Chaotic flow of a complex liquid caused by agitation of an immersed rigid grid

What is it about?

In this experimental work we used advanced experimental methods and data analysis to "see" how a fluid flows when it is agitated by a rigid grid. We know that agitating the grid generates a chaotic and random set of vortex, that is called turbulence. We describe this elaborate flow state when the fluid agitated is a complex one, and compare that to the somehow more simple case of water, to describe the influence of the fluid's complexity on the flow.

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Why is it important?

The relevance of this work can be considered from two perspectives: Firstly, the description of how the flow relates to the fluid's properties makes the results of this work useful for anyone who may consider using an oscillating grid as a tool to generate turbulence (i.e. random fluid motion) in similarly complex fluids. It is indeed known that turbulence arises in many industrial process involving those fluids. Having a proper tool to study it in the lab can improve our understanding of how things go in industrial flows. Secondly, and from a more fundamental point of view, this work also brings further insight on the physical mechanisms of flow and turbulence in complex fluids, the understanding of which is one of the current challenge for researchers in fluid mechanics.

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