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Equilibrium Circulation And Stress Distribution In Viscoelastic Creeping Flow, Joseph A. Biello, Becca Thomases

Mathematics Sciences: Faculty Publications

An analytic, asymptotic approximation of the nonlinear steady-state equations for viscoelastic creeping flow, modeled by the Oldroyd-B equations with polymer stress diffusion, is derived. Near the extensional stagnation point the flow stretches and aligns polymers along the outgoing streamlines of the stagnation point resulting in a stress-island, or birefringent strand. The polymer stress diffusion coefficient is used, both as an asymptotic parameter and a regularization parameter. The structure of the singular part of the polymer stress tensor is a Gaussian aligned with the incoming streamline of the stagnation point a smoothed δ-distribution whose width is proportional to the square-root of …