Direct numerical simulation of hydrodynamic instabilities in two- and three-dimensional viscoelastic free shear layers (Q1303039)

The aim is to analyze how addition of small amounts of polymers affects the hydrodynamic instabilities in free stream layers by using the viscoelastic FENE-P model. The free shear layer is modelled by a spatially periodic flow in which instabilities evolve in time. In the two-dimensional simulations, the authors study the roll-up instability for several values of elasticity number \(E\) and rheological number \(b\). For small values of these parameters, they establish the existence of a viscoelastic quasi-steady state analogous to the Newtonian one. When \(E= O(1)\) and \(b\) is large, the fundamental frequency cannot dominate the flow, and there is an inhibition of the roll process. The generation of higher harmonics by large polymer stress gradients serves as a vorticity source/sink. Thus there is a resistance to the tendency of the fundamental frequency to concentrate the vorticity into a single core region. In three-dimensional simulations, spanwise perturbations are introduced into the two-dimensional quasi-steady states, and the authors observe exponential growth rates for the resulting secondary instability. For large enough values of \(E\) and \(b\), the addition of polymers can inhibit the instabilities, leading to turbulence in free shear layers.