On the essential structure of exact traveling-wave solutions in viscoelastic flow

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zhu, Lu, Kerswell, Rich. R.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Zhu, Lu
Kerswell, Rich. R.
author_facet Zhu, Lu
Kerswell, Rich. R.
contents We examine elastic travelling-wave (`arrowhead') solutions in a viscoelastic, unidirectionally body-forced flow, focusing on their existence and morphological changes as the Weissenberg number, $\mathrm{Wi}$, and streamwise duct length, $L$, are varied. We find that branch topology varies from an isola at low $L$ through a two-sided reconnection at intermediate $L$ to a branch which exists at asymptotically large $\mathrm{Wi}$ for larger $L$. At intermediate $L$ more than two arrowhead solutions can coexist at a given $(\mathrm{Wi}, L)$ choice due to extra saddle node bifurcations. Secondly, the canonical arrowhead consists of two legs joined by an arched head that blocks throughflow and traps a counter-rotating vortex pair, while a polymer strand can emerge as a by-product of a strong extensional region attached/detached to the arrowhead arch. Thirdly, a minimal domain length $L_{\min}$ required to sustain an arrowhead is found to vary non-monotonically with $\mathrm{Wi}$; for $\mathrm{Wi}\ge 20$, detached-strand states control $L_{\min}$ with a relation $L_{\min}\approx 0.125\mathrm{Wi}+1.5$. And fourthly, in sufficiently long domains, the upper branch becomes a localised single arrowhead whose streamwise extent depends on $\mathrm{Wi}$, whereas the lower branch can proliferate into a train of arrowheads at high $\mathrm{Wi}$, a phenomenon not previously reported.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_17407
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle On the essential structure of exact traveling-wave solutions in viscoelastic flow
Zhu, Lu
Kerswell, Rich. R.
Fluid Dynamics
We examine elastic travelling-wave (`arrowhead') solutions in a viscoelastic, unidirectionally body-forced flow, focusing on their existence and morphological changes as the Weissenberg number, $\mathrm{Wi}$, and streamwise duct length, $L$, are varied. We find that branch topology varies from an isola at low $L$ through a two-sided reconnection at intermediate $L$ to a branch which exists at asymptotically large $\mathrm{Wi}$ for larger $L$. At intermediate $L$ more than two arrowhead solutions can coexist at a given $(\mathrm{Wi}, L)$ choice due to extra saddle node bifurcations. Secondly, the canonical arrowhead consists of two legs joined by an arched head that blocks throughflow and traps a counter-rotating vortex pair, while a polymer strand can emerge as a by-product of a strong extensional region attached/detached to the arrowhead arch. Thirdly, a minimal domain length $L_{\min}$ required to sustain an arrowhead is found to vary non-monotonically with $\mathrm{Wi}$; for $\mathrm{Wi}\ge 20$, detached-strand states control $L_{\min}$ with a relation $L_{\min}\approx 0.125\mathrm{Wi}+1.5$. And fourthly, in sufficiently long domains, the upper branch becomes a localised single arrowhead whose streamwise extent depends on $\mathrm{Wi}$, whereas the lower branch can proliferate into a train of arrowheads at high $\mathrm{Wi}$, a phenomenon not previously reported.
title On the essential structure of exact traveling-wave solutions in viscoelastic flow
topic Fluid Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.17407