A sphere buoyant in a dilute polymer solution

✍ Scribed by S. Grisafi

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 371 KB
• Volume: 40
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-8995
• DOI: 10.1002/app.1990.070400514

✦ Synopsis

The density and pressure fields of a dilute polymer solution are nonuniform at the surface of a small sphere even when there is no fluid motion. The polymer solution is modeled by an ensemble of Hookean dumbbells. A hard core potential is assumed as the only interaction between the sphere and the macromolecules. The pressure field about the sphere is transversely isotropic. The perpendicular component of the pressure at the interface is greater than the isotropic pressure in the bulk of the fluid. The parallel component of the pressure at the interface is less than the bulk isotropic pressure. The surface adsorption (cf., surface pressure) and the film thickness vary with a parameter that is the ratio of the sphere radius, a , to the root mean square extension of the dumbbells, Ro. The spherical results coincide with the plane wall results for a / R o greater than approximately 100.