The dynamics of waves at the interface between a viscoelastic coating and a fluid flow

Abstract

The dynamics of two-dimensional uniform wavetrains on the interface between a viscoelastic compliant coating and a boundary-layer flow are explored theoretically. The coating is treated as a single-layer isotropic Voigt material of finite thickness that is bonded to a rigid half-space. The flow is modelled first by potential theory and then modified to incorporate pressure phase shifts and magnitudes found in boundary-layer flow over wavy walls. The consideration of viscoelastic effects has led to an important dimensionless damping parameter γt = Ct τt/d (where τt is the strain relaxation time, Ct is the elastic shear-wave speed and d is the layer depth) that seems to have been overlooked by experimentalists. The flow and the damping are found to have dramatic effects on wave propagation. Using flow pressure and material-damping parameters typical of experiments, the results show that both upstream- and downstream-propagating waves exist at low flow speeds. At higher flow speeds, shorter waves can no longer propagate upstream. At still higher velocities, two instabilities, ‘static divergence’ and ‘flutter’, are found. Static divergence occurs for flow speeds above 2.86Ct and consists of slow waves moving with speeds of about 0.02Ct. These results compare fairly well with published experimental data. Static divergence is found to be a damping instability for these coating systems. When the flow speed is increased further, the flutter instability appears consisting of waves with phase speeds about equal to Ct.