Fiber Buckling in Confined Viscous Flows: An Absolute Instability Described by the Linear Ginzburg-Landau Equation

We explore the dynamics of a flexible fiber transported by a viscous flow in a Hele-Shaw cell of height comparable to the fiber height. We show that long fibers aligned with the flow experience a buckling instability. Competition between viscous and elastic forces leads to the deformation of the fiber into a wavy shape convolved by a Bell-shaped envelope. We characterize the wavelength and phase velocity of the deformation as well as the growth and spreading of the envelope. Our study of the spatiotemporal evolution of the deformation reveals a linear and absolute instability arising from a local mechanism well described by the Ginzburg-Landau equation.