Finite element Eulerian-Lagrangian method for time dependent flow of multimode fluids (Q1116781)

This work is directed towards the application of numerical methods to the solution of time-dependent flows of viscoelastic fluids. An Eulerian- Lagrangian method has been developed in which time differences are carried out in the Lagrangian sense on a fixed mass of material occupying the control volume during a simple time step. After transformation of the Lagrangian difference equations to the Eulerian description, the spatial dependence of the unknown fields is calculated by the finite element method. The backward Lagrangian time difference automatically builds exact upwinding into the scheme, and reduces the asymmetry of the matrix of coefficients. An important feature of this technique is its applicability to multi-mode fluids whose properties are characterized by a spectrum of relaxation times. In this paper the method is demonstrated with the problem of startup of Poiseuille flow for the Oldroyd-B fluid and for a multimode, rubberlike fluid.