Generalized Taylor dispersion phenomena in unbounded homogeneous shear flows
Authors: Frankel I. , Brenner H. 
Published: April 2006

Generalized Taylor dispersion theory is extended so as to enable the analysis of the transport in unbounded homogeneous shear flows of Brownian particles possessing internal degrees of freedom (e.g. rigid non-spherical particles possessing orientational degrees of freedom, flexible particles possessing conformational degrees of freedom, etc.). Taylor dispersion phenomena originate from the coupling between the dependence of the translational velocity of such particles in physical space upon the internal variables and the stochastic sampling of the internal space resulting from the internal diffusion process.

Employing a codeformational reference frame (i.e. one deforming with the sheared fluid) and assuming that the eigenvalues of the (constant) velocity gradient are purely imaginary, we establish the existence of a coarse-grained, purely physical-space description of the more detailed physical-internal space (microscale) transport process. This macroscale description takes the form of a convective–diffusive ‘model’ problem occurring exclusively in physical space, one whose formulation and solution are independent of the internal (‘local’-space) degrees of freedom.

An Einstein-type diffusion relation is obtained for the long-time limit of the temporal rate of change of the mean-square particle displacement in physical space. Despite the nonlinear (in time) asymptotic behaviour of this displacement, its Oldroyd time derivative (which is the appropriate one in the codeformational view adopted) tends to a constant, time-independent limit which is independent of the initial internal coordinates of the Brownian particle at zero time.

The dyadic dispersion-like coefficient representing this asymptotic limit is, in general, not a positive-definite quantity. This apparently paradoxical behaviour arises due to the failure of the growth in particle spread to be monotonic with time as a consequence of the coupling between the Taylor dispersion mechanism and the shear field. As such, a redefinition of the solute's dispersivity dyadic (appearing as a phenomenological coefficient in the coarse-grained model constitutive equation) is proposed. This definition provides additional insight into its physical (Lagrangian) significance as well as rendering this dyadic coefficient positive-definite, thus ensuring that solutions of the convective–diffusive model problem are well behaved. No restrictions are imposed upon the magnitude of the rotary Péclet number, which represents the relative intensities of the respective shear and diffusive effects upon which the solute dispersivity and mean particle sedimentation velocity both depend.

The results of the general theory are illustrated by the (relatively) elementary problem of the sedimentation in a homogeneous unbounded shear field of a size-fluctuating porous Brownian sphere (which body serves to model the behaviour of a macromolecular coil). It is demonstrated that the well-known case of the translational diffusion in a homogeneous shear flow of a rigid, non- fluctuating sphere (for which the Taylor mechanism is absent) is a particular case thereof.