Reduction of the effective shear viscosity in polymer solutions due to crossflow migration in microchannels: Effective viscosity models based on DPD simulations
Original version
Palmer, T.L., Baardsen, G., Skartlien, R. (2017) Reduction of the effective shear viscosity in polymer solutions due to crossflow migration in micro-channels: effective viscosity models based on DPD simulations. Journal of dispersion science and technology, 39(2), pp. 190-206 10.1080/01932691.2017.1306784Abstract
Molecular dynamics simulations (dissipative particle dynamics–DPD) were developed and used to quantify wall-normal migration of polymer chains in microchannel Poseuille flow. Crossflow migration due to viscous interaction with the walls results in lowered polymer concentration near the channel walls. A larger fraction of the total flow volume becomes depleted of polymer when the channel width h decreases into the submicron range, significantly reducing the effective viscosity. The effective viscosity was quantified in terms of channel width and Weissenberg number Wi, for 5% polymer volume fraction in water. Algebraic models for the depletion width δ(Wi, h) and effective viscosity μe(δ/h, Wi) were developed, based on the hydrodynamic theory of Ma and Graham and our simulation results. The depletion width model can be applied to longer polymer chains after a retuning of the polymer persistence length and the corresponding potential/thermal energy ratio.