Numerical Simulation Of Transient Viscoelastic Flows With Two Free Surfaces

"In this thesis, we examine the numerical simulation of transient viscoelastic flows with two moving free surfaces. A modified Galerkin finite element method is implemented to the two-dimensional non-steady motion of a viscoelastic fluid. The fluid is initially placed between two parallel plates and bounded by two straight free boundaries. In this Lagrangian finite element method, the spatial mesh deforms in time along with the moving free boundaries. The unknown shape of free surfaces is determined with the flow field u, v, $ tau$, p by the deformable finite element method, combined with a predictor-corrector scheme in an uncoupled fashion. In this study, the moving free surfaces and fluid motion of both Newtonian and non-Newtonian flows are investigated. The results include the influence of the time increment and the finite element mesh size, the effects of surface tension, fluid inertia and elasticity." --