Abstract:
This paper discusses recent progresses of research on thegeneration of elastic turbulence and its influence on the efficiency ofmicro-mixing. Flows of elastic and inertial turbulence have similarcharacteristics, but their mechanisms are different. Inertial turbulence ismotivated by Reynolds stress, while elastic turbulence is generated byelastic stress. In the case of micro flow, inertial forces are neglectable,so the mixing of Newtonian fluid is very difficult. In order to helpmixing, one can add a very little amount of high molecular weightpolymer into the fluid to form a viscoelastic fluid. The elastic turbulenceresulted from this viscoelastic fluid can have an enormous effect onincreasing the efficiency of mixing.