Predicting numerically the large increases in extra pressure drop when boger fluids flow through

Abstract

Recent numerical studies on pressure-drops in contraction flows have introduced a variety of constitutive models to compare and contrast the competing influences of extensional vis-cosity, normal stress and shear-thinning. Early work on pressure-drops employed the constant viscosity Oldroyd-B and Upper Convected Max- well (UCM) models to represent the behavior of so-called Boger fluids in axisymmetric contrac-tion flows, in (unsuccessful) attempts to predict the very large enhancements that were ob-served experimentally. In more recent studies, other constitutive models have been employed to interpret observed behavior and some pro-gress has been made, although finding a (re-spectable) model to describe observed contrac-tion-flow behavior, even qualitatively, has been frustratingly difficult. With this in mind, the present study discusses the ability of a well- known FENE type model (the so-called FENE- CR model) to describe observed behavior. For various reasons, an axisymmetric (4:1:4) con-traction/expansion geometry, with rounded corners, is singled out for special attention, and a new hybrid finite element/volume algo-rithm is utilized to conduct the modeling, which reflects an incremental pressure-correction time-stepping structure. New to this algo-rithmic formulation are techniques in time discretization, discrete treatment of pressure terms, and compatible stress/velocity-gradient representation. We shall argue that the current simulations for the FENE-CR model have re-sulted in a major improvement in the sort-for agreement between theory and experiment in this important bench-mark problem.