Numerical investigation of turbulent flow at low Reynolds numbers for a polymer solution

Abstract The paper is devoted to a numerical study of the elastic turbulence effect that occurs at low Reynolds numbers and high Weissenberg numbers in the presence of polymers in the flow. A physical model of the flow of a polymer solution in a weakly compressible flow is constructed, and a hybrid numerical technique for approximation this model is developed. Based on this technique, we present a numerical analysis of polymer flow in a square computational domain with solid boundaries under the action of an external periodic force (Kolmogorov flow). The spectra of velocity, vorticity, and stretching of polymers are constructed.