Enhanced separation of diffusing particles by chaotic advection

Journal Article · Wed Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1989 · Phys. Fluids A; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.857416· OSTI ID:6532984

Aref, H; Jones, S W

Combining the reversibility of advection by a Stokes flow with the irreversibility of diffusion leads to a separation strategy for diffusing substances. This basic idea goes back to Taylor and Heller. It is shown here that the sensitivity of the method can be greatly enhanced by making the advection chaotic. The separation is particularly efficient when the thinnest structures resulting from advection are made comparable in size to a diffusion length. Simple heuristic estimates based on an understanding of chaotic motion and diffusion lead to a certain scaling that is seen in numerical experiments on this separation method.

• Research Organization: Department of Applied Mechanics and Engineering Science and Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093
• OSTI ID: 6532984
• Journal Information: Phys. Fluids A; (United States), Journal Name: Phys. Fluids A; (United States) Vol. 1:3; ISSN PFADE
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640410* -- Fluid Physics-- General Fluid Dynamics
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ADVECTION
AUGMENTATION
DIFFUSION
DIFFUSION LENGTH
DIMENSIONS
DYNAMICS
EQUATIONS
FLUID FLOW
INCOMPRESSIBLE FLOW
IRREVERSIBLE PROCESSES
LAMINAR FLOW
LANGEVIN EQUATION
LENGTH
MASS TRANSFER
MECHANICS
PARTICLES
RANDOMNESS
SCALING LAWS
SENSITIVITY
SEPARATION PROCESSES
STOKES LAW
VELOCITY