Abstract
Fluid dynamics, which describes the flow of gas and liquid,
has contributed tremendously to science and technology.
If we can safely ignore the density change associated with flow,
then we can regard fluid to be incompressible.
For simple shear flow, for example, it has been established
that there is no pressure change associated with flow
and thus no violation of the incompressibility.
This is because the flow does not accompany any volume deformation
(no pressure change due to viscous stress) and inertia
effects can be neglected (no inertial pressure drop).
According to this conventional wisdom, any flow-induced instability
such as cavitation are unexpected for simple shear flow.
However, if we take into account the fact that the viscosity is a function
of the density, this scenario is drastically changed.
Contrary to the above common belief, here we demonstrate that
the incompressibility condition can be violated by a coupling
between flow and density fluctuations via the density dependence
of viscosity $\eta$ even for simple shear flow and
a liquid can become mechanically unstable above the critical shear rate,
$\gamma_c=(\eta/p)_T^-1 $,
where $p$ is the pressure and $T$ is the temperature.
Our model predicts that for very viscous liquids
this shear-induced instability should occur at a moderate
shear rate, which we can easily access experimentally.
Indeed this scenario well explains unusual phenomena of shear-induced
instability observed in viscous lubricants.
Our mechanism not only offers a new condition for the incompressibility
($\gamma_c$),
but also may shed new light on poorly understood
phenomena associated with the mechanical instability of liquid at a low
Reynolds number: instability of lubricants under shear,
shear-induced cavitation and bubble growth,
shear banding of very viscous liquids including metallic glasses.
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