Abstract

In this paper we present an iterative penalty finite element method for viscous non‐Newtonian creeping flows. The basic idea is solving the equations for the difference between the exact solution and the solution obtained in the last iteration by the penalty method. For the case of Newtonian flows, one can show that for sufficiently small penalty parameters the iterates converge to the incompressible solution. The objective of the present work is to show that the iterative penalization can be coupled with the iterative scheme used to deal with the non‐linearity arising from the constitutive law of non‐Newtonian fluids. Some numerical experiments are conducted in order to assess the performance of the approach for fluids whose viscosity obeys the power law.

Abstract

In the extrusion and forming of solids the plastic (or viscoplastic) deformations are so large that the elastic strain is negligible. The problem thus becomes one of incompressible viscous, non-Newtonian flow with prescribed boundary velocities. Various formulations of such problems (analogous to those of incompressible solid mechanics) are possible, and the paper investigates two basic processes.

Details of application to some examples of steady state flow in extrusion, drawing and rolling are given and transient free surface solutions are demonstrated for stretch forming and deep drawing. The formulation is shown to be capable of dealing with boundary friction and strain hardening. The coupling with thermal effects is demonstrated in the last section of the paper, and in addition, some practical problems of elastic spring-back which occur on the removal of load are discussed.