Abstract
The prediction of the turbulent flow of a viscoelastic fluid is required for engineering applications. When the Reynolds stress model, is applied to a viscoelastic fluid flow accompanied by a frictional drag reduction of the wall turbulence, the model of an additional nonlinear term, Λ_<ij>, in the ensemble-averaged constitutive equation is an important issue. In the present model of Λ_<ij>, we recalibrated the values of the model parameters in order to adjust them to the adopted background Reynold stress model aiming at a better prediction of the mean velocity profile. Because the prediction accuracy of the mean velocity is improved by the present model, the Reynolds shear stress and conformation shear stress, which are directly related to the prediction accuracy of the mean velocity, were also confirmed to be well predicted. The optimal model parameter values were found to depend on either the Reynolds or Weissenberg number.
