Thickening of viscoelastic flow in a model porous medium

Hemingway, E.J.; Clarke, A.; Pearson, J.R.A.; Fielding, S.M.

Abstract

We study numerically two-dimensional creeping viscoelastic flow past a biperiodic square array of cylinders within the Oldroyd B, FENE-CR and FENE-P constitutive models of dilute polymer solutions. Our results capture the initial mild decrease then dramatic upturn (‘thickening’) seen experimentally in the drag coefficient as a function of increasing Weissenberg number. By systematically varying the porosity of the flow geometry, we demonstrate two qualitatively different mechanisms underpinning this thickening effect: one that operates in the highly porous case of widely spaced obstacles, and another for more densely packed obstacles, with a crossover between these two mechanisms at intermediate porosities. We also briefly consider 2D creeping viscoelastic flow past a linear array of cylinders confined to a channel, where we find that the flow is steady for all Weissenberg numbers explored.

Citation

Hemingway, E., Clarke, A., Pearson, J., & Fielding, S. (2017). Thickening of viscoelastic flow in a model porous medium. Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics, 251, 56-68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnnfm.2017.11.002

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 11, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Nov 13, 2017
• Publication Date: Nov 13, 2017
• Deposit Date: Nov 29, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 3, 2024
• Journal: Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics
• Print ISSN: 0377-0257
• Electronic ISSN: 1873-2631
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 251
• Pages: 56-68
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnnfm.2017.11.002
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1339001