The constitutive convolution is the response of a linear viscoelastic fluid close to its relaxed state. Deformations and rotations during the material's memory time must be small, so the stress is linear in the deformation history and evaluating that history at a fixed position is consistent with linearization about rest. For an isotropic incompressible flow, the deviatoric stress is proportional to the history of the rate-of-strain tensor; an arbitrary isotropic pressure is separate. Small amplitude permits arbitrary frequency: the approximation does not require in an oscillatory experiment. Large accumulated deformation, substantial advection of memory, and nonlinear normal-stress differences are outside this formula's scope.
If a small step of strain is imposed at time zero and then held, to linear order. The convolution consequently gives for . In simple shear flow, this reads for a shear-strain step . Thus is the remaining shear stress per unit imposed step of shear strain, which explains the name relaxation modulus and directly describes stress relaxation.
Use the convention . Substitution into the convolution defines the complex viscosity:
Write . Its real part multiplies the component in phase with the rate-of-strain tensor, causing dissipation; its imaginary part describes the out-of-phase, elastic response. More precisely the complex shear modulus is , so the storage modulus and loss modulus are
For shear-rate amplitude the mean dissipated power per unit volume is . For the exponential Maxwell fluid memory kernel, direct integration gives
The zero-shear viscosity is , and the high-frequency storage modulus tends to .
For the channel, let and interpret as the signed amplitude of , not the positive pressure drop. The Cauchy momentum equation and no-slip boundary conditions give
Define and , choosing either square-root branch consistently; the flux expression is even in . The symmetric solution is
Its integral across the channel gives the oscillatory channel flux of a linear Maxwell fluid:
This includes inertia while using the linear constitutive response. The pressure-gradient amplitude must be small enough that the resulting deformation stays in that response regime.
As , . Hence
In particular , the usual plane Poiseuille flow flux with viscosity . The fluid has enough time to relax and behaves as a Newtonian fluid at leading order.
For fixed positive , let . At large frequency the square root with positive real part satisfies
Its real part tends to a positive constant, so remains bounded although it oscillates. Thus and
The leading volume-integrated response is an inertial balance and is in quadrature with the driving force . It is not necessary for the local profile to be a nearly uniform plug: the Maxwell fluid is elastic at these frequencies, and shear waves with speed can cross the gap. The oscillatory part of largely cancels on integration. Small attenuation allows resonance-like enhancements at finite frequencies; the leading flux limit still holds for fixed nonzero relaxation and gap parameters. A Newtonian thin viscous-layer argument would not justify the Maxwell profile here.
Finally take the different ordering but . Now is small, so the small- expansion remains appropriate even at a large Deborah number. The result is
Here inertia is negligible throughout the narrow gap. Dividing the velocity by gives the displacement amplitude, whose parabolic profile is determined by an elastic shear balance with modulus . The velocity therefore grows like frequency for a fixed displacement response. This is not the fixed-gap high-frequency limit just obtained: with fixed, the condition eventually fails.
The usual elastic secondary flow around a rotating sphere is inward towards the equator, then poleward beside the sphere and outward near both poles. It is superposed on the primary azimuthal rotating sphere in Stokes flow. Tensile normal stresses along curved azimuthal streamlines act as hoop stresses, pulling liquid towards the rotation axis. Incompressibility supplies the axial return flow. Unlike the primary rotation, this meridional circulation does not reverse when the rotation is reversed.
The direction assumes the usual polymeric sign and negligible inertia. A general second-order fluid has circulation proportional to : a negative value reverses the arrows and eliminates the leading elastic circulation. Inertial secondary circulation is a different contribution, so slow rotation alone does not determine which contribution dominates. The sketch shows the elastic contribution for :
Figure 1.
Elastic meridional circulation entering at the equator and leaving near the poles of a rotating sphere
. Details.
For a quantitative check of the sketch, take sphere radius , angular velocity and . The primary azimuthal velocity is , with measured from the rotation axis. Its only nonzero strain components in the spherical orthonormal basis are . The leading elastic secondary circulation around a rotating sphere has the stream function
with and . The bracket is outside the sphere. Thus at the equator and near the poles when , and both components vanish on the sphere. The diagram uses these velocities, not independently chosen arrows.
Two other manifestations of the same elastic normal-stress differences are rod climbing, in which inward hoop stresses raise a free surface around a rotating rod, and die swell, in which relaxation of the axial stress and stored polymer deformation allows an extrudate to expand sideways after leaving the die. These are not explained by a scalar shear viscosity alone. A Newtonian extrudate can also swell through velocity-profile rearrangement, so the elastic contribution should not be identified with every instance of swelling.
The second-order fluid is a slow, weak-flow expansion of the objective constitutive history of an isotropic simple fluid. Material frame indifference requires objective tensor rates. For an incompressible flow, the leading isotropic stress is arbitrary pressure, the linear deviatoric term is , and at the next order the independent contributions can be represented by and an objective rate of . Isotropic scalar contributions are absorbed into the pressure. Their coefficients can be expressed through the two low-rate normal-stress differences, giving
Here is the lower-convected derivative, not a division by . This local expansion is appropriate when deformation and temporal change over the relevant viscoelastic relaxation time are small: both the Weissenberg number and the appropriate Deborah number must be small. It captures leading normal stresses in slow flows, but not arbitrary finite-strain history, rapid transients or strongly nonlinear shear thinning. In particular its restrictions are stronger than small-amplitude linear oscillatory response at arbitrary frequency.
For steady simple shear flow , use component-first , so the paper's is . The relevant tensors are
Substitution gives
Thus the first and second normal-stress differences are and , and the shear stress is .
For the velocity-preservation results, the definitions imply . Consequently the non-Newtonian stress can be written
where is the Jaumann derivative. Let solve the steady incompressible Stokes flow problem with the prescribed boundary velocities. The supplied identity says that is curl-free. If , then for a scalar on the ordinary simply connected flow domain. The momentum equation at is
Hence the Newtonian velocity itself is a solution of the second-order constitutive model, with altered pressure . For nontrivial topology one also needs the curl-free force to admit a single-valued pressure; this is implicit in the usual boundary-value problem.
On the regular weakly non-Newtonian branch, Uniqueness of Stokes flow fixes the velocity correction. At first order it solves homogeneous Stokes flow, with zero boundary velocity, after the gradient force has been absorbed into pressure. Multiplying its equation by the correction and integrating gives , hence the correction vanishes. Higher perturbative corrections vanish in turn because the previous velocities remain . The velocity is in this second-order-fluid solution; only the pressure and stresses change. This is Newtonian velocity preservation in a second-order fluid. It does not assert global uniqueness of distant nonlinear solution branches or exact equality for a real fluid whose higher-order constitutive terms have been omitted.
For a planar incompressible velocity , the rate-of-strain tensor has the form
All quantities are independent of , so . The extra quadratic term is therefore also a pressure gradient. Together with the supplied identity for the Jaumann derivative, the entire non-Newtonian force is a gradient for arbitrary . The same boundary-value and weak-branch argument proves for every such planar second-order-fluid flow with prescribed boundary velocities, without requiring . Specifying stresses or a free surface instead of velocities would not give the same conclusion automatically, because the extra stresses affect those boundary conditions.
Weissenberg number 2026-10-14
The Weissenberg number measures deformation accumulated over a viscoelastic relaxation time, often as the product of that time and a shear rate or an extension rate. Its precise rate convention should be stated. Unlike a Deborah number based on externally imposed temporal variation, it can remain nonzero in a steady flow. A weak-flow constitutive expansion generally requires both slow temporal change and small deformation over the memory time.