Stretch-coil transition and transport of fibers in cellular flows

Phys Rev Lett. 2007 Aug 3;99(5):058303. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.058303. Epub 2007 Aug 2.

Abstract

It is shown that a slender elastic fiber moving in a Stokesian fluid can be susceptible to a buckling instability--termed the "stretch-coil" instability--when moving in the neighborhood of a hyperbolic stagnation point of the flow. When the stagnation point is part of an extended cellular flow, it is found that immersed fibers can move as random walkers across time-independent closed-streamline flow. It is also found that the flow is segregated into transport regions around hyperbolic stagnation points and their manifolds, and closed entrapment regions around elliptic points.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.