Squeezing a viscoelastic liquid from a wedge: An exact solution (Q1060903)

The squeezing flow from a wedge of a general viscoelastic fluid has been considered. To obtain numerical values for the field variables, a network model that allows stress overshoot and shear-thinning in the start up of a shear flow is adopted. It has been found that both these features are important in this transient flow. Stress overshoot is responsible for a stiffer response of the fluid (compared to inelastic case) at moderate time; at large time, shear thinning dominates and the fluid behaves like an inelastic fluid. On the other hand, the Oldroyd-B fluid always predicts a softer response than the Newtonian one. Further, there exists a limiting Weissenberg number (approximately 2/3) above which one component of the stress of the Oldroyd-B fluid increases unboundedly with time.