Past exam of the advanced fluid dynamics course of the University of Oxford 2024 2 d Solution 2026-10-25
The claimed equality does not hold for the printed joint distribution. The original PDF specifies a centered Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution of independent of , withSince the double average includes number density , evaluating the Gaussian integrals givesThe cross term vanishes because the conditional mean of is zero. In particular, set and take the equilibrium configuration probability density . The left side is , while . This is a counterexample even at thermal equilibrium, so no rearrangement of the earlier conformation tensor equation can prove the printed statement.
The discrepancy is thermal bead drag and heat-bath power: gross viscous loss of microscopic thermal motion is replenished by the thermal bath. It is not identical to mechanical polymer stress power. Moreover, in the earlier configuration continuity equation is a probability current velocity, including a distribution-dependent osmotic drift; it cannot simultaneously be identified with an independently sampled centered Maxwellian velocity.
A consistent overdamped result is the free-energy balance of a Hookean dumbbell. Define andDifferentiate the relative entropy and use the configuration Fokker-Planck probability current . After integration by parts,The affine osmotic term is . HenceThe polymer stress tensor has in an incompressible flow. It stores or releases free energy as well as dissipating it, so the total stress-work term in part a need not itself be a purely dissipative quantity for this viscoelastic material. Stress power equals only for stationary free energy, and uses the probability-current slip. Neither condition turns the printed independent-Maxwellian average into that expression.
Thermal bead drag and heat-bath power 2026-10-24
If the relative bead velocity is independent of its separation and has a centered Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution with , averaging the drag dissipation of a bead-spring pair gives the displayed gross loss. The cross term vanishes by the zero conditional mean. At zero velocity gradient, this remains , although mechanical stress power is zero. A thermal bath replenishes microscopic kinetic energy at equilibrium. Equating this gross loss to polymer stress power omits heat-bath input and cannot follow from the independently specified Maxwellian velocity distribution. The overdamped free-energy balance of a Hookean dumbbell uses a probability current velocity instead.