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PUBLICATIONS

Three-Dimensional Symmetry Breaking and Disturbance Propagation in Viscoelastic Cross Channel Flow

Published

Author(s)

Boyang Qin, Ranjiangshang Ran, Paul Salipante, Steven Hudson, Paulo E. Arratia

Abstract

Using holographic particle tracking, we report the three-dimensional flow structure organizing the viscoelastic instability in cross-channel flow. Beyond a critical Wi, the advective core flow undergoes an out-of-plane instability marked by the emergence of tertiary flow, resembling that of the toroidal vortices in Taylor-Couette geometry. The out-of-plane flow component distorts the separatrix between the impinging inflow streams, triggering symmetry breaking normal to the extension plane. As extensional rate increases, progressively higher order modes of the separatrix are observed, akin to Euler buckling of a rigid column. The disturbances propagate upstream via stress fluctuations despite viscous dissipation. These complex flow structures may be generic to elastic turbulence in mixed flows.
Citation
Soft Matter
Volume
16
Pub Type
Journals

Download Paper

DOI Link

Keywords

viscoelastic flow instability, 3D particle tracking flow velocimetry, extensional flow
Polymers and Flow metrology and rheology

Citation

Qin, B. , Ran, R. , Salipante, P. , Hudson, S. and Arratia, P. (2020), Three-Dimensional Symmetry Breaking and Disturbance Propagation in Viscoelastic Cross Channel Flow, Soft Matter, [online], https://doi.org/10.1039/d0sm00555j (Accessed October 10, 2025)

Issues

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Created June 3, 2020, Updated October 12, 2021
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