Interface instability in shear banding flow

Abstract

We report on the spatio-temporal dynamics of the interface in shear-banding flow of a wormlike micellar system (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide and sodium nitrate in water) during a start-up experiment. Using the scattering properties of the induced structures, we demonstrate the existence of an instability of the interface between bands along the vorticity direction. Different regimes of spatio-temporal dynamics of the interface are indentified along the stress plateau. We build a model based on the flow symetry which qualitatively describes the observed patterns.