Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: It is known that viscoelastic fluids exhibit elastic instabilities in simple shear flow and flow with curved streamlines. During flow through a straight microchannel with pillars, we found strikingly strong hydrodynamic instabilities characterized by very large transversal excursions, even leading to a complete change in lanes, and the presence of fast and slow moving lanes. Particle image velocimetry measurements through a pillared microchannel provide experimental evidence of these instabilities at a very low Reynolds number (<0.01). The instability is characterized by a rapid increase in spatial and temporal fluctuations of velocity components and pressure at a critical Deborah number. We characterize under which conditions these strong instabilities arise.
Source: Physics of Fluids
DOI: 10.1063/1.4995371
Authors: S. De, J. van der Schaaf, N. G. Deen, J. A. M. Kuipers, E. A. J. F. Peters, J. T. Padding
Language: English
Subfield: Fluid Flow and Transfer Processes
Field: Chemical Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2767649803