Entropic characterization of the coil-stretch transition of polymers in random flows

Polymer molecules in a flow undergo a coil-stretch phase transition on an increase of the velocity gradients. Model-independent identification and characterization of the transition in a random flow has been lacking so far. Here we suggest to use the entropy of the extension statistics as a proper m...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical review. E Vol. 103; no. 3-1; p. 033107
Main Authors Sultanov, F, Sultanova, M, Falkovich, G, Lebedev, V, Liu, Y, Steinberg, V
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.03.2021
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Summary:Polymer molecules in a flow undergo a coil-stretch phase transition on an increase of the velocity gradients. Model-independent identification and characterization of the transition in a random flow has been lacking so far. Here we suggest to use the entropy of the extension statistics as a proper measure due to strong fluctuations around the transition. We measure experimentally the entropy as a function of the local Weisenberg number and show that it has a maximum, which identifies and quantifies the transition. We compare the new approach with the traditional one based on the theory using either linear Oldroyd-B or nonlinear finite extensible nonlinear elastic polymer models.
ISSN:2470-0053
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevE.103.033107