Additive Equivalence in Turbulent Drag Reduction by Flexible and Rodlike Polymers

Abstract

We address the "Additive Equivalence" discovered by Virk and coworkers: drag reduction affected by flexible and rigid rodlike polymers added to turbulent wall-bounded flows is limited from above by a very similar Maximum Drag Reduction (MDR) asymptote. Considering the equations of motion of rodlike polymers in wall-bounded turbulent ensembles, we show that although the microscopic mechanism of attaining the MDR is very different, the macroscopic theory is isomorphic, rationalizing the interesting experimental observations.

arXiv comment8 pages, PRE, submitted

References in corpus (4)

• Drag Reduction by Polymers in Wall Bounded Turbulence
• Drag Reduction by a Linear Viscosity Profile
• The Polymer Stress Tensor in Turbulent Shear Flows
• Saturation of Turbulent Drag Reduction in Dilute Polymer Solutions

Cited by in corpus (11)

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• Drag Reduction by Bubble Oscillations
• Comparison of Theory and Direct Numerical Simulations of Drag Reduction by Rodlike Polymers in Turbulent Channel Flows
• Phenomenology of Wall Bounded Newtonian Turbulence
• Emergence of chaos in a viscous solution of rods
• Turbulent Drag Reduction by Flexible and Rodlike Polymers: Crossover Effects at Small Concentrations
• Rotational relaxation time as unifying time scale for polymer and fiber drag reduction
• Enhancement of drag and mixing in a dilute solution of rodlike polymers at low Reynolds numbers
• Orientational order and topological defects in a dilute solutions of rodlike polymers at low Reynolds number