Flow instability in Stokes layer of Carreau fluids

TL;DR

This paper examines how shear-thinning affects flow instability in Carreau fluids' Stokes layer, revealing that shear-thinning stabilizes the flow and identifying a phase-based energy transfer mechanism.

Contribution

It introduces a Floquet analysis of shear-thinning effects on flow instability and uncovers a novel phase-matching mechanism in time-periodic shear flows.

Findings

Stronger shear-thinning (lower n) stabilizes the flow.

Increasing characteristic time Λ has a non-monotonic effect on instability.

Instability occurs when perturbations are in phase with the base flow, enabling energy transfer.

Abstract

This study investigates the influence of shear-thinning on the instability of a prototype time-periodic flow, the Stokes layer, in Carreau fluids. The time-dependent base flow was solved using a numerical method and a binomial expansion method. The expansion is conducted in terms of the nondimensional characteristic time ($\Lambda$), which quantifies the fluid's response time in viscosity to changes in shear rate. The expansion method shows good agreement with the numerical solution, provided that $\Lambda$ remains small. To understand the effect of shear-thinning on time-periodic flow instability, a Floquet analysis was conducted to examine two key parameters of the Carreau model, i.e., $\Lambda$ and the power-law exponent $n$. Our results show that decreasing $n$, which signifies stronger shear-thinning behavior, has a monotonic stabilizing effect on the flow within the range of investigated $n$. In contrast, increasing $\Lambda$ has a non-monotonic effect on the flow instability, which can be observed in both the weakly and strongly shear-thinning regimes. To clarify the instability mechanism, we perform an energy analysis showing that instability arises when the perturbation field is in phase with the oscillatory base flow, enabling efficient energy extraction from the time-dependent shear. A phase mismatch suppresses this transfer and stabilises the flow. This mechanism parallels the classical energy-production process in steady shear flows, where streamwise and wall-normal velocity perturbations exhibit a characteristic phase difference. Crucially, it is identified here for the first time in a time-periodic shear flow.