Showing papers by "Kenneth Walters published in 2010"

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.

A computational study of some rheological influences on the “splashing experiment”

Abstract: In various attempts to relate the behaviour of highly-elastic liquids in complex flows to their rheometrical behaviour, obvious candidates for study have been the variation of shear viscosity with shear rate, the two normal stress differences N-1 and N-2, especially N-1, the extensional viscosity, and the dynamic moduli G' and G ''. In this paper, we shall confine attention to 'constant-viscosity' Boger fluids, and, accordingly, we shall limit attention to N-1, eta(E), G' and G ''. We shall concentrate on the "splashing" problem (particularly that which arises when a liquid drop falls onto the free surface of the same liquid). Modern numerical techniques are employed to provide the theoretical predictions. We show that high eta(E) can certainly reduce the height of the so-called Worthington jet, thus confirming earlier suggestions, but other rheometrical influences (steady and transient) can also have a role to play and the overall picture may not be as clear as it was once envisaged. We argue that this is due in the main to the fact that splashing is a manifestly unsteady flow. To confirm this proposition, we obtain numerical simulations for the linear Jeffreys model. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.