A study of nonlinear flows and shear banding in wormlike micelles under varying elasticity, flow curvature, and surfactant chemistry

We report the flow dynamics of two shear-banding wormlike micellar solutions with distinct surfactant chemistries in a Taylor–Couette (TC) setup following a startup shear. The solutions, formulated with CTAB/NaSal and CPyCl/NaSal, exhibit comparable bulk rheology and equilibrium microstructural properties. By varying the TC gap size, we systematically examine the elasticity number over a range of 1.28×105–4.47×106, while flow curvature spans from 0.022 to 0.171. Under a step shear into the stress plateau, both solutions exhibit a pronounced stress overshoot that intensifies with increasing the elasticity number and flow curvature, followed by the development of growing flow heterogeneities. Beyond a critical threshold of elasticity number and curvature, the CTAB/NaSal solution exhibits transient flow reversal, whereas the CPyCl/NaSal solution, despite developing similar heterogeneities, does not undergo flow reversal under any tested conditions. Additionally, the quasisteady velocity profiles are significantly influenced by elasticity number and flow curvature. Wall slip at the outer cylinder exhibits a nonmonotonic dependence on these parameters: it is negligible at low values of elasticity number and flow curvature, peaks at intermediate values, and diminishes at high values. Our findings highlight how surfactant chemistry, elasticity number, and flow curvature control shear-banding flows in wormlike micelles.