Finite element approximation of bipolar viscous fluids

A bipolar viscous fluid model is assumed to regularise the solution of Newtonian and quasi-Newtonian flows. In this article, a mixed finite element approximation of the bipolar viscous fluids is proposed. In this approximation the velocity of the fluid together with its laplacian are the most relevant unknowns. An existence and uniqueness results are proved. A mixed finite element approximation is derived and numerical results are presented.