Flow instabilities of second-grade fluid over a stretching sheet

Abstract

The work at hand studies thin-film flow instabilities in a non-Newtonian second-grade fluid moving over a stretching sheet. The analysis considers the free surface evolution equation of the thin second-grade viscoelastic fluid model based on the long-wave approximation method. We undertook a linear stability analysis using a normal mode approach and obtained expressions for the linear time growth rate, linear phase speed, and critical wavenumber, which illustrates the linear stability structure of the flow system. Furthermore, the multi-scale analysis of the fluid’s weakly non-linear stability characteristics reveals the presence of subcritical instability in the linear stability zone. The study shows that the varying flow parameters affect the threshold amplitude, which influences the stable and unstable zones in the subcritical region. The outcomes show a stabilizing effect spanning the range of non-dimensional parameters, such as the second-grade parameter ranging from 0 to 100 in values, the surface tension parameter ranging from 0 to 100 in values, and the modified Froude number from 0 to 100 in values.