Non-isothermal simulation of a corner vortex within entry flow for a viscoelastic fluid

Abstract

A modified White-Metzner viscoelastic constitutive equation is incorporated into the state-of-the-art Three Dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (3D-CFD) framework for performing isothermal and non-isothermal entry flow simulations of a polymer melt. As a result, the corner vortex becomes smaller with increased isothermal temperature, namely, the so-called temperature-induced vortex reduction. In addition, the vortex grows with raising wall temperatures, whereas the vortex reduction is found under high inlet temperatures. Through the visualized flow patterns, it is significant to investigate the dramatic variations of vortex size in relation to fluid temperature, weighted viscosity and extension rate, as well as Weissenberg number and Trouton ratio.