Numerical Simulation of Oldroyd-B Fluid in a Contraction Channel

A spectral element method coupled with the elastic viscous split stress technique for computing viscoelastic flows is presented. The rate of deformation tensor is introduced as an additional variable in the momentum equation, but not in the constitutive equation. The nonlinear rheological model, Oldroyd-B, is chosen to simulate the flow of a viscoelastic fluid. Numerical solutions are investigated based on a planar 4:1 abrupt contraction channel flow benchmark problem with different Weissenberg numbers. The results show a good agreement with other numerical predictions.