Re-entrant corner flows of Oldroyd-B fluids

The method of matched asymptotic expansions is used to construct solutions for the planar steady flow of Oldroyd-B fluids around re-entrant corners of angles π / α (1/2≤ α <1). Two types of similarity solutions are described for the core flow away from the walls. These correspond to the two main dominant balances of the constitutive equation, where the upper convected derivative of stress either dominates or is balanced by the upper convected derivative of the rate of strain. The former balance gives the incompressible Euler or inviscid flow equations and the latter balance the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. The inviscid flow similarity solution for the core is that first derived by Hinch (Hinch 1993 J. Non-Newtonian Fluid Mech. 50 , 161–171) with a core stress singularity that depends upon the corner angle and radial distance as O ( r −2(1− α ) ) and a velocity behaviour that vanishes as O ( r α (3− α )−1 ). Extending the analysis of Renardy (Renardy 1995 J. Non-Newtonian Fluid Mech. 58 , 83–39), this outer solution is matched to viscometric wall behaviour for both upstream and downstream boundary layers. This structure is shown to hold for the majority of the retardation parameter range. In contrast, the similarity solution associated with the Navier–Stokes equations has a velocity behaviour O ( r λ ) where λ ∈(0,1) satisfies a nonlinear eigenvalue problem, dependent upon the corner angle and an associated Reynolds number defined in terms of the ratio of the retardation and relaxation times. This similarity solution is shown to hold as an outer solution and is matched into stress boundary layers at the walls which recover viscometric behaviour. However, the matching is restricted to values of the retardation parameter close to the relaxation parameter. In this case the leading order core stress is Newtonian with behaviour O ( r −(1− λ ) ).