#polymer effects

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

Turbulence-Suppressing Polymers

Adding just a little polymer to a pipe flow speeds it up by reducing drag near the wall. But the effects on turbulence away from the wall have been harder to suss out. (Image credit: S. Wilkinson; research credit: Y. Zhang et al.; via APS)

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

Growing Hydrogels in an Active Fluid

Active nematic fluids borrow their ingredients from biology. Using long, rigid microtubules and kinesin motor proteins capable of cross-linking between and "walking" along tubules, researchers create these complex flow patterns. (Video and image credit: G. Pau et al.) Read the full article

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

Drying Unaffected by Humidity

Water evaporates faster in dry conditions than in humid ones, but the same isn't true of paint. Instead, paint's drying time is largely independent of the day's humidity. That's because of paint's long chains of polymers. (Image and research credit: M. Huisman et al.; see also J. Salmon et al.; via APS Physics)

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

Polymers and Fluid Sheets

Even adding a small amount of polymers to a fluid can drastically change its behavior. Often polymer-doped fluids act more like soft solids, able to hold their shape like your toothpaste does when squeezed onto your toothpaste. (Video credit: C. Galvin et al.)

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

"Keeping Our Sheet Together"

When two liquid jets collide, they form a falling liquid sheet. Here researchers explore how that sheet breaks up when the liquids involved contain polymers. (Image credit: C. Galvin et al.)

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

Elastic Turbulence

Decades ago, engineers pumping polymer-filled drilling liquids into porous rock noticed sudden and dramatic increases in the viscosity of the liquid. Within the tiny pores of the rock, conventional (i.e., inertial) turbulent flow should be impossible -- the Reynolds number is simply too low. Now a new experiment points to the source of the high viscosity: elastic turbulence. (Image credit: top - M. van den Bos, pore flow - Datta Lab; research credit: C. Browne and S. Datta; via Quanta Magazine; submitted by Kam-Yung Soh) Read the full article

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

The Venus flytrap snaps shut on its hapless prey by swelling cells in its leaves with water. Researchers are using similar physics to create jumping and snapping polymer gels. (Image credit: plant - A. Dénes, shell - Y. Kim et al.; research credit: Y. Kim et al.; via Physics World)

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

An inquiring reader wants to know:

How does kinetic sand work to make it flow like a liquid?  Thanks!- 3 Year Olds Everywhere

Find out the answer!