AN EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF A VISCOELASTIC FLOW AROUND A CYLINDER

In this paper the plane flow of a shear thinning solution of 5 wt% pol yisobutylene (PIB) in tetradecane (C14) (PIB/C14) around a cylinder pl aced between parallel plates is investigated numerically and experimen tally. Both Laser Doppler Anemometry and Flow Induced Birefringence me asurements are performed and compared with numerical results, using a Discontinuous Galerkin method and a one-mode Phan-Thien Tanner model. Previous work has shown a good agreement between measured and computed stress fields for the flow through a planar four-to-one contraction w ith this fluid. The flow around a cylinder, however, leads to some sur prising differences.