Global existence of weak solutions to macroscopic models of polymeric flows

Abstract

One of the most classical closures approximation of the FENE model of polymeric flows is the one proposed by Peterlin, namely the FENE-P model. We prove global existence of weak solutions to the FENE-P model. The proof is based on the propagation of some defect measures that control the lack of strong convergence in an approximating sequence. Using a similar argument, we also prove global existence of weak solutions to the Giesekus and the Phan-Thien and Tanner models.