A unified description of flow-induced scission of wormlike micelles under shear and extensional flows

Abstract: We investigate flow-induced scission of wormlike micelles under different flow kinematics using dissipative particle dynamics simulations of surfactant solutions in shear, uniaxial extensional, planar extensional, and biaxial extensional flows. The average lifetime of wormlike micelles is used to quantify the degree of scission. While flow-induced scission occurs in all flow types when the deformation rate is sufficiently high, the dependence of the average lifetime on the deformation rate differs among flow types. To provide a unified description, we introduce an effective extension rate determined by the velocity gradient tensor and micellar orientation. When expressed in terms of this effective extension rate, the average lifetimes obtained under all flow types considered collapse onto a single curve. These results demonstrate that a unified description of flow-induced scission requires not only the strength and kinematics of the imposed flow, but also the micellar orientation relative to the extensional direction.