Black, W. B., and Graham, M.D., ``Slip, concentration fluctuations and flow instability in sheared polymer solutions,'' Macromolecules, to appear (2001).

Recent experiments suggest that shear-enhanced growth of concentration fluctuations in polymer solutions is strongly influenced by solid boundaries. We analyze the dynamics of a model of a sheared polymer solution, accounting for the effect of stress variations on mass flux and for wall-slip. If these effects are present, the flow exhibits a boundary-localized hydrodynamic instability consistent with experimental observations.


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Last modified: 20 Dec 1999
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