Hydrodynamique de fluides élancés à bas nombres de Reynolds

The hydrodynamics of thin (sheet-like) and slender (filamentary) bodies of viscous fluid immersed in a second fluid with a different viscosity is studied. Here we focuses on two examples: the subduction of oceanic lithosphere and the buckling of viscous threads in diverging microchannels, both have a characteristic Reynolds number Re<<1. A hybrid boundary integral & thin sheet method (BITS) is build for the subduction of 2D immersed sheet. After the validation by comparing with the results of full boundary elements method, both instantaneous and time-dependant soloutions are done to analyze the subduction with the BITS method. The scaling analysis of the normalized sinking speed V/V_Stokes as a function of the sheet's 'flexural stiffness' is confirmed by our numerical predictions. For moderate viscosity ratios (≈100), the sheet thins substantially as it sinks, but not enough to lead to the ‘slab breakoff’ that is observed in several subduction zones on Earth. Next, the parallel code BLUE for multi-phases flows is used to simulate the 3-dimensional viscous folding in diverging microchannels. We performed a parameter study comprising five simulations in which the flow rate ratio, the viscosity ratio, the Reynolds number, and the shape of the channel were varied relative to a reference model. The thread becomes unstable to a folding instability due to the longitudinal compressive stress. The initial folding axis can be either parallel or perpendicular to the narrow dimension of the chamber. In the former case, the folding slowly transforms via twisting to perpendicular folding , or may disappear totally.Le sujet de cette thèse est l'hydrodynamique de corps minces (feuilles) et élancés (filamenteux) de fluide visqueux immergés dans un second fluide ayant une viscosité différente. Nous nous concentrons sur deux exemples : la subduction de la lithosphère océanique et le flambage de fils visqueux dans microcanaux divergents, les deux ont un nombre de Reynolds caractéristique Re<