Mixing of viscous polymer liquids

Abstract

A torsionally driven cavity is proposed as a suitable mixing device for viscoelastic fluids. "Chaotic" behavior occurs in the secondary flow plane using polyacrylamide Boger fluids due to the inducement of elastic flow instabilities in situations where inertial forces are small. The torsionally driven cavity is also a suitable well-defined geometry for testing the ability of non-Newtonian constitutive models to describe the behavior of elastic fluids in three-dimensional flow as a prelude to solving more difficult mixing problems. © 2000 American Institute of Physics.