Spatial decay of steady perturbations of plane Poiseuille flow for the Oldroyd-B equation (Q2366980)

A numerical eigenfunction analysis of steady perturbations of plane Poiseuille flow for the Oldroyd-B equation is presented. It is shown that the length scale over which the downstream boundary condition affects the upstream flow is much shorter than the length scale over which the polymer stress relaxes to that of fully developed flow. A correction to the pressure drop is also derived, and, in addition, we show that an instability criterion for time-dependent simulation of planar Couette flow derived in an earlier paper [\textit{R. A. Keiller}, J. Non-Newton. Fluid Mech. 43, No. 2/3, 229-246 (1992)] may also apply to steady-state calculations of Poiseuille flow.