Absolute/convective instability of planar viscoelastic jets

Abstract

Spatiotemporal linear stability analysis is used to investigate the onset of local absolute instability in planar viscoelastic jets. The influence of viscoelasticity in dilute polymer solutions is modeled with the FENE-P constitutive equation which requires the specification of a non-dimensional polymer relaxation time (the Weissenberg number, We), the maximum polymer extensibility, L, and the ratio of solvent and solution viscosities, β. A two-parameter family of velocity profiles is used as the base state with the parameter, S, controlling the amount of co- or counter-flow while N−1 sets the thickness of the jet shear layer. We examine how the variation of these fluid and flow parameters affects the minimum value of S at which the flow becomes locally absolutely unstable. Initially setting the Reynolds number to Re = 500, we find that the first varicose jet-column mode dictates the presence of absolute instability, and increasing the Weissenberg number produces important changes in the nature of the instability. The region of absolute instability shifts towards thin shear layers, and the amount of back-flow needed for absolute instability decreases (i.e., the influence of viscoelasticity is destabilizing). Additionally, when We is sufficiently large and N−1 is sufficiently small, single-stream jets become absolutely unstable. Numerical experiments with approximate equations show that both the polymer and solvent contributions to the stress become destabilizing when the scaled shear rate, η=WedU¯1dx2L (dU¯1dx2 is the base-state velocity gradient), is sufficiently large. These qualitative trends are largely unchanged when the Reynolds number is reduced; however, the relative importance of the destabilizing stresses increases tangibly. Consequently, absolute instability is substantially enhanced, and single-stream jets become absolutely unstable over a sizable portion of the parameter space.