Flow of viscoelastic fluids around a confined cylinder: comparison of standard and log-conformation stress formulations

A finite-volume method is applied to the numerical simulation of flows of viscoelastic fluids in the benchmark confined-cylinder problem under creeping flow conditions. The fluids are modeled using the Oldroyd-B constitutive equation, the calculation of the polymer stress contribution is carried out using the logconformation methodology [1] and the results are compared with data using the standard method for calculating the polymer stress, as well as data from the literature. The log-conformation methodology allowed converged solutions at higher Deborah numbers flows than the standard method and was seen to be more stable.