A purely hyperbolic model for unsteady viscoelastic flow (Q1120381)

A purely hyperbolic model for unsteady, two-dimensional viscoelastic flow is developed. The model uses a pressure-density relationship in the continuity equation to obtain a dynamic equation for the pressure, and the Giesekus constitutive equation with zero retardation time to describe the extra stress. The small degree of compressibility allowed by the model is negligible for practical purposes but important mathematically because it changes the unsteady governing equations from parabolic- hyperbolic to a purely hyperbolic system. This allows the application of a numerical method designed specifically for solving hyperbolic problems, and thus, to better treat the hyperbolic nature of the flow which is dominant at high Deborah numbers.