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Updated: Jan 26, 2026

Visually Based Characterization of the Incipient Particle Motion in Regular Substrates: From Laminar to Turbulent Conditions
Published on: February 22, 2018
Critical-Layer Structures and Mechanisms in Elastoinertial Turbulence
Ashwin Shekar1, Ryan M McMullen2, Sung-Ning Wang1
1Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA.
Abstract:
Simulations of elastoinertial turbulence (EIT) of a polymer solution at low Reynolds number are shown to display localized polymer stretch fluctuations. These are very similar to structures arising from linear stability (Tollmien-Schlichting modes) and resolvent analyses, i.e., critical-layer structures localized where the mean fluid velocity equals the wave speed. Computations of self-sustained nonlinear Tollmien-Schlichting waves reveal that the critical layer exhibits stagnation points that generate sheets of large polymer stretch. These kinematics may be the genesis of similar structures in EIT.
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