On the effect of contraction ratio in viscoelastic flow through abrupt contractions

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2004

Authors

Manuel A. Alves (Author) FEUP; Paulo J. Oliveira (Author) Other; Fernando T. Pinho (Author) FEUP

Journal

Title: Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics

Vol. 122 No. 1-3

Pages: 117-130

ISSN: 0377-0257

Publisher: Elsevier

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 44 Citations

ISI Web of Science

Scopus - 50 Citations

COMPENDEX

Scientific classification

FOS: Engineering and technology > Mechanical engineering

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-000-8H5

DOI: 10.1016/j.jnnfm.2004.01.022

Abstract (EN): A numerical study of the creeping flow of a PTT fluid through planar sudden contractions was carried out to quantify the effect of contraction ratio upon the flow characteristics (streamlines and size and intensity of recirculation vortices). The relevant governing equations were solved with a finite volume method embodying a new high-resolution scheme (Alves et al. [Int. J. Numer. Meth. Fluids 41 (2003) 47]) for the discretisation of convection terms, which is here explained and shown to yield improved accuracy and robustness. The results of the simulations, in terms of streamline patterns, give further evidence for a lip-vortex enhancement mechanism and are in remarkable agreement with flow visualization photographs from the literature. In addition, the results show that the variation of flow features in the vicinity of the re-entrant comer, such as lip vortex size and streamlines, are dominated by downstream quantities and scale with the common definition for the Deborah number in this flow, while flow characteristics in the salient corner region scale with that Deborah number divided by the contraction ratio.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 14