Application extension of the meshless local Petrov-Galerkin method: Non-Newtonian fluid flow implementations

Abstract

A computer code is developed to enhance the meshless local Petrov-Galerkin method capability to solve non-Newtonian fluid flow problems. In particular, the mesh-free method here, is to be empowered to simulate and solve the two-dimensional laminar incompressible power-law cases for the first time. The newly developed computer code expresses the appropriate governing equations in terms of the vorticity-stream function formulation and sustains a weighting function of unity. The local quadrature domain integrated by parts over the appropriate control volumes provides the local weak form of the considered governing equations. The extended scheme implements the moving least square interpolation technique to approximate the obtained field variables. The ability of the developed code to handle the Ostwald-de Waele (also known as the power-law) fluid flow occurrences were assessed through comparing the obtained results of the extended method to those of the conventional mesh-based methods for some benchmarking cases available in the paper. Based on this comparison, the extended code demonstrates a good capability to address the power-law fluid flow problems for different indices for one of the most popular non-Newtonian fluid flow models.