Computer Simulation of Polymer Solutions in Microscopic Flows

PIs: Professor Tim Phillips and Professor Xue-Feng YUAN

Abstract：Experimental evidence on the intriguing flow phenomena of polymer solutions in microfluidics attracts enormous attention. For example, turbulence-like instabilities of polymer solutions have been observed at moderate Re number but high Deborah (De) number flow regimes. A quantitative understanding of these nonlinear flow phenomena is of great significance to many industrial sectors involving rheology of complex fluids in microscopic flow, such as inkjet printing/direct-writing and enhanced oil recovery in porous media, at typical deformation rate of 106 s-1 or higher. This project will develop a state-of-the-art simulation technique, based on a discrete Boltzmann (DB) kinetic model for multiple scale modelling of polymer solutions in ink-jet flow geometries. Macroscopic hydrodynamics is directly coupled with full chain dynamics of polymers through molecular kinetic models. The proposed multiple scale computational method will be validated by studying benchmark flow problems in highly nonlinear flow regimes and by critical comparison between numerical results and experimental data.