Instability of coaxial viscoelastic jets under a radial electric field

Abstract

In this paper we investigate temporal linear instability and absolute/convective instability of coaxial viscoelastic jets in the presence of a radial electric field. With a leaky dielectric model to describe the finite conductivity of the outer liquid, both axisymmetric instability and nonaxisymmetric instability are studied and compared to determine the predominant mode in the jet instability. For relatively small wavenumbers, the electric field suppresses the axisymmetric instability, while it enhances axisymmetric instability for relatively large wavenumbers. As the electric field increases, the instability mode tends to be a short wave. The elasticity of the inner and outer liquid is found to contribute to the coaxial jet instability, and the increase of the inner-liquid elasticity is discovered to allow the para-sinuous mode to predominate over the helical mode. Furthermore, the spatiotemporal instability analysis indicates that under weaker electric fields the axisymmetric mode is convectively unstable, but becomes absolutely unstable when the electric field is relatively strong, when the outer liquid has a certain degree of elasticity. While the nonaxisymmetric mode is found to be always absolutely unstable. A boundary line between absolute and convective instability is given on the parameter space of the Deborah number (relative relaxation time) of the outer liquid and the electrical Euler number. Our results in temporal and spatiotemporal instability analysis can be useful for understanding the origin of the different modes and desired mode control in coaxial electrospinning.