Electrohydrodynamic instability of two superposed Walters B´ viscoelastic fluids in relative motion through porous medium

Summary   The electrohydrodynamic Kelvin–Helmholtz instability of the interface between two uniform superposed viscoelastic (B′ model) dielectric fluids streaming through a porous medium is investigated. The considered system is influenced by applied electric fields acting normally to the interface between the two media, at which there are no surface charges present. In the absence of surface tension, perturbations transverse to the direction of streaming are found to be unaffected by either streaming and applied electric fields for the potentially unstable configuration, or streaming only for the potentially stable configuration, as long as perturbations in the direction of streaming are ignored. For perturbations in all other directions, there exists instability for a certain wavenumber range. The instability of this system can be enhanced (increased) by normal electric fields. In the presence of surface tension, it is found also that the normal electric fields have destabilizing effects, and that the surface tension is able to suppress the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability for small wavelength perturbations, and the medium porosity reduces the stability range given in terms of the velocities difference and the electric fields effect. Finally, it is shown that the presence of surface tension enhances the stabilizing effect played by the fluid velocities, and that the kinematic viscoelasticity has a stabilizing as well as a destabilizing effect on the considered system under certain conditions. Graphics have been plotted by giving numerical values to the parameters, to depict the stability characteristics. Received 27 March 2000; accepted for publication 3 May 2001