Spectral/finite-element calculations of the flow of a Maxwell fluid between eccentric rotating cylinders (Q1087067)

The steady-state, two-dimensional creeping flow of an upper-convected Maxwell fluid between two eccentric cylinders, with the inner one rotating, is computed using a spectral/finite-element method (SFEM). the SFEM is designed to alleviate the numerical oscillations caused by excessive dispersion error in previous finite-element calculations and to resolve the stress boundary-layers that exist for high elasticity, as measured by the Deborah number De. Calculations for cylinders with low eccentricity \((\epsilon =0.1)\) converged to oscillation-free solutions for De\(\approx 90\), extending the domain of convergence over traditional finite-element methods by a factor of thirty. The results are confirmed by extensive refinement of the discretization.