Stability of a power-law fluid past a neo-Hookean deformable solid

Supriya Gupta
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

Abstract
The stability of single layer power-law fluid past a deformable solid for the couette flow configuration is studied
in this work. The solid is modelled by neo-Hookean model which is incompressible and impermeable to the fluid. The
linear stability analysis is carried for creeping flow limit to understand that how the nonlinear properties of solid play
roles in these elastohydrodynamic instabilities. The key dimensionless parameters governing the problem are imposed
shear rate, a solid-to-fluid thickness ratio, an interfacial tension, and a power-law index. It is observed that the imposed
shear rate and the power-law index are strongly coupled to the first normal stress difference which exists in the nonlinear neo-Hookean solid model and is absent for a linear viscoelastic solid model. For thick solids, shear-thinning
has a lower critical shear rate. For thin solids, the trend is reversed; here shear thinning fluids require a higher shear
rate to excite instability. In this work, it is observed that this instability can be suppressed with power-law fluids for
certain values of n. These results are potentially of interest for enhancing mixing in microfluidic devices and
understanding the rheology of worm-like micelle solutions.
Keywords: Elastohydrodynamic instability; Shear-thinning fluids; neo-Hookean; Linear stability analysis.

1. Introduction

Fluid flow past soft, deformable surfaces is

significantly important in many industrial and
biological processes, such as biological flow of
blood and fluids in arteries and veins. Many fluid
conveying vessels in human body are highly
elastic and deform substantially in response to
traction (Pressure & viscous stress) that the fluid
exerts on them. The study of flows in deformable
or elastic vessels is therefore of considerable
interest in many biomechanical and biomedical
applications. Halpern & Grotberg (1992),
suggested that one of the mechanism responsible
for an asthma attack is due to the formation of
liquid bridge or compliant collapse of airway wall
in the lungs airways. Both, the formation of liquid
bridge or compliant collapse of wall are the result
of an instability which is present due to fluidsolid interactions. Blood vessels can also collapse
as a result of external compression. So it is very
much important to know how the flow is affected
by the wall elasticity. It has been seen that the
dynamics of fluid past a deformable solid surface
differ qualitatively from those past a rigid

surface. The deformable surfaces with low shear

modulus could be deformed easily by the fluid
stresses. These stresses cause deformations in the
solid layer, leads to which in turn, affects fluid
flow. This is called elasto-hydrodynamic
coupling, which may lead to a time-dependent
flow and generates instabilities of primary flow.
The fluid-solid interactions are also potentially
utilized in micro-fluidic applications (Squires &
Quake 2005). In many microfluidic applications,
it is required to rapidly mix fluid streams flowing
through micro-channels. As their dimensions are
very small, the Reynolds number is of the order
of one or smaller. Lower Reynolds number value
results into laminar flow and which results into
poor mixing characteristics, which is a limitation
in the design of these devices. On the other hand,
when we use channels with deformable walls, the
elasticity of solid wall destabilizes the flow which
introduces the turbulence into the system. And we
know the turbulence increases the rate of heat
transfer and the rate of mass transfer.
Nowadays, in every aspect of our lives the use of
polymeric substances has increased. Also, there
is no detailed literature available for such fluids

that how they react to the surroundings. For fluids

having non-Newtonian properties, the stresses at
the fluid-solid interface may modify & alter the
growth of the interfacial disturbances. For
example, fluids in micro-fluidic devices may be
shear-thinning, are difficult to mix. The present
study may provide insight of these problems.
2. Governing Equations
We are considering a system consisting a couette
flow configuration of a power-law fluid of
density (f ), viscosity f and thickness R past a
deformable solid. The bottom of the solid is fixed
to a rigid stationary plate located at z = HR, and
the upper plate is located at z = R and the upper
plate is moving with steady velocity v = VeX ,
where ex is the unit vector in the x-direction.

Boundary Conditions
As the bottom plate is stationary so the solid
remains in the reference configuration:
x|z=H = X|z=H .

(2.7)

The top plate is moving with constant speed ,

and here we are assuming the no-slip and nopenetration boundary conditions:
v|z=1 = ex ,

(2.8)

At the fluid-solid interface, the velocities must be

continuous,
v|z=h = x
| .
t z=h

(2.9)

And the balance of forces is given by,

n |z=h = n |z=h + nTk|z=h .

(2.10)

3. Linear stability Analysis

Figure.1. Problem Geometry.

Equation of continuity
[ v ] = 0.

(2.1)

Here the equations of motion are linearized about

a base flow and the fluctuations are written in
normal mode form. And each normal mode has
the form
fi (x, z, t) = fi (z)exp[ikx + t] , or fi (x, z, t) =
fi (z)exp[ik(x ct)] where, = ikc
Where, f is the perturbation to a given variable,
f(z) is a complex valued growth rate and k is the
wave number.

Equation of motion: creeping flow:

[ ] = 0.

(2.2)

The dimensional stress for a power-law model:

= pf +

1
m (2

(n1)
2

(2.3)

n > 1, fluid is shear thickening, n < 1, fluid is

shear -thinning and n = 1, fluid is Newtonian in
nature.
Other standard equations are:
= v + (v )T ,
1

= 2 [(tr )2 tr( )2 ].
1

(n1)
2

m (2 )

(2.4)
(2.5)
(2.6)

4. Numerical Methods
We solved this eigenvalue problem in MATLAB.
There are two fourth-order differential equations
for the fluid layer and for solid layer. We used the
fourth-order Runge-Kutta integrator with
adaptive size control to obtain the solution.
5. Results and Conclusion
An interfacial tension value of zero is used in
most of the cases and for some cases 10 and
otherwise mentioned. We have represented our
results for various values of thickness ratio. The
two distinct ranges are in our study: thin solids,
where H < 1 and thick solids, where H >> 1.
For all calculations presented here, we have used
m = 1.

References
1.

2.

3.

Figure.2. Real part of growth rate Re(), vs. the

wavenumber, k, for different values of power-law index, n.
Re=0, H=10, =0.34, T=10.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.
Figure.3. Critical value of imposed shear rate, c , as a
function of the thickness ratio, H, when T=0, for different
values of n. Re=0, n= 0.8, 1, 1.3.

In figure.3, it is noted that the use of power law

model alters the instability mode. But it does not
introduce any new modes of instability. Figure.4.
also shows that there is a switch in behavior
around a fixed value of wavenumber.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

Figure.4. Critical imposed shear rate, c , as a function of the

thickness ratio, H, when T=0, for n= 0.8, 1, 1.1, Re=0, H=5,
T=0.

Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my supervisor for his
guidance.

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