A Numerical Study of Viscoelastic Flow Through an Array of Cylinders

This thesis is a study on creeping flow of an ideal viscoelastic fluid through square arrays of cylinders to predict the pressure drop. Numerical simulations were completed for arrays of three different solid volume fractions: 2.5%, 5%, and 10%. Substantial amounts of elastic stresses were found beyond a critical flow rate, up to six times that of the highest Newtonian stresses. An increase in pressure drop caused by elasticity was found, in contrast to many other numerical studies which find a decrease or no change. This pressure drop was, however, considerably smaller than what was found experimentally by James, Yip, Currie (2012). The absence of elastic extensional stresses downstream of the cylinder for the 10% array supports the argument that the increase in pressure drop is caused by elastic stresses due to shear.M.A.S