Abstract
Georgiou et al.(1989,1990,1999) proposed the singular finite element method (SFEM) for solving Newtonian flow problems including a singular point, such that near the singular point velocity and pressure behave like rn and rn-1 , where n is a constant (0 < n < 1) and r is a radial distance from the singularity in the sense of polar coordinate; and they successfully predicted several singular problems of Newtonian fluids using the SFEM.
Iwata et al.(2002) incorporated their SFEM in the decoupled FEM of die-swell flow problems associated with several numerical techniques for enhancing convergence behavior, and showed that streamlines in the vicinity of singularity obtained from SFEM are smoother than those obtained from ordinary FEM. In this paper, we apply SFEM to the other flow problem, i.e., a simulation of planar sudden contraction flows of viscoelastic fluids, and succeeded in SFEM calculations. It is found that results obtained with SFEM give more smooth and accurate than those from the ordinary FEM.
