Laminar Flow of Non-Linear Viscoelastic Fluids in Straight Tubes of Arbitrary Contour

The fully developed steady velocity field in pressure gradient driven laminar flow of non-linear viscoelastic fluids with instantaneous elasticity constitutively represented by a class of single mode, non-affine quasilinear constitutive equations is investigated in straight pipes of arbitrary contour ?D. A continuous one-to-one mapping is used to obtain arbitrary tube contours from a base tube contour ?D0. The analytical method presented is capable of predicting the velocity field in tubes with arbitrary cross-section. The base flow is the Newtonian field and is obtained at O(1). Field variables are expanded in asymptotic series in terms of the Weissenberg number Wi. The analysis does not place any restrictions on the smallness of the driving pressure gradients which can be large and applies to dilute and weakly elastic non-linear viscoelastic fluids. The velocity field is investigated up to and including the third order in Wi. The Newtonian field in general arbitrary contours is obtained and longitudinal velocity field components due to shear-thinning and to non-linear viscoelastic effects are identified. Third order analysis shows a further contribution to the longitudinal field driven by first normal stress differences. Secondary flows driven by unbalanced second normal stresses in the cross-section manifest themselves as well at this order. Longitudinal equal velocity contours, the secondary flow field structure, the first and the second normal stress differences as well as wall shear stress variations are discussed for several non-circular contours some for the first time. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.