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

Published

June 4, 2020

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

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 December 5, 2024)