Friction dynamics of elasto-inertial turbulence in Taylor-Couette flow of viscoelastic fluids

TL;DR

This study investigates the behavior of elasto-inertial turbulence in Taylor-Couette flow of viscoelastic fluids, revealing how inertia and elasticity influence flow transition, friction, and turbulence characteristics, with implications for efficient mixing at low drag.

Contribution

It provides the first analysis of the scaling of pseudo-Nusselt number with inertia and elasticity in EIT within Taylor-Couette flow, highlighting transitional behaviors before full turbulence.

Findings

EIT occurs at lower inertia than inertial instabilities.

Scaling of pseudo-Nusselt number with inertia and elasticity is characterized.

EIT exhibits intermediate behavior before fully chaotic turbulence.

Abstract

Dynamic properties of elasto-inertial turbulence (EIT) are studied in a Taylor-Couette geometry. EIT is a chaotic flow state that develops upon both non-negligible inertia and viscoelasticity. A combination of direct flow visualisation and torque measurement allows to verify the earlier onset of EIT compared to purely inertial instabilities (and inertial turbulence). The scaling of the pseudo-Nusselt number with inertia and elasticity is discussed here for the first time. Variations in the friction coefficient, temporal frequency spectra, and spatial power density spectra highlight that EIT undergoes an intermediate behavior before transitioning to its fully developed chaotic state that requires both high inertia and elasticity. During this transition the contribution of secondary flows to the overall friction dynamics is limited. This is expected to be of great interest in the aim of achieving efficiency mixing at low drag and low but finite Reynolds number.