Flow of Viscoelastic Fluid Past a Cylinder

Application ID: 4383


Many complex fluids of interest exhibit a combination of viscous and elastic behavior under strain. Examples of such fluids are polymer solutions and melts, oil, toothpaste, and clay, among many others.

The Oldroyd-B fluid presents one of the simplest constitutive models capable of describing the viscoelastic behavior of dilute polymeric solutions under general flow conditions. Despite the apparent simplicity of the constitutive relation, the dynamics that arise in many flows are complicated enough to present a considerable challenge to numerical simulations.

This model studies a flow of Oldroyd-B fluid past a cylinder between two parallel plates. The result are in good agreement with experimental and simulation results published elsewhere.

This model example illustrates applications of this type that would nominally be built using the following products: