Asymptotic-analysis-inspired boundary conditions aiming at eliminating polymer diffusive instability

The recent discovery of polymer diffusive instability (PDI) by Beneitez et al. (2023 Phys. Rev. Fluids 8 , L101901), poses challenges in implementing artificial conformation diffusion (ACD) in transition simulations of viscoelastic wall-shear flows. In this paper, we demonstrate that the unstable PDI is primarily induced by the conformation boundary conditions additionally introduced in the ACD equation system, which could be eliminated if a new set of conformation conditions is adopted. To address this issue, we begin with an asymptotic analysis of the PDI within the near-wall thin diffusive layer, which simplifies the complexity of the instability system by reducing the number of the controlling parameters from five to zero. Then, based on this simplified model, we construct a stable asymptotic solution that minimises the perturbations in the wall sublayer. From the near-wall behaviour of this solution, we derive a new set of conformation boundary conditions, prescribing a Neumann-type condition for its streamwise stretching component, $c_{11}$ , and Dirichlet-type conditions for all the other conformation components. These boundary conditions are subsequently validated within the original ACD instability system, incorporating both the Oldroyd-B and the finitely extensible nonlinear elastic Peterlin constitutive models. Finally, we perform direct numerical simulations based on the traditional and the new conformation conditions, demonstrating the effectiveness of the latter in eliminating the unstable PDI. Importantly, this improvement does not affect the calculations of other types of instabilities. Therefore, this work offers a promising approach for achieving reliable polymer-flow simulations with ACD, ensuring both numerical stability and accuracy.