Numerically stable finite element techniques for viscoelastic calculations in smooth and singular geometries

Abstract

Finite element calculations for viscoelastic flows are reported that use a restructured form of the equation of motion that makes explicit the elliptic character of this equation. We call this restructured equation the Explicity Elliptic Momentum Equation, and its use is illustrated for flow of an upper convected Maxwell (UCM) model between eccentric and concentric rotating cylinders and also for a modified upper convected Maxwell (MUCM) model in the stick-slip problem. Sets of mixed-order approximations for velocity, stress, and a modified pressure are used to test the algorithm in both problems. Both sets of calculations are shown to converge with mesh refinement and are limited at high values of Deborah number by the formation of elastic boundary layers that are identified in the momentum equation by the growth of low-order derivative terms that involve the local velocity gradient and divergence of stress. Similar convergence properties are observed for bilinear and biquadratic Lagrangian approximations to the stress components. However, calculations with the more accurate basis for stress converge to higher values of De and are sensitive to the weighted residual method used for the constitutive equation, particularly for the eccentric cylinder problem. Streamline-upwind Petroy-Galerkin (SUPG) and artificial diffusivity (AD) formulations of the constitutive equation are tested for solution of both problems by calculations of the stress fields with fixed kinematics and by solution of the coupled problem. The SUPG method improves the performance of the calculations with the biquadratic basis set for the eccentric cylinder problem. For the UCM model, adding artificial diffusion to the constitutive equation in the stick-slip problem changes the dominant balance for the stress field near the singularity, making it appear as an integrable stress approximation for fixed mesh. For the MUCM model the Newtonian-like behavior of the stress near this point is unaffected by the AD method and calculations converge to moderate De.