The component of the stationary constitutive equation is
Insert and . The coefficient of becomes , giving
For , the small-rate shear stress is . At large positive rate, and the shear viscosity decreases as . The shear stress is odd in rate, reaches a positive maximum at
and decreases thereafter. The original plot displays this homogeneous constitutive curve. Its decreasing branch can permit shear banding; the local model alone supplies neither an interface-selection rule nor a guaranteed stable homogeneous realization.
Figure 1.
Homogeneous shear stress and the two temporal branches of the linear response
. The steady curve uses q equal to the shear rate times the square root of alpha times (2 tau minus alpha). The spectral panel uses K equal to the wavenumber magnitude times the square root of tau times nu. These are distinct nondimensional variables. Details.
This is a Johnson-Segalman fluid without an added Newtonian fluid solvent contribution. To identify conventions explicitly, set and , with the spin tensor. The derivative appearing in the constitutive equation becomes
the Gordon--Schowalter derivative. Its usual slip interval corresponds to , while a nonsingular genuinely shear thinning curve requires
At the model is the Upper-convected Maxwell model; at it is the lower-convected derivative counterpart, and both have constant shear viscosity in this test. At the derivative is the Jaumann derivative, giving the corotational Maxwell fluid. Merely requiring is insufficient: for the denominator is , which vanishes at and then gives a negative steady shear viscosity. There is no solvent-induced large-rate plateau in the stated equation.
Linearize about a motionless, isotropic, relaxed state by taking velocity, deformation and extra stress to be first order in a small amplitude. The advection and rotational commutator are then second order. The corotational Maxwell fluid therefore reduces to the linear Maxwell fluid:
where is the rate-of-strain tensor. This is the linear Maxwell viscoelasticity model, mechanically a spring and dashpot in series.
For one shear component, dividing by gives . Comparing with a dashpot of viscosity in series with a spring of shear modulus identifies
In particular a held strain with zero subsequent shear rate has . At long times under steady small shear, , whereas a sufficiently rapid deformation probes the elastic modulus .
In linear simple shear, has only off-diagonal components. The diagonal stresses have no forcing and, from a relaxed initial state, stay zero. Any pre-existing diagonal stress decays homogeneously. Thus both normal-stress differences vanish in the linear response to shear. The finite-shear normal-stress differences generated by products of shear rate and stress are quadratic in deformation amplitude and have been discarded by this linearization. This conclusion is about simple shear, not about every possible extensional deformation.
Let the flow direction be , the gradient direction , and the vorticity direction , with simple shear flow and signed shear rate . Use the gradient convention established in part (a):
At steady homogeneous shear the ordinary time derivative and advection vanish. Put , and . The corotational Maxwell fluid law then gives
The equation gives , and the unforced equations force those components to zero. Solving the three displayed equations gives the steady shear of a corotational Maxwell fluid:
The deviatoric stress is indeed traceless. Its isotropic pressure contribution is irrelevant to either shear viscosity or a normal-stress difference.
Consequently the steady shear viscosity is
For , when ; it decreases with and tends to zero at large rate. This proves shear thinning directly, without confusing a decreasing viscosity with a necessarily decreasing shear stress.
With the standard definitions and ,
At zero shear both vanish; at small shear they are quadratic, consistently with part (b). The signs and the fact agree qualitatively with many polymeric-fluid experiments. However the fixed ratio often overestimates the measured second difference and cannot capture variation of that ratio with material and shear rate. For example, measurements on polyethylene show a smaller, rate-dependent relative second normal-stress difference. Thus the qualitative normal-stress signs are reasonable, but the predicted relative magnitude is not generally quantitatively satisfactory; these signs are not a universal statement about every non-Newtonian fluid.
For simple shear flow , put and . The steady deviatoric stress is
This follows by setting , in the corotational Maxwell fluid equation: , , and . Hence the shear viscosity is , which exhibits shear thinning, while and . These differences are independent of the isotropic pressure.