CREEPING FLOW OF A VISCO-ELASTIC FLUID IN A CONICAL DUCT.

The steady slow flow of an incompressible Rivlin-Ericksen fluid in a conical duct has been investigated. The method of solution is successive approximation, in which it is assumed that the velocity components, pressure etc. can be expanded in ascending powers of a non-Newtonian dimensionless parameter. The flow pattern is compared with the corresponding Newtonian fluid flow and it is found that the flow pattern, unlike the case of a Newtonian fluid, does not remain purely radial, but is accompanied by a secondary flow.