Operator-splitting methods for the simulation of Bingham visco-plastic flow

This article discusses computational methods for the numerical simulation of unsteady Bingham visco-plastic flow. These methods are based on time-discretization by operator-splitting and take advantage of a characterization of the solutions involving some kind of Lagrange multipliers. The full discretization is achieved by combining the above operator-splitting methods with finite element approximations, the advection being treated by a wave-like equation "equivalent" formulation easier to implement than the method of characteristics or high order upwinding methods. The authors illustrate the methodology discussed in this article with the results of numerical experiments concerning the simulation of wall driven cavity Bingham flow in two dimensions.