Newtonian fluid

A Newtonian fluid has viscous stress proportional to the local rate-of-strain tensor, with coefficients independent of that rate. For an isotropic fluid these coefficients are viscosities. Its Newtonian fluid stress tensor specifies the corresponding constitutive relation; the material and its stress tensor are distinct concepts.

For isotropic incompressible flow of a Newtonian fluid, the stress tensor is the displayed expression, with pressure $p$, dynamic viscosity $\mu$, velocity $\mathbf{u}$, and identity matrix $I$. In Couette flow, its off-diagonal component is the shear stress.

Shear stress is the tangential component of traction on a surface. For leading unidirectional flow $u(y)$ in a Newtonian fluid, $\tau =\mu du/dy$.

A horizontally compressive force per width $F$, carried uniformly through thickness $a$, gives additional horizontal stress $F/a$. Resolving its traction on a fault dipping at angle $\delta$ gives the displayed mean shear stress. An isotropic background pressure adds only normal traction. The integrated force alone does not determine the actual depth-dependent stress distribution or whether a fault fails.

The shear velocity is the velocity scale $u_{\ast }=\sqrt{|\tau |/\rho }$ associated with a shear stress $\tau$ in a fluid of mass density $\rho$. It is a stress scale, not automatically the actual local fluid velocity at a grain.

The rate-of-strain tensor is the symmetric part of the velocity gradient,

Principal strain rates are the eigenvalues $a,b,c$ of the symmetric rate-of-strain tensor. Positive values are local extension and negative values local compression. In incompressible flow $a+b+c=0$, implying $a^3+b^3+c^3=3abc$. Their eigenvectors describe the principal deformation directions.

Bi-axial extension has two positive principal strain rates and one negative rate in incompressible flow. It flattens a material volume toward a sheet while extending its two in-plane directions. A negative mean product of the three rates indicates amplitude-weighted preference for this geometry, but alone does not establish an unweighted event-frequency majority.

The shear rate is the scalar rate at which adjacent material layers acquire shear strain. In simple shear $u_x=u_x(y)$, its signed value is $\dot{\gamma }=d{u}_x/dy$.

A simple shear flow has velocity $\mathbf{u}=(\dot{\gamma }y,0,0)$ in Cartesian coordinates. Its velocity gradient has one nonzero off-diagonal entry.

The spin tensor is the antisymmetric part of the velocity gradient, $\mathbf{\Omega }=(\nabla \mathbf{u}-(\nabla \mathbf{u}{)}^T)/2$. It describes local rigid-body rotation.

For a planar velocity field in polar coordinates,