Polymer dynamics in a model of the turbulent buffer layer

A Brownian dynamics study of bead–spring–chain polymer dynamics is undertaken in a model flow that captures key features of the buffer region of near-wall turbulence—wavy streamwise vortices superimposed on a mean shear. In this flow and in any Lagrangian chaotic flow, a Hookean dumbbell polymer will stretch indefinitely if and only if the Weissenberg number based on the largest Lyapunov exponent for the velocity field is ⩾12. In the flow investigated here, this criterion is found to be good predictor of when the stretch of finitely extensible chains approaches its maximum value. The chains become highly stretched in the streamwise streaks and relax as they move into and around the vortex cores, leading to large differences in stress in different regions of the flow. Hydrodynamic and excluded volume interactions between polymer segments have no qualitative effects once results are normalized for the change in relaxation time due to their inclusion. The results from the bead–spring–chain models are used to...

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