Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 164503 (2007) [4 pages]Purely Elastic Flow AsymmetriesReceived 23 April 2007; published 18 October 2007 Using a numerical technique we demonstrate that the flow of the simplest differential viscoelastic fluid model (i.e., the upper-convected Maxwell model) goes through a bifurcation to a steady asymmetric state when flowing in a perfectly symmetric “cross-slot” geometry. We show that this asymmetry is purely elastic in nature and that the effect of inertia is a stabilizing one. Our results are in qualitative agreement with very recent experimental visualizations of a similar flow in the microfluidic apparatus of Arratia et al. [ Phys. Rev. Lett. 96 144502 (2006)]. © 2007 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.164503
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.164503
PACS:
47.50.−d, 05.45.−a, 47.61.−k
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