POLYMER DYNAMICS IN CHAOTIC FLOWS WITH A STRONG SHEAR COMPONENT
Turitsyn K.S.

Received: January 31, 2007

PACS: 83.80.Rs, 83.50.Ax

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We consider the dynamics of a polymer molecule injected in the chaotic flow with a strong mean shear component. The polymer experiences aperiodic tumbling in such flows. We consider the simplified model of the chaotic velocity field given by the superposition of a steady shear flow and a large-scale isotropic short-correlated random component. In the framework of this model, we present a detailed study of the statistical properties of single-polymer dynamics. We obtain the stationary probability distribution function of the polymer orientation, find the distribution of time periods between consequent events of tumbling, and find the tails of the polymer size distribution.