Role of elastic stress in statistical and scaling properties of elastic turbulence

Phys Rev Lett. 2006 Jun 2;96(21):214502. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.214502. Epub 2006 May 31.

Abstract

The role of elastic stress in statistical and scaling properties of elastic turbulence in a polymer solution flow between two disks is discussed. The analogy with a small-scale magnetodynamics and a passive scalar turbulent advection in the Batchelor regime is used to explain the experimentally observed statistical properties, the flow structure, and the scaling of elastic turbulence. The emergence of a new length scale, namely, the boundary layer thickness, is observed and studied.