a mathematical model of two continua has been developed, which corresponds to experimental data. The model is consistent with basic thermodynamics laws. The rheological component of this model is a correlation formula for gravitational mobility. This closure is justified by comparison with known experimental data available for particles settling in vertical vessels. In addition, the closure is validated by comparison with analytical solutions to the Kynch one-dimensional equation, which governs dynamics of particle concentration. An explanation is given for the Boycott effect and it is proven that sedimentation is enhanced in a 2D inclined vessel. In tilted vessels, the flow is essentially two-dimensional and the one-dimensional Kynch theory is not applicable; vortices play an important role in sedimentation.

Near-wall lubricating layer in drag-reduced flows of rigid polymers

We experimentally investigate the drag-reduced channel flow of an inelastic, shear-thinning rigid polymer solution. Particle image velocimetry and shear-viscosity measurements are used to obtain instantaneous distributions of the shear viscosity within the turbulent domain. We elucidate that drag reduction for rigid polymers is primarily driven by a thin lubricating layer that consists of low-viscosity fluid near the channel wall.

Scaling purely elastic instability of strongly shear thinning polymer solutions.

Flow of viscoelastic polymer solutions in curved channels exhibits instability caused by the elastic nature of polymers even at low Reynolds numbers. However, scaling of the onset of this purely elastic instability in semidilute polymer solutions has not been previously reported. Here we experimentally investigate the flow of highly elastic polymer solutions above their overlap concentrations using pressure measurements and particle image velocimetry. We demonstrate that the onset of instability can be scaled by including shear dependent rheological properties of the polymer solutions in the nonlinear stability analysis. As a result, a universal criterion as function of normalized polymer concentration is provided for scaling the onset of purely elastic instability in the semidilute regime regardless of the type and molecular weight of the polymer.

Turbulent mass transfer near gas-liquid interfaces in water and shear-thinning dilute polymer solution

Turbulence is known to enhance gas-liquid mass transfer and mixing of high Schmidt number dissolved gases in water by deforming the concentration boundary layer that develops at the interface. Fundamental mechanisms of surface renewal and injection have been progressively evidenced throughout the last decades, via fundamental experiments of low mean shear turbulence interacting with flat interfaces in water. However, and despite the obvious influence of non-Newtonian behaviours on gas liquid mass transfer in industrial and environmental applications, not such study exists (to the best of the author’s knowledge) on whether and how these mechanisms apply in shear-thinning dilute polymer solutions (DPS). Following a previous work on near surface hydrodynamics, turbulent mass transfer and mixing is studied in a weakly shear-thinning fluid, and compared to the Newtonian, water case. Stereoscopic Particle Image Velocimetry (SPIV) and Inhibited Planar Laser Induced fluorescence are used simultaneously to measure the local liquid phase velocity and dissolved gas concentration fields respectively. Coupled measurements are used to estimate the turbulent mass fluxes, which are interpreted using a conditional quadrant analysis. Results show that in DPS as well as in water, surface renewal is the most frequent mechanism, but injection events are the most efficient in terms of mass transfer. Even at a low concentration, the polymer significantly modifies the signature of those mass transfer events, by enhancing scalar stretching and injection mass transfer outside of the viscous sub-layer, altering classical gradient models.

Large Scale Hydrodynamically Coupled Brownian Dynamics Simulations of Polymer Solutions Flowing through Porous Media.

Large scale simulations of polymer flow through porous media provide an important tool for solving problems in enhanced oil recovery, polymer processing and biological applications. In order to include the effects of a wide range of velocity and density fluctuations, we base our work on a coarse-grain particle-based model consisting of polymers following Brownian dynamics coupled to a background fluid flow through momentum conserving interactions. The polymers are represented as Finitely Extensible Non-Linear Elastic (FENE) dumbbells with interactions including slowly decaying transient forces to properly describe dynamic effects of the eliminated degrees of freedom. Model porous media are constructed from arrays of parallel solid beams with circular or square cross-sections, arranged periodically in the plane perpendicular to their axis. No-slip boundary conditions at the solid–fluid interfaces are imposed through interactions with artificial particles embedded within the solid part of the system. We compare the results of our simulations with those of standard Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics simulations for Newtonian flow through the same porous media. We observe that in all cases the concentration of polymers at steady state is not uniform even though we start the simulations with a uniform polymer concentration, which is indicative of shear-induced cross-flow migration. Furthermore, we see the characteristic flattening of the velocity profile experimentally observed for shear-thinning polymer solutions flowing through channels as opposed to the parabolic Poiseuille flow profile for Newtonian fluids.

Transition to turbulence via flame patterns in viscoelastic Taylor-Couette flow.

Transition to inertio-elastic turbulence in Taylor-Couette flow with shear-thinning and viscoelastic polymer solutions is investigated when the rotation rate of the inner cylinder is increased and the outer cylinder is fixed. In two polymer solutions of PEO with elastic number [Formula: see text], the first instability of the circular Couette flow appears as spirals propagating in opposite directions along the axis of cylinders. Just above the onset of the spirals pattern, the localized solitons of the strong radial inflow called flame-like flow appear abruptly inside waves. The abrupt apparition of the flame-like flow is the signature of the subcritical transition to turbulence. The number of the flame-like flows follows a Gaussian distribution at given Ta number. The averaged number of the flame-like flow increases as the rotation rate is increased and it saturates in the inertio-elastic turbulence. The soliton of the strong radial inflow (flame-pattern) is created when it amplitude exceeds a critical value. The distribution of the critical amplitudes of the flame patterns follows a Gaussian law at given Ta number. The transition to turbulence is described by a mathematical model based on an error function of the probability to observe a strong inflow (flame-pattern). The statistical data of the critical amplitude and the probability to observe the flame patterns are used with the mathematical model in order to determine the stability curve of the transition to turbulence. The analysis of the transition to turbulence is completed by the characterization of the spatiotemporal properties.

Improved Calculation of Wellblock Pressures for Numerical Simulation of Non-Newtonian Polymer Injection

Summary The viability of any enhanced-oil-recovery project depends on the ability to inject the displacing fluid at an economic rate. This is typically evaluated using finite-volume numerical simulation. These simulators calculate injectivity using the Peaceman method (Peaceman 1978), which assumes that flow is Newtonian. Most polymer solutions exhibit some degree of non-Newtonian behavior resulting in a changing polymer viscosity with distance from the injection well. For shear-thinning polymer solutions, conventional simulations can overpredict injection-well bottomhole pressure (BHP) by several hundred psi, unless a computationally costly local grid refinement is used in the near-wellbore region. We show theoretically and numerically that the Peaceman pressure-equivalent radius, based on Darcy flow, is not correct when fluids are shear thinning, and derive an analytical expression for calculating the correct radius. The expression does not depend on any particular functional relationship between polymer-solution viscosity and velocity. We test it using the relationship described by the Meter equation (Meter and Bird 1964) and the Cannella et al. (1988) correlation. Numerical tests indicate that the solution provides a significant improvement in the accuracy of BHP calculations for conventional numerical simulation, reducing or removing the need for expensive local grid refinement around the well when simulating the injection of fluids with shear-thinning non-Newtonian rheology.

POD analysis of oscillating grid turbulence in water and shear thinning polymer solution

AbstractOscillating grids are frequently used with water and Newtonian fluids to generate controlled turbulence and mixing. Yet, their use with shear thinning fluids still requires experimental characterization. Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) is applied to PIV measurements of the flow generated by an oscillating grid in water and a shear thinning dilute polymer solution (DPS) of xanthan gum. The aims are to investigate the ability of POD to isolate periodic flow structures, and to use it to describe the effects of the shear thinning property. A dominance of the low order POD modes is evidenced in DPS. The methods applied in blade stirred tanks to identify oscillatory motion fail here. However, a strong mode coupling in the grid swept region is observed, determined by the working fluid and by an underlying chaotic nature of the flow. Possibilities of reconstructing turbulence properties using high order modes are discussed.

Oscillating grid generating turbulence near gas-liquid interfaces in shear-thinning dilute polymer solutions

A first experimental characterization of low Reynolds number, oscillating grid generated, and near-surface turbulence in shear-thinning dilute polymer solutions is presented. Energy transfer and horizontal damping mechanisms are evidenced. The evolution of the viscous sublayer depth can be explained by both viscous and shear-thinning effects.

Flow around an oscillating grid in water and shear-thinning polymer solution at low Reynolds number

The study of turbulence in complex fluids is of great interest in many environmental and industrial applications, in which the interactions between liquid phase rheology, turbulence, and other phenomena such as mixing or heat and mass transfer have to be understood. Oscillating grid stirred tanks have been used for many purposes in research involving turbulence. However, the mechanisms of turbulence production by the oscillating grid itself have never been studied, and oscillating grid turbulence (OGT) remained undescribed in non-Newtonian, shear-thinning, dilute polymer solutions until recently (Lacassagne et al., in Phys Fluids 31(8):083,102, 2019). The aim of this paper is to study the influence of the shear-thinning property of dilute polymer solutions (DPS), such as xanthan gum (XG), on mean flow, oscillatory flows, and turbulence around an oscillating grid. Liquid phase velocity is measured by particle image velocimetry (PIV) in a vertical plane above the central grid bar. Mean, oscillatory and turbulent components of the velocity fields are deduced by triple Hussain–Reynolds decomposition based on grid phase-resolved measurements. Outside of the grid swept region, the amplitude of oscillatory fluctuations quickly become negligible compared to that of turbulent fluctuations, and the triple and classical Reynolds decomposition become equivalent. Oscillatory jets and wakes behind the grid and their interactions are visualized. Turbulent (Reynolds) and oscillatory stresses are used to evidence a modification of oscillatory flow and turbulence intensity repartition in and around the grid swept region. Energy transfer terms between mean, oscillatory and turbulent flows are estimated and used to describe turbulence production in the grid swept region. Energy is injected by the grid into the oscillatory component. In water, it is transferred to turbulence mostly inside the grid swept region. In DPS, oscillatory flow persists outside of the grid swept zone. Energy is transferred not only to turbulence , in the grid swept region, and far from the tank’s walls, but also to the mean flow, leading to an enhancement of the latter. Mean flow production and enhancement mechanisms are explainable by oscillatory jet variable symmetry and intensity, and by time- and space-variable viscosity. Backward transfer from turbulence to oscillatory flow is also evidenced in DPS. Finally, using phased root mean square (rms) values of turbulent velocity fluctuations, it is shown that in water, the decay of turbulence intensity behind an oscillating grid can be related to the decay of fixed grid turbulence for specific grid positions, a result no longer valid in DPS.Graphic abstract

Oscillating grid turbulence in shear-thinning polymer solutions

Oscillating grid apparatuses are well known and convenient tools for the fundamental study of turbulence and its interaction with other phenomena since they allow to generate turbulence supposedly homogeneous, isotropic, and free of mean shear. They could, in particular, be used to study turbulence and mass transfer near the interface between non-Newtonian liquids and a gas, as already done in air-water situations. Although frequently used in water and Newtonian fluids, oscillating grid turbulence (OGT) generation has yet been rarely applied and never characterized in non-Newtonian media. The present work consists of a first experimental characterization of the flow properties of shear-thinning polymer (Xanthan Gum, XG) solutions stirred by an oscillating grid. Various polymer concentrations are tested for a single grid stirring condition. The dilute and semidilute entanglement concentration regimes are considered. Liquid phase velocities are measured by Particle Image Velocimetry. The existing mean flow established in the tank is described and characterized, as well as turbulence properties (intensity, decay rate, length scales, isotropy, etc.). OGT in dilute polymer solutions induces an enhanced mean flow compared to water, a similar decay behavior with yet different decay rates, and enhanced turbulence large scales and anisotropy. In the semidilute regime of XG, turbulence and mean flows are essentially damped by viscosity. The evolution of mean flow and turbulence indicators leads to the definition of several polymer concentration subregimes, within the dilute one. Critical concentrations around 20 ppm and 50 ppm are found, comparable to drag reduction characteristic concentrations.

Elastic instabilities in pressure-driven channel flow of thixotropic-viscoelasto-plastic fluids

We study the stability of pressure-driven channel flow of a thixotropic-viscoelasto-plastic fluid. Several recent experiments have shown that channel flows of shear-thinning polymer solutions can be linearly unstable even at very low Reynolds numbers. We use the Bautista–Manero–Puig model (BMP) to attempt to capture the physics of these instabilities. We obtain an analytic solution for the steady-state velocity profile, dependent on our fluid parameters, that is able to predict a large variety of base states. We derive dimensionless groups to compare the effects of viscoelasticity, thixotropy and plasticity on the flow stability. We find that sinuous perturbations are slightly more unstable than varicose modes, and we identify the values of our model parameters for which the instability has its strongest effects. We conclude that dominant thixotropy can stabilise the flow, but instability occurs when the characteristic timescale of viscoelasticity is much longer than both those of plasticity and thixotropy. The most dangerous situation is a plug flow with an apparent yield surface just within the channel, and we find that the growth rate of the instability scales with the rate of thixotropic structure recovery.

"From the Edge to the Center": Viscoelastic Migration of Particles and Cells in a Strongly Shear-Thinning Liquid Flowing in a Microchannel.

Controlling the fate of particles and cells in microfluidic devices is critical in many biomedical applications, such as particle and cell alignment and separation. Recently, viscoelastic polymer solutions have been successfully used to promote transversal migration of particles and cells toward fixed positions in straight microchannels. When inertia is negligible, numerical simulations have shown that strongly shear-thinning polymer solutions (fluids with a shear viscosity that decreases with increasing flow rates) promote transversal migration of particles and cells toward the corners or toward the centerline in a straight microchannel with a square cross section, as a function of particle size, cell deformability, and channel height. However, no experimental evidence of such shifting in the positions for particles or cells suspended in strongly shear-thinning liquids has been presented so far. In this work, we demonstrate that particle positions over the channel cross section can be shifted "from the edge to the center" in a strongly shear-thinning liquid. We investigate the viscoelasticity-induced migration of both rigid particles and living cells (Jurkat cells and NIH 3T3 fibroblasts) in an aqueous 0.8 wt % hyaluronic acid solution. The combined effect of fluid elasticity, shear-thinning, geometric confinement, and cell deformability on the distribution of the particle/cell positions over the channel cross section is presented and discussed. In the same shear-thinning liquid, separation of 10 and 20 μm particles is also achieved in a straight microchannel with an abrupt expansion. Our results envisage further applications in viscoelasticity-based microfluidics, such as deformability-based cell separation and viscoelastic spacing of particles/cells.

Comparison of jets from Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids induced by blister-actuated laser-induced forward transfer (BA-LIFT)

Blister-actuated laser-induced forward transfer (BA-LIFT) is a high-resolution printing technique, where small droplets are ejected from a thin liquid layer onto a receiver substrate. Experiments with a high-speed camera imaging setup demonstrate novel regimes during the jet formation for the transfer of viscoelastic shear-thinning polymer solutions compared to Newtonian fluids. The ratio of the ink film thickness $$H_{\text {f}}$$ to the blister height $$H_{\text {b}}$$ is used as a dimensionless number $$H_{\text {f}}/H_{\text {b}}$$ to classify different jet behaviors. We show that different $$H_{\text {f}}/H_{\text {b}}$$ thresholds can be defined depending on the elasticity of the ink layer for the induced jets to result in breakup.

Elastic instabilities in parallel shear flows of a viscoelastic shear-thinning liquid

Experimental results from two parallel shear flows of a highly shear-thinning viscoelastic polymer solution show that at low flow rates, the mean velocity profiles are steady and in agreement with analytical expectations. At higher flow rate, however, instability arises and the flow becomes weakly time dependent.

Extra dissipation and flow uniformization due to elastic instabilities of shear-thinning polymer solutions in model porous media.

We study flows of hydrolized polyacrylamide solutions in two dimensional porous media made using microfluidics, for which elastic effects are dominant. We focus on semi-dilute solutions (0.1%-0.4%) which exhibit a strong shear thinning behavior. We systematically measure the pressure drop and find that the effective permeability is dramatically higher than predicted when the Weissenberg number is greater than about 10. Observations of the streamlines of the flow reveal that this effect coincides with the onset of elastic instabilities. Moreover, and importantly for applications, we show using local measurements that the mean flow is modified: it appears to be more uniform at high Weissenberg number than for Newtonian fluids. These observations are compared and discussed using pore network simulations, which account for the effect of disorder and shear thinning on the flow properties.

Effects of shear-thinning fluids on residual oil formation in microfluidic pore networks

Two-phase immiscible displacement in porous media is controlled by capillary and viscous forces when gravitational effects are negligible. The relative importance of these forces is quantified through the dimensionless capillary number Ca and the viscosity ratio M between fluid phases. When the displacing fluid is Newtonian, the effects of Ca and M on the displacement patterns can be evaluated independently. However, when the injecting fluids exhibit shear-thinning viscosity behaviour the values of M and Ca are interdependent. Under these conditions, the effects on phase entrapment and the general displacement dynamics cannot be dissociated. In the particular case of shear-thinning aqueous polymer solutions, the degree of interdependence between M and Ca is determined by the polymer concentration. In this work, two-phase immiscible displacement experiments were performed in micromodels, using shear-thinning aqueous polymer solutions as displacing fluids, to investigate the effect of polymer concentration on the relationship between Ca and M, the recovery efficiency, and the size distribution of the trapped non-wetting fluid. Our results show that the differences in terms of magnitude and distribution of the trapped phase are related to the polymer concentration which influences the values of Ca and M.

High performance screen printable lithium-ion battery cathode ink based on C-LiFePO4

Lithium-ion battery cathodes have been fabricated by screen-printing through the development of C-LiFePO4 inks. It is shown that shear thinning polymer solutions in N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) with Newtonian viscosity above 0.4Pas are the best binders for formulating a cathode paste with satisfactory film forming properties. The paste shows an elasticity of the order of 500Pa and, after shear yielding, shows an apparent viscosity of the order of 3Pas for shear rates corresponding to those used during screen-printing. The screen-printed cathode produced with a thickness of 26μm shows a homogeneous distribution of the active material, conductive additive and polymer binder. The total resistance and diffusion coefficient of the cathode are ∼450Ω and 2.5×10−16cm2s−1, respectively.The developed cathodes show an initial discharge capacity of 48.2mAhg−1at 5C and a discharge value of 39.8mAhg−1 after 50 cycles. The capacity retention of 83% represents 23% of the theoretical value (charge and/or discharge process in twenty minutes), demonstrating the good performance of the battery. Thus, the developed C-LiFePO4 based inks allow to fabricate screen-printed cathodes suitable for printed lithium-ion batteries.

Nanoparticle dispersion in disordered porous media with and without polymer additives.

In purely viscous Newtonian fluids, mechanical mixing of the fluid stream as it moves through an unstructured porous medium controls the long-time dispersion of molecular tracers. In applications ranging from environmental remediation to materials processing, however, particles are transported through porous media in polymer solutions and melts, for which the fluid properties depend on the shear rate and extent of deformation. How the flow characteristics of polymer solutions affect the spreading of finite-sized particles remains poorly understood - both on the microscopic scale as local velocity profiles, and on the macroscale as dispersion. Here, we show across a range of flow rates and disordered porous media configurations that the long-time transport coefficients of particles flowed in water, in a viscous Newtonian fluid, and in a non-Newtonian shear-thinning polymer solution collapse onto scaling curves, independent of the fluid rheology. Thus the addition of polymer does not impact nanoparticle dispersion through disordered porous media.