Brownian configuration fields: A new method for simulating viscoelastic fluid flow

In this paper a new method for calculating viscoelastic fluid flows is presented. The polymer stress is not calculated from a closed form constitutive equation but from a microscopic model. Instead of considering the motion of individual molecules we calculate the evolution of an ensemble of configuration fields, representing the internal degrees of freedom of a model molecule. The configuration fields are deformed and convected by the flow and are exposed to thermal motion. The field description is incorporated in a finite element calculation of the flow field where the stress in the fluid is now obtained from an average taken over all the configuration fields. The results for Row past a cylinder for a Hookean dumbbell suspension will be compared with the results obtained from a fully macroscopic calculation of the equivalent Oldroyd-B model. Excellent agreement is obtained.