Extensional rheometry of mobile fluids. Part II: Comparison between the uniaxial, planar and biaxial extensional rheology of dilute polymer solutions using numerically-optimized stagnation point microfluidic devices

Abstract

In Part I of this paper [Haward et al. submitted (2023)], we presented a new three-dimensional microfluidic device (the optimized uniaxial and biaxial extensional rheometer, OUBER) for generating near-homogeneous uniaxial and biaxial elongational flows. In this Part II of the paper, we employ the OUBER device to examine the uniaxial and biaxial extensional rheology of some model dilute polymer solutions. We also compare the results with measurements made under planar extension in the optimized-shape cross-slot extensional rheometer [or OSCER, Haward et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. (2012)]. In each case (uniaxial, planar and biaxial extension), we use micro-particle image velocimetry to measure the extension rate as a function of the imposed flow rate, and we measure the excess pressure drop across each device in order to estimate the tensile stress difference generated in the fluid. We present a new analysis, based on solving the macroscopic power balance for flow through each device, to refine the estimate of the tensile stress difference obtained from the measured pressure drop. Based on this analysis, we find that for our most dilute polymer sample, which is "ultradilute", the extensional viscosity is well described by the finitely extensible non-linear elastic dumbbell model. In this limit, the biaxial extensional viscosity at high Weissenberg numbers (Wi) is half that of the uniaxial and planar extensional viscosities. At higher polymer concentrations, the experimental measurements deviate from the model predictions, which is attributed to the onset of intermolecular interactions as polymers unravel in the extensional flows. Of practical significance (and fundamental interest), elastic instability occurs at a significantly lower Wi in uniaxial extensional flow than in either biaxial or planar extensional flow, limiting the utility of this flow type for extensional viscosity measurement.