Numerical approximation of viscoelastic Oldroyd-B flows in curved pipes

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to study a finite element numerical approximation of steady flows of an incompressible viscoelastic Oldroyd-B fluid in curved pipes of arbitrary cross-section and curvature ratio. Using rectangular toroidal coordinates, existence and uniqueness of approximated solutions are proved as well as a priori error estimates, under a natural restriction on the pipe curvature ratio.