The transition to turbulence in a flow of semidilute shear-thinning viscoelastic solution with a moderate elasticity was investigated in the Taylor-Couette system with a fixed outer cylinder. As the cylinder rotation frequency increases, the base flow bifurcates to a pattern of ribbons and then to disordered oscillations (DOs). Within these DOs, we have identified two particular regimes of turbulence: spatiotemporal intermittency (STI) followed by inertioelastic turbulence (IET) with a net transition between them. This transition is evidenced by a sharp peak of a diffusion velocity and a Weissenberg number.

• Received 18 June 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.86.056305