Vm. Entov et Ej. Hinch, EFFECT OF A SPECTRUM OF RELAXATION-TIMES ON THE CAPILLARY THINNING OFA FILAMENT OF ELASTIC LIQUID, Journal of non-Newtonian fluid mechanics, 72(1), 1997, pp. 31-53
The capillary thinning of a filament of viscoelastic liquid, which is
the basis of a microrheometer, is analyzed in terms of a multi-mode FE
NE fluid. After a short time of viscous adjustment, the stress becomes
dominated by the elastic contribution and the strain-rate takes on a
value equal to two-thirds the rate at which the stress would relax at
fixed strain. This strain-rate decreases as the dominant mode changes.
At late times, modes reach their finite extension limit. The fluid th
en behaves like a suspension of rigid rods with a large extensional vi
scosity, and the liquid filament breaks. Predictions are compared with
the experiments of Liang and Mackley (1994). (C) 1997 Elsevier Scienc
e B.V.