Galerkin least-squares solutions for purely viscous flows of shear-thinning fluids and regularized yield stress fluids

This paper aims to present Galerkin Least-Squares approximations for flows of Bingham plastic fluids. These fluids are modeled using the Generalized Newtonian Liquid (GNL) constitutive equation. Their viscoplastic behavior is predicted by the viscosity function, which employs the Papanastasiou’s regularization in order to predict a highly viscous behavior when the applied stress lies under the material’s yield stress. The mechanical modeling for this type of flow is based on the conservation equations of mass and momentum, coupled to the GNL constitutive equation for the extra-stress tensor. The finite element methodology concerned herein, the well-known Galerkin Least-Squares (GLS) method, overcomes the two greatest Galerkin shortcomings for mixed problems. There is no need to satisfy Babuška-Brezzi condition for velocity and pressure subspaces, and spurious numerical oscillations, due to the asymmetric nature of advective operator, are eliminated. Some numerical simulations are presented: first, the lid-driven cavity flow of shear-thinning and shear-thickening fluids, for the purpose of code validation; second, the flow of shear-thinning fluids with no yield stress limit, and finally, Bingham plastic creeping flows through 2:1 planar and axisymmetric expansions, for Bingham numbers between 0.2 and 133. The numerical results illustrate the arising of two distinct unyielded regions: one near the expansion corner and another along the flow centerline. For those regions, velocity and pressure fields are investigated for the various Bingham numbers tested