Abstract
The linear hydrodynamic stability of a film of viscoelastic fluid flowing down an inclined wavy surface is studied. We investigate the stability of the flow with respect to infinitesimal two- and three-dimensional (2D and 3D) disturbances and employ the Floquet-Bloch theory to examine the effect of periodic disturbances of any wavelength. The study is based on the numerical solution of the momentum equations along with the Phan-Thien–Tanner (PTT) model to account for material viscoelasticity. The generalized eigenvalue problem is solved using Arnoldi's algorithm, in a Newton-like implementation in order to calculate faster the critical conditions for the onset of the instability. Our results are in excellent agreement with the previous experimental and theoretical results in the case of Newtonian liquids flowing over flat and undulating substrates and viscoelastic liquids over flat substrates. We present detailed stability maps for finite amplitude of the wall corrugations and a wide range of material parameters. Our calculations indicate that fluid elasticity is primarily stabilizing, while shear thinning of the fluid tends to destabilize the fluid flow. In order to investigate the mechanisms involved, we perform an energy analysis of the flow under long-wave disturbances indicating that the convection of stress-gradient disturbances provides an additional viscoelastic mechanism for the destabilization of the flow, in contrast to the base state stress gradients which contribute to stabilization of the flow. Besides the usual long-wave instability, conditions are identified which lead to unstable disturbances of wavelength equal or smaller than the wavelength of the substrate. Experimental observations for Newtonian liquids have indicated that these short-wave instabilities will dominate and a similar behavior is predicted for viscoelastic liquids. Sometimes, before the short-wave instabilities, a hysteresis loop in the steady flow can be identified, which leads to a sharp change in the critical frequency. Finally, we examine the stability of the flow when subjected to disturbances in the spanwise direction and show that for highly elastic liquids 3D instabilities may arise.
14 More- Received 3 June 2019
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.4.083304
©2019 American Physical Society