Channel flow of a tensorial shear-thinning Maxwell model: Lattice Boltzmann simulations.

We discuss pressure-driven channel flow for a model of shear-thinning glass-forming fluids, employing a modified lattice-Boltzmann (LB) simulation scheme. The model is motivated by a recent microscopic approach to the nonlinear rheology of colloidal suspensions and captures a nonvanishing dynamical yield stress and the appearance of normal-stress differences and a flow-induced pressure contribution. The standard LB algorithm is extended to deal with tensorial, nonlinear constitutive equations of this class. The new LB scheme is tested in 2D pressure-driven channel flow and reproduces the analytical steady-state solution. The transient dynamics after startup and removal of the pressure gradient reproduce a finite stopping time for the cessation flow of yield-stress fluids in agreement with previous analytical estimates.