The FENE-P model of a fluid is particularly suitable for describing the rheology of dilute polymer solutions (Newtonian solvents containing small amounts of dissolved polymer) as a result of its ability to capture nonlinear effects arising from the finite extensibility of the polymer chains. In extensional flows, these polymer solutions exhibit dramatically different behavior from the correspon...

Reduction in surface shear stress in turbulent boundary layers implies suppression of turbulent momentum flux, a large-eddy phenomenon. The physics by which dilute concentrations of long-chain molecules alter large-eddy structure and momentum flux is not well understood. Experiment, however, indicates an essential mix of turbulent velocity fluctuations, polymer molecules, and mean shear. We stu...

This paper is concerned with the analysis and implementation of spectral Galerkin methods for a class of Fokker–Planck equations that arises from the kinetic theory of dilute polymers. A relevant feature of the class of equations under consideration from the viewpoint of mathematical analysis and numerical approximation is the presence of an unbounded drift coefficient, involving a smooth conve...

We consider the microscopic equation of FENE (finite extensible nonlinear elasticity) models for polymeric fluids under a steady flow field. This paper will show for the underlying Fokker-Planck type of equations, any pre-assigned distribution on boundary will become redundant once the non-dimensional number Li := Hb kBT ≥ 2, where H is the elasticity constant, √ b is the maximum dumbbell exten...

This survey paper reviews recent developments concerning the existence of global weak solutions to Fokker–Planck equations with unbounded drift terms, and coupled Navier–Stokes–Fokker–Planck systems of partial differential equations, that arise in finitely extensible nonlinear elastic (FENE) type kinetic models of incompressible dilute polymeric fluids in the case of general noncorotational flow.