Impact of the constitutive equation and singularity on the calculation of stick-slip flow: The modified upper-convected Maxwell model (MUCM) (Q1118467)

Calculations of viscoelastic flows using the upper-convected Maxwell (UCM) model in geometries which include sharp corners or moving and free liquid/fluid contact lines are known to be non-convergent with mesh refinement. A modified upper-convected Maxwell (MUCM) model is proposed which partially alleviates this difficulty. The MUCM model is derivable from network theory and allows the fluid relaxation time to decrease at increasing values of the trace of the stress tensor. The MUCM model yields stress fields that reduce to the asymptotic expressions for a Newtonian fluid near singularities, at non-deformable boundaries. Calculations using a Galerkin finite element method are presented for the planar stick-slip problem of the flow between two no-slip surfaces joined to two shear-free surfaces. Results for fine meshes show the correct asymptotic behavior near the singularity for the MUCM model and converge to much higher values of the Deborah number than for the UCM model. However, the results for the MUCM model are still constrained by numerical instabilities related to approximating the stress behavior near the singularity.