https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/s10189-020-00005-6
Regular Article - Flowing Matter
An extensible lattice Boltzmann method for viscoelastic flows: complex and moving boundaries in Oldroyd-B fluids
1
Institute for Computational Physics, University of Stuttgart, Allmandring 3, 70569, Stuttgart, Germany
2
Institute for Theoretical Physics, Center for Extreme Matter and Emergent Phenomena, Utrecht University, Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Received:
25
September
2020
Accepted:
14
December
2020
Published online:
8
February
2021
Most biological fluids are viscoelastic, meaning that they have elastic properties in addition to the dissipative properties found in Newtonian fluids. Computational models can help us understand viscoelastic flow, but are often limited in how they deal with complex flow geometries and suspended particles. Here, we present a lattice Boltzmann solver for Oldroyd-B fluids that can handle arbitrarily shaped fixed and moving boundary conditions, which makes it ideally suited for the simulation of confined colloidal suspensions. We validate our method using several standard rheological setups and additionally study a single sedimenting colloid, also finding good agreement with the literature. Our approach can readily be extended to constitutive equations other than Oldroyd-B. This flexibility and the handling of complex boundaries hold promise for the study of microswimmers in viscoelastic fluids.
© The Author(s) 2021
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