Oscillatory Motion of Viscoelastic Drops on Slippery Lubricated Surfaces

The introduction of slippery lubricated surfaces allows the investigation of the flow of highly viscous solutions which otherwise will hardly move on standard solid surfaces. Here we present the study of the gravity induced motion of small viscoelastic drops deposited on inclined lubricated surfaces. The viscoelastic fluids exhibit shear thinning and, more importantly, a significant first normal stress difference N1. Despite the homogeneity of the surface and of the fluids, drops of sufficiently high N1 move down with an oscillating instantaneous speed whose frequency is found to be directly proportional to the average speed and inversely to the drop volume. The oscillatory motion is caused by the formation of a bulge at the drop rear that starts rolling around the moving drop.

Computational Study of Viscoelastic Flows in Microchannels

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations have been performed in a 2D cross-section of the microchannel to characterize the viscoelastic flow field using OpenFOAM with customized stabilizing methods. The continuity and momentum equations coupled with the Giesekus constitutive model are solved. The computational domain consists of a straight main channel that is 100 μm in width and a 1:4 square-shaped cavity in the middle of the channel. The mesh convergence study is performed with both structured and unstructured cells. Flow and stress fields are compared with different cell densities. The numerical study is carried out on various Deborah numbers (De). The first normal stress difference is computed to examine the elastic lift force for future studies for nanoparticle separations. The vortex on the expansion side shrinks while the contraction side expands as De is increased. A banded zone of stronger N1 in the bulk region of the cavity, observed at higher De, could be favorable in particle separation applications. As the simulation process being validated, this study can help with future improvements to achieve higher flow rates.

Melt elasticity and flow properties of polypropylene impact copolymer/polyolefin elastomer blends subjected to varied capillary extrusion conditions

In present study, rheological properties of polypropylene impact copolymer (PPcp) and polyolefin elastomer (POE) blend melts were evaluated on a capillary rheometer under shear and elongational flows. The flow and melt elastic properties (die swell and first normal stress difference) studied at varied extrusion conditions were correlated with blend morphology and elastomer content by means of image analysis and theoretical models. Dispersed particle break-up and coalescence were observed to be influenced by POE content and the viscosities of the constituent polymers which were in turn affected by the capillary extrusion conditions (shear rate in particular). The blend melts demonstrated typical pseudoplastic behavior obeying Cross model under shear flow. The elongational flow also corroborated well with the shear flow behavior. All the blends illustrated prominent dependence of melt elastic properties on POE content and the capillary extrusion conditions. The melt elastic properties were also found to critically rely on the inter-particle distance of the POE phase.

Comparison Study on the Effect of Traction Speed on the GAE and Traditional Extrusion Forming of Four-Lumen Plastic Micro-Catheter

In this paper, the effect of traction speed on the four-lumen plastic micro-catheter (FLPMC) was numerically studied. Moreover, the numerical simulations of FLPMC based on two kinds of extrusions, i.e., traditional extrusion and gas-assisted extrusion were performed and compared. Numerical results show that with the increase of traction speed, the sizes of FLPMC for both extrusions all decrease. The sizes of FLPMC based on gas-assisted extrusion are sightly larger than those of the traditional extrusion. To ascertain the reasons, the flow velocities, pressure, shear stress and first normal stress difference distributions of melt based on both extrusions under two different traction speeds were obtained and compared. Results show that with the increase of traction speed under the fixed volume inlet flow rate, the radial flow velocities of melt at the outlet of die decrease but the axial flow velocities increase, which results in the decrease of the die swell at the outlet of die and the size shrinkage of exit face for the FLPMC based on both extrusions. However, for the gas-assisted extrusion, the axial velocities are larger, and the pressure, shear stress and first normal stress difference are far less than those of traditional extrusion, which results in the larger unit volume flow rate, then the sizes of cross-section face are larger than those of the traditional extrusion.

Effect of Inner Cavity’s Gas Flow Rate on the Extrusion Forming of Plastic Micro-Pipe

During the manufacture of plastic micro-pipe, a certain volume of gas should be properly injected into the inner cavity to overcome the collapse and adhesion problems. In this work, the extrusion forming of plastic micro-tube under the role of inner cavity’s gas were numerically studied. At the same time, the effect of inner cavity’s gas flow rate on the extrusion deformation of plastic micro-pipe was also numerically investigated by using the finite element method. A kind of 2D two-phase fluid geometric model and finite element mesh were established and some reasonable boundary conditions and material parameters were imposed. Under a fixed volume flow rate of melt, different flow rates of inner cavity gas were imposed on the inlet of inner cavity’s gas. The extrusion deformation profile and deformation ratio of plastic micro-pipe under different flow rates of gas were all obtained. To ascertain the mechanisms of effect of inner cavity’s gas flow rate on the extrusion deformation of plastic micro-tube, the flow velocities, pressure, shear rate, normal stress, and the first normal stress difference of melt all obtained and analyzed. Numerical results show that with the increase of inner cavity’s gas flow rate, the radial velocity, axial velocity, pressure, shear rate, normal stress, and the first normal stress difference of melt all increase, which makes the extrusion deformation become more and more serious. In practice, reasonable controlling of the inner cavity’s gas flow rate is very important. In the other hand, it can adjust the size of extruded plastic micro-pipe.

The first normal stress difference of non-Brownian hard-sphere suspensions in the oscillatory shear flow near the liquid and crystal coexistence region

The first normal stress difference (N1) as well as shear stress of non-Brownian hard-sphere suspensions in small to large amplitude oscillatory shear flow is investigated.

Normal stress differences in dense suspensions

The presence and the microscopic origin of normal stress differences in dense suspensions under simple shear flows are investigated by means of inertialess particle dynamics simulations, taking into account hydrodynamic lubrication and frictional contact forces. The synergic action of hydrodynamic and contact forces between the suspended particles is found to be the origin of negative contributions to the first normal stress difference $N_{1}$ , whereas positive values of $N_{1}$ observed at higher volume fractions near jamming are due to effects that cannot be accounted for in the hard-sphere limit. Furthermore, we found that the stress anisotropy induced by the planarity of the simple shear flow vanishes as the volume fraction approaches the jamming point for frictionless particles, while it remains finite for the case of frictional particles.

Numerical Studies for the Effects of Viscoelastic Constitutive Parameters on the Extrudate Swell of Plastic Micro-Tubes

The effects of four difference viscoelastic constitutive parameters, i.e., viscosity, relaxation time, ε and ξ on the extrudate swell of plastic micro-tubes were studied by using the numerical method. Numerical results show that the extrudate swell of plastic micro-tube increases with the increase of the relaxation time, but decreases with the increase of ε and ξ. In addition, the extrudate swell ratio of plastic micro-tube is not changed with the increase of the viscosity of melt. To ascertain the effect of four different viscoelastic constitutive parameters on the extrudate swell of plastic micro-tube, the physical field distributions, i.e., flow velocity, shear rate, shear stress, and first normal stress difference distributions of melt were obtained, respectively. Results show that the extrudate swell phenomenon of plastic micro-tube is closely dependent on the elastic energy storage of melt induced by the above mentioned physical field distributions, especially at the outlet of die.