In the past 15 years, flow instabilities reminiscent of the Taylor-like instabilities driven by hoop stresses have been observed in wormlike micelles based on surfactant molecules. In particular, purely elastic instabilities and turbulence have been shown to develop on top of shear banding, a type of flow specific to the semidilute and concentrated regimes. These instabilities have been identified as the origin of the large body of data showing complex spatiotemporal fluctuations, collected in shear-banded systems using multiple experimental techniques. Different categories of banding have been suggested depending on their stability, which involve intrinsic properties of the system and streamline curvature. It has been shown qualitatively that instabilities are promoted by an increase in the surfactant concentration or in the curvature of the flow geometry, while an increase in temperature stabilizes the flow. Here, using benchmark shear banding micellar systems, we quantify the effect of the streamline curvature on these flow instabilities, focusing more specifically on the transition toward purely elastic turbulence. Using various optical visualizations, we identify two transitional pathways to elastic turbulence. We construct a generic state diagram in a parameter space based on the curvature ratio and the Weissenberg number. The nature—supercritical vs subcritical—of the transition to elastic turbulence is discussed. The stress evolution is in favor of a change of nature from subcritical to supercritical transition as the curvature ratio increases. However, we show that finite size effects cannot be neglected and may artificially smooth the stress response. Furthermore, each domain of this diagram is characterized using velocimetry measurements. Finally, a scaling for the onset of elastic turbulence is determined.

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• Flow instability
• Non-Newtonian fluids
• Rheology