A higher-order accurate fluid-particle algorithm for polymer flows

Abstract

We present a new algorithm for the simulation of polymer-laden flows in microscale environments. Our algorithm is based on a hybridisation of high-order accurate continuum and particle methods. The continuum algorithm provides the basic framework for high-performance computations to resolve device length and time scales. It is coupled to a new particle method with an optimised treatment of particle interactions such that the time step is on the level of the fluid continuum. We demonstrate our simulation capability on the flow of polymers in a contraction microchannel used for single-molecule detection.

Keywords:

• hybrid algorithm
• fluid-particle coupling
• polymer flow

Acknowledgements

B. Kallemov was supported by the Bolashak scholarship of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. G.H. Miller was supported by DOE contract number DE-SC0001981 and NSF grant number DMS-0810939. D. Trebotich was supported by the US Department of Energys Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research under contract number DE-AC02-05-CH11231.