Nonlinear dynamics of viscoelastic Taylor–Couette flow: effect of elasticity on pattern selection, molecular conformation and drag

2009 ◽  
Vol 620 ◽  
pp. 353-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. G. THOMAS ◽  
B. KHOMAMI ◽  
R. SURESHKUMAR

Three-dimensional and time-dependent simulations of viscoelastic Taylor–Couette flow of dilute polymer solutions are performed using a fully implicit parallel spectral time-splitting algorithm to discover flow patterns with various spatio-temporal symmetries, namely rotating standing waves (RSWs), disordered oscillations (DOs) and solitary vortex structures referred to as oscillatory strips (OSs) and diwhirls (DWs). A detailed account of the impact of flow transitions on molecular conformation and viscoelastic stress, velocity profiles, hydrodynamic drag force and energy spectra of time-dependent flow states is presented. Overall, predicted pattern selection and flow features compare very favourably with experimental observations. For elasticity number E, that signifies the ratio of elastic to viscous forces, >0.1, and when the shear rate (cylinder rotation speed) is increased above the linear stability threshold, the circular Couette flow (CCF) becomes unstable to RSWs which are characterized by a checkerboard-like pattern in the space–time plot of radial velocity, implying symmetry between inflow/outflow (I/O) regions. As the shear rate is further increased, perturbations that break the I/O symmetry are amplified leading to DOs and/or flame-like patterns with spectral mechanical energy transfer reminiscent of elastically induced low-Reynolds-number turbulence. However, when the shear rate is decreased from those at which such chaotic states are observed, the radially inward acting polymer body force created by flow-induced molecular stretching causes the development of narrow inflow regions surrounded by much broader weak outflow domains. This promotes the formation of solitary vortex structures, which can be stationary and axisymmetric (DWs) or time-dependent (OSs). The dynamics of the formation of these structures by merging and coalescence of vortex pairs and the implication of such events on instantaneous hydrodynamic force are studied. For O(1) values of E, OSs and DWs appear approximately at constant values of the We, defined as the ratio of polymer relaxation time to the inverse shear rate in the gap. As shear rate is decreased further, DWs decay to CCF although at We values less than the linear stability threshold. The flow transitions are hysteretic with respect to We, as evidenced by a plot of drag force versus We.

2018 ◽  
Vol 840 ◽  
pp. 5-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junho Park ◽  
Paul Billant ◽  
Jong-Jin Baik ◽  
Jaemyeong Mango Seo

The stably stratified Taylor–Couette flow is investigated experimentally and numerically through linear stability analysis. In the experiments, the stability threshold and flow regimes have been mapped over the ranges of outer and inner Reynolds numbers: $-2000<Re_{o}<2000$ and $0<Re_{i}<3000$, for the radius ratio $r_{i}/r_{o}=0.9$ and the Brunt–Väisälä frequency $N\approx 3.2~\text{rad}~\text{s}^{-1}$. The corresponding Froude numbers $F_{o}$ and $F_{i}$ are always much smaller than unity. Depending on $Re_{o}$ (or equivalently on the angular velocity ratio $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}_{o}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}_{i}$), three different regimes have been identified above instability onset: a weakly non-axisymmetric mode with low azimuthal wavenumber $m=O(1)$ is observed for $Re_{o}<0$ ($\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}<0$), a highly non-axisymmetric mode with $m\sim 12$ occurs for $Re_{o}>840$ ($\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}>0.57$) while both modes are present simultaneously in the lower and upper parts of the flow for $0\leqslant Re_{o}\leqslant 840$ ($0\leqslant \unicode[STIX]{x1D707}\leqslant 0.57$). The destabilization of these primary modes and the transition to turbulence as $Re_{i}$ increases have been also studied. The linear stability analysis proves that the weakly non-axisymmetric mode is due to the centrifugal instability while the highly non-axisymmetric mode comes from the strato-rotational instability. These two instabilities can be clearly distinguished because of their distinct dominant azimuthal wavenumber and frequency, in agreement with the recent results of Park et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 822, 2017, pp. 80–108). The stability threshold and the characteristics of the primary modes observed in the experiments are in very good agreement with the numerical predictions. Moreover, we show that the centrifugal and strato-rotational instabilities are observed simultaneously for $0\leqslant Re_{o}\leqslant 840$ in the lower and upper parts of the flow, respectively, because of the variations of the local Reynolds numbers along the vertical due to the salinity gradient.


2013 ◽  
Vol 738 ◽  
pp. 522-562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongyun Hwang ◽  
T. J. Pedley

AbstractThe role of uniform shear in bioconvective instability in a shallow suspension of swimming gyrotactic cells is studied using linear stability analysis. The shear is introduced by applying a plane Couette flow, and it significantly disturbs gravitaxis of the cell. The unstably stratified basic state of the cell concentration is gradually relieved as the shear rate is increased, and it even becomes stably stratified at very large shear rates. Stability of the basic state is significantly changed. The instability at high wavenumbers is drastically damped out with the shear rate, while that at low wavenumbers is destabilized. However, at very large shear rates, the latter is also suppressed. The most unstable mode is found as a pair of streamwise uniform rolls aligned with the shear, analogous to Rayleigh–Bénard convection in plane Couette flow. To understand these findings, the physical mechanism of the bioconvective instability is reexamined with several sets of numerical experiments. It is shown that the bioconvective instability in a shallow suspension originates from three different physical processes: gravitational overturning, gyrotaxis of the cell and negative cross-diffusion flux. The first mechanism is found to rule the behaviour of low-wavenumber instability whereas the last two mechanisms are mainly associated with high-wavenumber instability. With the increase of the shear rate, the former is enhanced, thereby leading to destabilization at low wavenumbers, whereas the latter two mechanisms are significantly suppressed. For streamwise varying perturbations, shear with sufficiently large rates is also found to play a stabilizing role as in Rayleigh–Bénard convection. However, at small shear rates, it destabilizes these perturbations through the mechanism of overstability discussed by Hill, Pedley and Kessler (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 208, 1989, pp. 509–543). Finally, the present findings are compared with a recent experiment by Croze, Ashraf and Bees (Phys. Biol., vol. 7, 2010, 046001) and they are in qualitative agreement.


2002 ◽  
Vol 462 ◽  
pp. 111-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
U. A. AL-MUBAIYEDH ◽  
R. SURESHKUMAR ◽  
B. KHOMAMI

The influence of viscous heating on the stability of Taylor–Couette flow is investigated theoretically. Based on a linear stability analysis it is shown that viscous heating leads to significant destabilization of the Taylor–Couette flow. Specifically, it is shown that in the presence of viscous dissipation the most dangerous disturbances are axisymmetric and that the temporal characteristic of the secondary flow is very sensitive to the thermal boundary conditions. If the temperature difference between the two cylinders is small, the secondary flow is stationary as in the case of isothermal Taylor–Couette flow. However, when the temperature difference between the two cylinders is large, time-dependent secondary states are predicted. These linear stability predictions are in agreement with the experimental observations of White & Muller (2000) in terms of onset conditions as well as the spatiotemporal characteristics of the secondary flow. Nonlinear stability analysis has revealed that over a broad range of operating conditions, the bifurcation to the time-dependent secondary state is subcritical, while stationary states result as a consequence of supercritical bifurcation. Moreover, the supercritically bifurcated stationary state undergoes a secondary bifurcation to a time-dependent flow. Overall, the structure of the time-dependent state predicted by the analysis compares very well with the experimental observations of White & Muller (2000) that correspond to slowly moving vortices parallel to the cylinder axis. The significant destabilization observed in the presence of viscous heating arises as the result of the coupling of the perturbation velocity and the base-state temperature gradient that gives rise to fluctuations in the radial temperature distribution. Due to the thermal sensitivity of the fluid these fluctuations greatly modify the fluid viscosity and reduce the dissipation of disturbances provided by the viscous stress terms in the momentum equation.


1976 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
pp. 625-646 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Riley ◽  
R. L. Laurence

The linear stability of modulated circular Couette flow to axisymmetric disturbances is examined in the narrow-gap limit. The outer cylinder is assumed stationary, while the inner is modulated both with and without a mean rotation. The equations governing the disturbance motion are solved by a Galerkin expansion with time-dependent coefficients, and the stability of the motion determined by Floquet theory. Modulation is found, in general, to destabilize the flow due to steady rotation, although weak stabilization is found for some modulation amplitudes at intermediate frequencies.


1993 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 1188-1200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed E. Ali ◽  
P. D. Weidman

1998 ◽  
Vol 358 ◽  
pp. 357-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. NAGATA

The stability of nonlinear tertiary solutions in rotating plane Couette flow is examined numerically. It is found that the tertiary flows, which bifurcate from two-dimensional streamwise vortex flows, are stable within a certain range of the rotation rate when the Reynolds number is relatively small. The stability boundary is determined by perturbations which are subharmonic in the streamwise direction. As the Reynolds number is increased, the rotation range for the stable tertiary motions is destroyed gradually by oscillatory instabilities. We expect that the tertiary flow is overtaken by time-dependent motions for large Reynolds numbers. The results are compared with the recent experimental observation by Tillmark & Alfredsson (1996).


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