Experimental observation of the origin and structure of elastoinertial turbulence

Turbulence generally arises in shear flows if velocities and hence, inertial forces are sufficiently large. In striking contrast, viscoelastic fluids can exhibit disordered motion even at vanishing inertia. Intermediate between these cases, a state of chaotic motion, “elastoinertial turbulence” (EIT), has been observed in a narrow Reynolds number interval. We here determine the origin of EIT in experiments and show that characteristic EIT structures can be detected across an unexpectedly wide range of parameters. Close to onset, a pattern of chevron-shaped streaks emerges in qualitative agreement with linear and weakly nonlinear theory. However, in experiments, the dynamics remain weakly chaotic, and the instability can be traced to far lower Reynolds numbers than permitted by theory. For increasing inertia, the flow undergoes a transformation to a wall mode composed of inclined near-wall streaks and shear layers. This mode persists to what is known as the “maximum drag reduction limit,” and overall EIT is found to dominate viscoelastic flows across more than three orders of magnitude in Reynolds number.

Stagnation points control chaotic fluctuations in viscoelastic porous media flow

Viscoelastic flows through porous media become unstable and chaotic beyond critical flow conditions, impacting widespread industrial and biological processes such as enhanced oil recovery and drug delivery. Understanding the influence of the pore structure or geometry on the onset of flow instability can lead to fundamental insights into these processes and, potentially, to their optimization. Recently, for viscoelastic flows through porous media modeled by arrays of microscopic posts, Walkama et al. [D. M. Walkama, N. Waisbord, J. S. Guasto, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 164501 (2020)] demonstrated that geometric disorder greatly suppressed the strength of the chaotic fluctuations that arose as the flow rate was increased. However, in that work, disorder was only applied to one originally ordered configuration of posts. Here, we demonstrate experimentally that, given a slightly modified ordered array of posts, introducing disorder can also promote chaotic fluctuations. We provide a unifying explanation for these contrasting results by considering the effect of disorder on the occurrence of stagnation points exposed to the flow field, which depends on the nature of the originally ordered post array. This work provides a general understanding of how pore geometry affects the stability of viscoelastic porous media flows.

Computational Study of Viscoelastic Flows in Microchannels

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations have been performed in a 2D cross-section of the microchannel to characterize the viscoelastic flow field using OpenFOAM with customized stabilizing methods. The continuity and momentum equations coupled with the Giesekus constitutive model are solved. The computational domain consists of a straight main channel that is 100 μm in width and a 1:4 square-shaped cavity in the middle of the channel. The mesh convergence study is performed with both structured and unstructured cells. Flow and stress fields are compared with different cell densities. The numerical study is carried out on various Deborah numbers (De). The first normal stress difference is computed to examine the elastic lift force for future studies for nanoparticle separations. The vortex on the expansion side shrinks while the contraction side expands as De is increased. A banded zone of stronger N1 in the bulk region of the cavity, observed at higher De, could be favorable in particle separation applications. As the simulation process being validated, this study can help with future improvements to achieve higher flow rates.

An extensible lattice Boltzmann method for viscoelastic flows: complex and moving boundaries in Oldroyd-B fluids

Most biological fluids are viscoelastic, meaning that they have elastic properties in addition to the dissipative properties found in Newtonian fluids. Computational models can help us understand viscoelastic flow, but are often limited in how they deal with complex flow geometries and suspended particles. Here, we present a lattice Boltzmann solver for Oldroyd-B fluids that can handle arbitrarily shaped fixed and moving boundary conditions, which makes it ideally suited for the simulation of confined colloidal suspensions. We validate our method using several standard rheological setups and additionally study a single sedimenting colloid, also finding good agreement with the literature. Our approach can readily be extended to constitutive equations other than Oldroyd-B. This flexibility and the handling of complex boundaries hold promise for the study of microswimmers in viscoelastic fluids. Graphic abstract

On the cross-streamline lift of microswimmers in viscoelastic flows

The current work studies the dynamics of a microswimmer in the pressure-driven flow of a weakly viscoelastic fluid. Employing the second-order fluid model, we show that the self-propelling swimmer experiences...