title: Purely elastic flow asymmetries.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Engineering, University of Liverpool, Brownlow Street, Liverpool, L69 3GH United Kingdom.
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Poole
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Alves
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Oliveira