During the last decades a considerable effort has been made on the computation of the isothermal flow of viscoelastic fluids. In fact the activities related to this particular field of non-Newtonian fluid mechanics have focused on the following questions: which type of constitutive equation describes non-Newtonian fluid behaviour; how to measure fluid parameters; and what type of computational scheme leads to reliable, stable and cost-effective computer programs. During the same period, typical non-Newtonian fluid phenomena have been experimentally examined, such as the flow through a `four-to-one' contraction, the flow around a sphere or separation flow, providing fresh challenges for numerical modellers. Apart from momentum transport, however, fluid flow is strongly influenced by heat treansport in most real industrial operations in which non-Newtonian fluids are processed.
The IUTAM Symposium on `Numerical Simulation of Nonisothermal Flow of Viscoelastic Liquids' held at Rolduc Abbey in Kerkrade, the Netherlands, November 1--3, 1993, was organised to monitor the state of affairs in regard to the influence of nonisothermal effects on the flow of a viscoelastic liquid.
The present collection of papers gives an overview of what has been achieved so far. It is a milestone in the rapidly emerging and exciting new field in non-Newtonian fluid mechanics.