PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 127, 134502 (2021)

Continuous Pathway between the Elasto-Inertial and Elastic Turbulent States

in Viscoelastic Channel Flow
Mohammad Khalid ,1 V. Shankar ,1,* and Ganesh Subramanian 2,†
1
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur 208016, India
2
Engineering Mechanics Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore 560084, India
(Received 22 March 2021; revised 18 June 2021; accepted 27 August 2021; published 22 September 2021)

Viscoelastic plane Poiseuille flow is shown to become linearly unstable in the absence of inertia, in the
limit of high elasticities, for ultradilute polymer solutions. While inertialess elastic instabilities have been
predicted for curvilinear shear flows, this is the first ever report of a purely elastic linear instability in a
rectilinear shear flow. The novel instability continues up to a Reynolds number (Re) of Oð1000Þ,
corresponding to the recently identified elasto-inertial turbulent state believed to underlie the maximum-
drag-reduced regime. Thus, for highly elastic ultradilute polymer solutions, a single linearly unstable modal
branch may underlie transition to elastic turbulence at zero Re and to elasto-inertial turbulence at moderate
Re, implying the existence of continuous pathways connecting the turbulent states to each other and to the
laminar base state.

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.134502

Dilute polymer solutions undergo two different transitions
to novel turbulent states, both driven by viscoelasticity, and
thence, fundamentally distinct from the now well-under-
stood Newtonian transition [1–3]. Pipe and channel flows of
sufficiently elastic polymer solutions transition from the
laminar state at Reynolds numbers substantially lower than
the typical Newtonian threshold, the ensuing flow state
dubbed elasto-inertial turbulence (EIT) to emphasize the
importance of both elastic and inertial effects underlying the
turbulent dynamics [4–10]. The EIT state is dominated by
spanwise oriented 2D structures [8,11] in sharp contrast to
the Newtonian scenario [2], and for plane Poiseuille flow,
has recently been shown [12,13] to be connected subcriti-
cally to a linear center-mode instability [14–16]; recent pipe-
flow experiments have, in fact, found remarkable agreement
between the observed structures at EIT onset [7] and the
center-mode eigenfunction [14,15]. On the other hand,
curvilinear shearing flows of dilute polymer solutions
transition to elastic turbulence (ET) in the inertialess limit
[17–19], the transition being triggered by a hoop-stress-
driven linear instability [20–27]; the eventual disorderly ET
state that arises has been well characterized experimentally
[17,18,27] and, to a limited extent, theoretically as well [28].
Unlike their curvilinear counterparts, inertialess recti-
linear shear flows of dilute polymer solutions have hitherto
been regarded as linearly stable [29–31]. Transition in these
flows has been proposed to occur via a subcritical mecha-
nism, but one that nevertheless involves a hoop stress
that now arises at a nonlinear order due to the curvature of
the perturbed streamlines [32–36]. There is some exper-
imental evidence of an inertialess finite-amplitude transi-
tion [32,37–39] to what might be an ET state similar to that
observed for curvilinear flows; the absence of a linear
instability has also motivated examination of nonmodal
growth mechanisms, both in the absence [40,41] and
presence [42] of inertia. The aforementioned EIT and ET
states might seem unrelated at first sight, on account of
fluid inertia playing a fundamental role in the former, while
being irrelevant in the latter. It has nevertheless been
speculated [4,7,12,19,39] that the two states may be linked,
although there exist no concrete hypotheses or proposals in
this regard.
In this Letter, we show that (i) pressure-driven visco-
elastic channel flow is linearly unstable even in the absence
of inertia, making this the first ever report of a purely elastic
linear instability not dependent on base-state streamline
curvature; (ii) the instability smoothly continues, with
increasing Reynolds number (Re), to the aforementioned
elasto-inertial linear instability [14,16]. Since the latter
instability has been shown to subcritically continue to
nonlinear elasto-inertial coherent structures [12,13], the
implication is the existence of a continuous pathway (the
underlying unstable modal branch) connecting the EIT and
ET states, one that might provide a template for nonlinear
coherent structures acting as possible bridges between these
states, thereby forming the framework for a dynamical-
systems-based interpretation of turbulence outside the
Newtonian realm.
We consider pressure-driven flow of an incompressible
viscoelastic fluid in a channel of width 2H. The governing
mass and momentum equations [43,44], in dimensionless
form, are


∂u
∇·u ¼ 0; Re þ ðu·∇Þu ¼ −∇p þ β∇2 u þ ∇·τ; ð1Þ
∂t

0031-9007=21=127(13)=134502(6) 134502-1 © 2021 American Physical Society

 J. Fluid Mech. (2021), vol. 915, A43, doi:10.1017/jfm.2021.60
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The centre-mode instability of viscoelastic plane

Poiseuille flow

Mohammad Khalid1 , Indresh Chaudhary1 , Piyush Garg2 , V. Shankar1, †

and Ganesh Subramanian2, †
1 Departmentof Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur 208016, India
2 EngineeringMechanics Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research,
Bangalore 560064, India

(Received 28 July 2020; revised 19 November 2020; accepted 13 January 2021)

A modal stability analysis shows that plane Poiseuille flow of an Oldroyd-B fluid becomes
unstable to a ‘centre mode’ with phase speed close to the maximum base-flow velocity,
Umax . The governing dimensionless groups are the Reynolds number Re = ρUmax H/η,
the elasticity number E = λη/(H 2 ρ) and the ratio of solvent to solution viscosity
β = ηs /η; here, λ is the polymer relaxation time, H is the channel half-width and ρ
is the fluid density. For experimentally relevant values (e.g. E ∼ 0.1 and β ∼ 0.9), the
critical Reynolds number, Rec , is around 200, with the associated eigenmodes being
spread out across the channel. For E(1 − β)  1, with E fixed, corresponding to strongly
elastic dilute polymer solutions, Rec ∝ (E(1 − β))−3/2 and the critical wavenumber kc ∝
(E(1 − β))−1/2 . The unstable eigenmode in this limit is confined in a thin layer near the
channel centreline. These features are largely analogous to the centre-mode instability
in viscoelastic pipe flow (Garg et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 121, 2018, 024502), and
suggest a universal linear mechanism underlying the onset of turbulence in both channel
and pipe flows of sufficiently elastic dilute polymer solutions. Although the centre-mode
instability continues down to β ∼ 10−2 for pipe flow, it ceases to exist for β < 0.5
in channels. Whereas inertia, elasticity and solvent viscous effects are simultaneously
required for this instability, a higher viscous threshold is required for channel flow. Further,
in the opposite limit of β → 1, the centre-mode instability in channel flow continues
to exist at Re ≈ 5, again in contrast to pipe flow where the instability ceases to exist
below Re ≈ 63, regardless of E or β. Our predictions are in reasonable agreement with
experimental observations for the onset of turbulence in the flow of polymer solutions
through microchannels.
Key words: transition to turbulence, viscoelasticity

† Email addresses for correspondence: vshankar@iitk.ac.in, sganesh@jncasr.ac.in

© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press 915 A43-1
 PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 121, 024502 (2018)

Viscoelastic Pipe Flow is Linearly Unstable

Piyush Garg,1 Indresh Chaudhary,2 Mohammad Khalid,2 V. Shankar,2,* and Ganesh Subramanian1,†
1
Engineering Mechanics Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore 560064, India
2
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur 208016, India

(Received 5 December 2017; published 11 July 2018)

Newtonian pipe flow is known to be linearly stable at all Reynolds numbers. We report, for the first time,
a linear instability of pressure-driven pipe flow of a viscoelastic fluid, obeying the Oldroyd-B constitutive
equation commonly used to model dilute polymer solutions. The instability is shown to exist at Reynolds
numbers significantly lower than those at which transition to turbulence is typically observed for
Newtonian pipe flow. Our results qualitatively explain experimental observations of transition to turbulence
in pipe flow of dilute polymer solutions at flow rates where Newtonian turbulence is absent. The instability
discussed here should form the first stage in a hitherto unexplored dynamical pathway to turbulence in
polymer solutions. An analogous instability exists for plane Poiseuille flow.

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.024502

Since the discovery by Toms that the addition of small
amounts of a high molecular weight polymer to a Newtonian
fluid significantly reduces the pressure drop in turbulent pipe
flow [1,2], turbulent flows of dilute polymer solutions have
been widely studied for both their fundamental and industrial
importance [1–6]. Understanding the transition to turbulence
in shearing flows of viscoelastic fluids, including dilute
polymer solutions, is thus crucial [7,8]. A central question
underlying this field of study is if the laminar state is stable to
infinitesimal amplitude perturbations [7–9].
Newtonian pipe flow is known to be linearly stable at all
Reynolds numbers (Re) [10–14]. By carefully minimizing
external perturbations, laminar flow has been maintained in
experiments up to Re ∼ 100000 [15]; in contrast, when
forced with finite amplitude disturbances, transition occurs
around a Re of 2000 [16–20]. Theoretically, this subcritical
scenario is explained by the appearance, above a threshold
Re, of nontrivial three-dimensional solutions of the Navier-
Stokes equations (termed exact coherent states) which are
disconnected from the laminar state [14,19,21]. Rectilinear
shearing flows, including pipe flow, of dilute polymer
solutions are also believed to be linearly stable at all
Weissenberg numbers (Wi) in the inertialess limit
(Re ¼ 0) [9,22–24], Wi here being the ratio of the polymer
relaxation time to the flow time scale. A nonlinear
mechanism has been proposed for transition to (elastic)
turbulence in such flows, where an initial finite amplitude
perturbation induces curved streamlines, which then
become unstable to a hoop-stress-driven elastic instability
that operates at linear order in canonical curvilinear
geometries [8,25–29]. Theoretical work explaining tran-
sition, and turbulent drag reduction, at finite Re and Wi has
focused on the modification of the Newtonian scenario, by
mapping the domain of existence of the exact coherent
states in the Re-Wi plane [7,30–32]. That these finite
amplitude solutions do not exist above a critical Wi, for
fixed Re, is indicative of a distinct transition mechanism
at larger Wi [7,33]. A separate line of work has focused on
the linear transient growth of disturbances from a stable
laminar state [34–36]. The theoretical viewpoint is thus
rooted in the (assumed) linear stability of the laminar state
everywhere in the Re-Wi plane [7–9].
There have, however, been scattered observations that
point to a linear instability in pipe flow experiments
involving dilute polymer solutions. In a series of experi-
ments in the 1960s and 1970s, transition to turbulence was
observed in dilute polymer solutions, at Reynolds numbers
much lower than the Newtonian threshold by several
groups, the phenomenon being dubbed “early turbulence”
[37–46]. Later, Draad et al. [47] observed an order of
magnitude reduction in the natural (unforced) transition Re
for a polymer solution. More recently, Samanta et al. [48]
studied transition in polyacrylamide solutions, in smaller
diameter pipes, thereby accessing higher Weissenberg
numbers. In a 4 mm diameter pipe, the transition process
for concentrations lesser than 200 ppm was analogous to
the Newtonian one with forced and natural transitions
occurring at disparate Reynolds numbers. In sharp contrast,
for the 500 ppm solution, the transition occurred at
Re ∼ 800 independent of the perturbation amplitude.
Further, spatially localized structures (puffs), characteristic
of the bistability associated with the Newtonian subcritical
transition [49–51], were absent. Subsequently, this new
transitional pathway, connecting the laminar state to a novel
elastoinertial turbulent state, has been demonstrated over a
much wider parameter range [52].
Although a linear instability has occasionally been
speculated upon [7,38], the consensus in the field assumes
otherwise [8,27,29,48,53]. This assumption is sometimes
stated as a fact, for instance in Refs. [27,29,53]. Even the

0031-9007=18=121(2)=024502(6) 024502-1 © 2018 American Physical Society