A modified Volume-of-Fluid (VOF) numerical method is used to predict the dynamics of a liquid drop of a low viscosity dilute polymer solution, forming in air from a circular nozzle. Viscoelastic effects are rep-resented using an Oldroyd-B model. Predicted drop shapes are compared with experimental observations. The main features, including the timing of the shape evolution and the 'bead-on-a-string' effect, are well reproduced by the simulations. The results confirm published conclusions of the third author, that the deformation is effectively Newtonian until near the time of Newtonian pinch-off and that the elastic stress becomes large in the pinch region due to the higher extensional flow there.

Of concern in the present theoretical investigation is the study of blood flow and convection-dominated diffusion processes in a model bifurcated artery under stenotic conditions. The geometry of the bifurcated arterial segment having constrictions in both the parent and its daughter arterial lumen frequently appearing in the diseased arteries causing malfunction of the cardiovascular system, is constructed mathematically with the introduction of suitable curvatures at the lateral junction and the flow divider. The streaming blood contained in the bifurcated artery is treated to be Newtonian. The flow dynamical analysis applies the two-dimensional unsteady incompressible nonlinear Wavier-Stokes equations for Newtonian fluid while the mass transport phenomenon is governed by the convection diffusion equation. The motion of the arterial wall and its effect on local fluid mechanics is, however, not ruled out from the present model. The main objective of this study is to demonstrate the effects of constricted flow characteristics and the wall motion on the wall shear stress, the concentration profile and on the mass transfer. The ultimate numerical solutions of the coupled flow and diffusion processes following a radial coordinate transformation are based on an appropriate finite difference technique which attain appreciable stability in both the flow phenomena and the convection-dominated diffusion processes.

Using a strain-controlled rheometer, the dynamic viscoelastic properties of aqueous xanthan gum solutions with different concentrations were measured over a wide range of strain amplitudes and then the linear viscoelastic behavior in small amplitude oscillatory shear flow fields was investigated over a broad range of angular frequencies. In this article, both the strain amplitude and concentration dependencies of dynamic viscoelastic behavior were reported at full length from the experimental data obtained from strain-sweep tests. In addition, the linear viscoelastic behavior was explained in detail and the effects of angular frequency and concentration on this behavior were discussed using the well-known power-law type equations. Finally, a fractional derivative model originally developed by Ma and Barbosa-Canovas (1996) was employed to make a quantitative description of a linear viscoelastic behavior and then the applicability of this model was examined with a brief comment on its limitations. Main findings obtained from this study can be summarized as follows: (1) At strain amplitude range larger than 10%, the storage modulus shows a nonlinear strain-thinning behavior, indicating a decrease in storage modulus as an increase in strain amplitude. (2) At strain amplitude range larger than 80%, the loss modulus exhibits an exceptional nonlinear strain-overshoot behavior, indicating that the loss modulus is first increased up to a certain strain amplitude(${\gamma}_0{\approx}150%$) beyond which followed by a decrease in loss modulus with an increase in strain amplitude. (3) At sufficiently large strain amplitude range (${\gamma}_0>200%$), a viscous behavior becomes superior to an elastic behavior. (4) An ability to flow without fracture at large strain amplitudes is one of the most important differences between typical strong gel systems and concentrated xanthan gum solutions. (5) The linear viscoelastic behavior of concentrated xanthan gum solutions is dominated by an elastic nature rather than a viscous nature and a gel-like structure is present in these systems. (6) As the polymer concentration is increased, xanthan gum solutions become more elastic and can be characterized by a slower relaxation mechanism. (7) Concentrated xanthan gum solutions do not form a chemically cross-linked stable (strong) gel but exhibit a weak gel-like behavior. (8) A fractional derivative model may be an attractive means for predicting a linear viscoelastic behavior of concentrated xanthan gum solutions but classified as a semi-empirical relationship because there exists no real physical meaning for the model parameters.

Supercritical carbon dioxide ($scCO_2$) has advantages of being incorporated in polymer with high solubility and of being recovered easily by depressurizing. $scCO_2$ reduces the viscosity of polymer melt and it is expected to be use as a plasticizing agent. In this work, we studied on the effect of $scCO_2$ on the rheological properties of polymer melts during extrusion process. Slit die attached to twin screw extruder was used to measure the viscosity of polymer melts plasticized by supercritical $CO_2$. A gas injection system was devised to accurately meter the supercritical $CO_2$ into the extruder barrel. Measurements of pressure drop within the die, confirmed the presence of a one phase mixture and a fully developed flow during the measurements. The viscosity measurement of polypropylene was performed at experimental conditions of various temperatures, pressures and $CO_2$ concentrations. We observed that melt viscosity of polymer was dramatically reduced by $CO_2$ addition.

We compare FT (Fourier Transform) and SD (Stress Decomposition), the interpretation methods for LAOS (Large Amplitude Oscillatory Shear). Although the two methods are equivalent in mathematics. they are significantly different in numerical procedures. Precision of FT greatly depends on sampling rate and length of data because FT of experimental data is the discrete version of Fourier integral theorem. FT inevitably involves unnecessary frequencies which must not appear in LAOS. On the other hand, SD is free from the problems from which FT suffers, because SD involves only odd harmonics of primary frequency. SD is based on two axioms on shear stress: [1] shear stress is a sufficiently smooth function of strain and its time derivatives; [2] shear stress satisfies macroscopic time-reversal symmetry. In this paper, we compared numerical aspects of the two interpretation methods for LAOS.

Primitive chain network model for block copolymers is used here to simulate molecular dynamics in the entangled state with acceptable computational cost. It was found that i) the hooking procedure rearranging the topology of the entangled network is critical for the equilibrium structure of the system, and ii) simulations accounting for the different chemistry, i.e., with a biased hooking probability based on interaction parameter ${\chi}$ for selection of the hooked partner, generates a reasonable phase diagram.

Organic-inorganic composite of polyaniline and barium titanate (PANI-$BaTiO_3$) was synthesized via an in-situ oxidation polymerization of aniline in the presence of barium titanate ($BaTiO_3$) nanoparticles dispersed in an acidic medium. Barium titanate has large electric resistance and relatively high dielectric constant which is one of the essential properties for its electrorheological (ER) applications. The microstructure and composition of the obtained PANI/$BaTiO_3$ composite were characterized by SEM, FT-IR and XRD. In addition, we also employed a rotational rheometer to investigate the rheological performance of the ER fluids based on both pure PANI particle and PANI/$BaTiO_3$ composite. It was found that the composite materials possess much higher yield stresses than the pristine PANI due to unique dielectric properties of the inorganic $BaTiO_3$ particles. Finally, we also examined dynamic yield stress by analyzing its extrapolated yield stress data as a function of electric field strengths. Using the critical electric field strengths deduced, we further found that the universal yield stress equation collapses their data onto a single curve.

A finite-element method was employed to analyze axisymmetric unsteady motion of a deformable bubble near the wall. In the present study a deformable bubble in a Newtonian medium near the wall was considered. In solving the governing equations a structured mesh generator was used to describe the collapse of highly deformed bubbles with the Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) method being employed in order to capture the transient bubble boundary effectively. In order to check the accuracy of the present FE analysis we compared the results of our FE solutions with the result of the collapse of spherical bubbles in a large body of fluid in which solutions can be obtained using a 1D FE analysis. It has been found that 1D and 2D bubble deformations are in good agreement for spherically symmetric problems confirming the validity of the numerical code. Non-spherically symmetric problems were also solved for the collapse of bubble located near a plane solid wall. We have shown that a microjet develops at the bubble boundary away from the wall as already observed experimentally. We have discussed the effect of Reynolds number and distance of the bubble center from the wall on the transient collapse pattern of bubble.