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Dynamics of viscoelastic pipe flow at low Reynolds numbers in the maximum drag reduction limit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 July 2019

Jose M. Lopez Open the ORCID record for Jose M. Lopez [Opens in a new window] ,
George H. Choueiri  and
Björn Hof Open the ORCID record for Björn Hof [Opens in a new window]
Jose M. Lopez*
Affiliation:
Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 3400 Klosterneuburg, Austria
George H. Choueiri
Affiliation:
Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 3400 Klosterneuburg, Austria
Björn Hof
Affiliation:
Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 3400 Klosterneuburg, Austria
*
†Email address for correspondence: jlopez@ist.ac.at
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Abstract

Polymer additives can substantially reduce the drag of turbulent flows and the upper limit, the so-called state of ‘maximum drag reduction’ (MDR), is to a good approximation independent of the type of polymer and solvent used. Until recently, the consensus was that, in this limit, flows are in a marginal state where only a minimal level of turbulence activity persists. Observations in direct numerical simulations at low Reynolds numbers ($Re$) using minimal sized channels appeared to support this view and reported long ‘hibernation’ periods where turbulence is marginalized. In simulations of pipe flow at $Re$ near transition we find that, indeed, with increasing Weissenberg number ($Wi$), turbulence expresses long periods of hibernation if the domain size is small. However, with increasing pipe length, the temporal hibernation continuously alters to spatio-temporal intermittency and here the flow consists of turbulent puffs surrounded by laminar flow. Moreover, upon an increase in $Wi$, the flow fully relaminarizes, in agreement with recent experiments. At even larger $Wi$, a different instability is encountered causing a drag increase towards MDR. Our findings hence link earlier minimal flow unit simulations with recent experiments and confirm that the addition of polymers initially suppresses Newtonian turbulence and leads to a reverse transition. The MDR state on the other hand results at these low$Re$ from a separate instability and the underlying dynamics corresponds to the recently proposed state of elasto-inertial turbulence.

JFM classification

Flow Control: Drag reduction Turbulent Flows: Turbulent transition Non-Newtonian Flows: Viscoelasticity

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Type
JFM Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 874 , 10 September 2019 , pp. 699 - 719
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© 2019 Cambridge University Press 

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