A semismooth Newton method for implicitly constituted non-Newtonian fluids and its application to the numerical approximation of Bingham flow

We propose a semismooth Newton method for non-Newtonian models of incompressible flow where the constitutive relation between the shear stress and the symmetric velocity gradient is given implicitly; this class of constitutive relations captures for instance the models of Bingham and Herschel-Bulkley. The proposed method avoids the use of variational inequalities and is based on a particularly simple regularisation for which the (weak) convergence of the approximate stresses is known to hold. The system is analysed at the function space level and results in mesh-independent behaviour of the nonlinear iterations.Comment: 25 page

Development of boundary layers in Euler fluids that on "activation'' respond like Navier-Stokes fluids

We consider the flow of a fluid whose response characteristics change due the value of the norm of the symmetric part of the velocity gradient, behaving as an Euler fluid below a critical value and as a Navier-Stokes fluid at and above the critical value, the norm being determined by the external stimuli. We show that such a fluid, while flowing past a bluff body, develops boundary layers which are practically identical to those that one encounters within the context of the classical boundary layer theory propounded by Prandtl. Unlike the classical boundary layer theory that arises as an approximation within the context of the Navier-Stokes theory, here the development of boundary layers is due to a change in the response characteristics of the constitutive relation. We study the flow of such a fluid past an airfoil and compare the same against the solution of the Navier-Stokes equations. We find that the results are in excellent agreement with regard to the velocity and vorticity fields for the two cases