Spatio-temporal structures in sheared polymer systems

We investigate spatio-temporal structures in sheared polymer systems by solving a time-dependent Ginzburg–Landau model in two dimensions: (i) In polymer solutions above the coexistence curve, crossover from linear to nonlinear regimes occurs with increasing the shear rate. In the nonlinear regime the solution behaves chaotically with large-amplitude composition fluctuations. A characteristic heterogeneity length is calculated in the nonlinear regime. (ii) We also study dynamics of shear band structures in wormlike micellar solutions under the condition of fixed stress. The average shear rate exhibits large temporal fluctuations with occurrence of large disturbances in the spatial structures.