Polymer conformation during flow in porous media
Durgesh Kawale (TU Delft - Reservoir Engineering, Dutch Polymer Institute)
Gelmer Bouwman (TU Delft - ChemE/Chemical Engineering)
Shaurya Sachdev (TU Delft - ChemE/Product and Process Engineering)
Pacelli Zitha (TU Delft - Reservoir Engineering)
Michiel Kreutzer (TU Delft - ChemE/Chemical Engineering)
Bill Rossen (TU Delft - Reservoir Engineering)
Pouyan Boukany (TU Delft - ChemE/Product and Process Engineering)
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Abstract
Molecular conformations of individual polymers during flow through porous media are directly observed by single-DNA imaging in microfluidics. As the Weissenberg number increases during flow (Wi > 1), we observe two types of elastic instabilities: (a) stationary dead-zone and (b) time-dependant dead-zone washing. When stretched polymer chains enter a dead-zone, they first re-coil and, once inside the dead-zone, they rotate and re-stretch again. The probability distribution of DNA chains under the stretched condition inside the dead-zone is found to be heterogeneous with a broad distribution.
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