Analysis of complex viscoelastic flows using a finite element method

The field of computational fluid mechanics of viscoelastic flows has been well explored in the three decades since its inception. Still, even with the vast amount of work detailed in the literature, much remains to be done towards the improvement of models of viscoelastic fluids and the improvement of the numerical methods used to solve the set of governing equations. The work contained in this document is concentrated in the latter of these areas. The main goal of this body of work is to develop a robust, efficient simulation package to model three-dimensional viscoelastic flows. In order to accomplish this goal, improvements to the numerical methods and equation formulation were necessary to help reduce the overall size of the equation set used to describe viscoelastic flows in three-dimensional geometries. In order to test their viability for use in reducing the overall size of the problem, concepts involving changing the formulation of the equations and the numerical methods used to find the solution to the equations were first implemented and analyzed in a previously developed two-dimensional finite element simulation package. Implementation and analysis is discussed of a formulation change involving decoupling the calculation of the velocity gradient interpolant equation and the momentum and mass continuity equations in the DEVSS-G formulation.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Chemical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Phillips, Scott David, Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Robert A. Brown and Robert C. Armstrong.

• Chemical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/34163
• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Identifier URI

http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/34163

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34163