Deviatoric stress 2026-10-06
Die swell 2026-10-14
A polymeric extrudate can expand sideways after leaving a die as the normal-stress differences and stored deformation generated upstream relax. Axial elastic recovery contributes to transverse swelling in an incompressible flow. A Newtonian extrudate can also swell through rearrangement of its velocity profile, so observing swelling alone does not isolate the elastic contribution.
For circular Couette flow with , the rotating-frame reduction of circular viscoelastic shear gives shear rate . The total shear stress is , and the azimuthal minus radial normal-stress difference is in the stress convention where . Radial force balance without inertia is , which integrates to the displayed pressure. The pressure constant is undetermined by these equations.
Linear Maxwell fluid Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
A linear Maxwell fluid has constitutive equation , with twice the rate-of-strain tensor. Here is the zero-frequency shear viscosity and is the viscoelastic relaxation time. Stress at fixed strain decays as ; the corresponding series spring and dashpot have shear modulus . In small-amplitude simple shear from an isotropic relaxed state, the first-order forcing is off-diagonal, so both normal-stress differences vanish at linear order. This is not a statement about the nonlinear objective model at second order in shear rate.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 iii Paper 49 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
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 areFor shear-rate amplitude the mean dissipated power per unit volume is . For the exponential Maxwell fluid memory kernel, direct integration givesThe 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 giveDefine and , choosing either square-root branch consistently; the flux expression is even in . The symmetric solution isIts 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 , . HenceIn 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 satisfiesIts real part tends to a positive constant, so remains bounded although it oscillates. Thus andThe 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 isHere 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.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 iii Paper 49 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
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 :
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 functionwith 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, givingHere 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 areSubstitution givesThus 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 writtenwhere 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 isHence 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 formAll 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.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 53 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
An isotropic simple fluid has local stress determined by the deformation history of the material element. A viscometric flow is one whose relative deformation history is that of steady simple shear flow, up to rigid changes of frame. At a given element the shear rate is constant along its history, although it can differ between elements. This includes the locally simple-shear kinematics used in standard viscometric measurements.
Use the component-first velocity gradient . The first two Rivlin-Ericksen tensors areIn the axes of a steady shear , the relative deformation gradient over a lag is , since . The material history is determined by , and its tensor symmetries exclude and stress components. The remaining symmetric stress consists of an isotropic part, one shear component, and two independent normal-stress differences. The relevant matrices areThus span the allowed stress components. Material isotropy and reversal of the shear show that their scalar coefficients depend on . Define the viscometric functions bySolving for the matrix coefficients givesThis is an exact steady-viscometric representation, rather than an assumption that the fluid is everywhere a second-order fluid. The shear viscosity measures the shear resistance, while and measure the first and second normal-stress differences generated by shear. Their zero-rate values are understood as limits when these exist. An isotropic pressure changes neither normal difference.
For a flow in the lubrication approximation with gap , longitudinal scale and speed , the shear-rate scale is . The viscous shear force per unit volume scales as . Quadratic viscoelastic normal stresses scale as ; their longitudinal gradients, and the comparable mixed-component corrections, contribute forces of scale . Therefore the normal-stress smallness in lubrication criterion isEquivalently, the thin-gap aspect ratio must multiply the shear-based elastic parameter to give a small quantity: . Normal stresses need not themselves be smaller than the shear stress; it is their effect on the leading force balance that matters. If the flow changes on an additional short time scale , the term also requires for its neglect. Material coefficients should be evaluated at the characteristic shear rate.
Now take positive cylinder rotation, measure counterclockwise from the rightward horizontal, and let increase outward through the film. The tangent has upward component , so the tangential gravitational acceleration is . To leading order in , neglect inertia and higher-order hydrostatic or capillary pressure gradients, and write . Tangential force balance and the shear-free free surface givehenceThe wall shear stress is . It opposes rotation on the uphill side and assists it on the downhill side.
For a power-law fluid, . Its inversion must retain the sign:Integrating with the no-slip boundary condition yieldsThe volume flux per unit axial length is . The integrated bracket is , so the power-law coating on a rotating cylinder hasAt the gravitational term vanishes by continuity. Steady mass conservation makes independent of .
On the uphill half, put and . The local flux is , withIt has a unique maximum atA positive coating must carry the same steady flux at every angle. The tightest local bound occurs at , not on the downhill side, where the flux increases monotonically with thickness. ConsequentlyFor the thinner positive root on the uphill side connects through to the unique downhill root, giving a periodic leading-order coating profile. At the limiting flux the two uphill roots meet at ; it is the maximum flux of this lubrication model, with a possible limiting corner resolved by neglected higher-order effects. For the check is . All these conclusions require the resulting film to remain thin enough for the lubrication approximation and for the neglected normal stresses and inertia to satisfy their scaling restrictions.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 53 3 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Choose the extending direction as and write . The uniaxial extensional flow, satisfying incompressibility, hasStarting from rest, symmetry preserves . The differential pom-pom model tensor equation becomesPut . For , the solutions areIf , both transients decay, givingIf , the axial component is instead and grows exponentially without bound, while . At the boundary , which lies between the two stated regimes, grows linearly and .
Normalization makes the molecular orientation finite even when the unnormalized conformation tensor diverges. For , direct division by givesFor , the divergent axial component dominates the matrix trace, soThe same normalized limit holds at , agreeing continuously with the limit of the subcritical expression. The limiting orientations have nonnegative eigenvalues and unit matrix trace, as required for the normalized molecular orientation.
Now set . Its limiting value isThe scalar stretch equation is . If , its coefficient is eventually bounded above by a negative constant. The variation of constants formula gives a bounded solution, converging toIf , the coefficient is eventually positive, and the positive stretch grows without bound. At equality a bounded stretch would imply , which contradicts boundedness. Thus equality is not an additional bounded steady regime.
The function is continuous and strictly increasing from zero to infinity. Consequently there is a unique critical extension rate defined byand the molecular stretch remains bounded precisely for . This is distinct from the tensor threshold . If , for example, the normalized orientation can remain well defined and the stretch remain bounded for some rates above the tensor threshold; divergence of alone does not prove divergence of the physical stress.
In the requested doubly subcritical regime, write . The steady uniaxial extension of the differential pom-pom model hasThe isotropic pressure cancels from the tensile normal-stress difference. Hence the extensional viscosity isorIts zero-rate limit is , recovering the Trouton ratio of three. The restrictions exclude both loss of a finite tensor steady state and loss of a finite stretch steady state; neither denominator may be continued through its singularity as a physical steady constitutive response.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 78 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let two observers be related by , with Q a proper rotation matrix. A spatial second-rank tensor has material frame indifference if its values at corresponding events satisfy . This defines an objective second-rank tensor, and allows the observer's rotation to depend on time.
For Cauchy stress tensor, consider a material surface element with unit normal n and contact traction . A rigid observer change preserves its area and rotates both its normal and actual contact force: , . Thus for every n, proving . Fictitious body forces of an accelerated observer do not alter this transformation of physical contact traction.
To keep the vorticity convention explicit, write , and , the negative of the usual component-first spin tensor. Equivalently, with the derivative-index-first used in the paper, . Put , which is antisymmetric. The transformed velocity is , and direct differentiation givesThe additional observer spin cancels from the symmetric part, proving that the rate-of-strain tensor is objective.
Along the same material particle, differentiating givesThe two extra terms cancel those from . Moreover . Hence the complete objective time derivative satisfiesThis proves covariance for every constant scalar ; changing the spin convention without changing the commutator sign would not. It is a Gordon--Schowalter derivative with the paper's slip-parameter convention.
For the Johnson-Segalman fluid, first use the standard uniaxial extensional flow , with . Here and E is diagonal. The steady conformation equation giveswith vanishing off-diagonal components on the stable steady branch. The tensile normal-stress difference is . Dividing by the extension rate gives the Johnson-Segalman extensional response:The conformation tensor evolution in each principal direction is . Therefore a positive, attracting steady conformation requires both displayed denominators positive. For the first pole is at ; for it is at in the transverse components. At a pole the corresponding component grows linearly in time, and beyond it generically grows exponentially. The model has a finite-rate extensional catastrophe; the algebraic viscosity cannot be continued as a physical steady response past the first pole. At zero rate, , giving Trouton ratio three. For the polymer contribution to stress disappears and the response is simply Newtonian.
The question does not specify extension geometry. If a planar convention is intended instead, the same diagonal calculation gives , valid on the stable branch . The preceding boxed formula uses the standard uniaxial definition of extensional viscosity.
For simple shear flow , write , , , and . The xx, yy and xy components of the steady constitutive equation giveSubstituting the first two relations into the third yields , with . Define the viscometric functions by , and , using x for flow, y for the shear gradient and z for vorticity. The Johnson-Segalman steady viscometric functions are thereforeThe solvent creates no normal-stress differences in this flow. For nonzero , the fluid is shear thinning with positive first and negative second normal-stress differences.
To classify the stress curves, set and . The scaled shear stress is , andThe second term has minimum at . Thus the shear stress is monotone for and has a decreasing segment for . At equality it has a horizontal tangent but no decreasing interval. Below the threshold, its maximum and minimum occur atwith the smaller root giving the maximum. Negative-rate curves are obtained by odd reflection.
Monotone, marginal and nonmonotone Johnson-Segalman shear-stress curves
. Details. For small b, polymer stress dominates the low-rate response, while the solvent restores a positive high-rate slope. The Johnson-Segalman negative-slope shear threshold signals a constitutive instability of homogeneous shear: different local shear rates can carry the same shear stress, permitting shear banding. A stress plateau or a selected interface position cannot be inferred from the local curve alone; spatial regularization and boundary/history information matter. This limitation is illustrated in a primary diffusive Johnson-Segalman study. If , the scaling by b is inapplicable and the stress is just .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 78 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A generalized Newtonian fluid can approximate the shear response of a fluid with viscoelasticity when the flow varies slowly relative to its stress-memory time scales and elastic stresses are negligible, or in locally steady unidirectional flow where a fitted steady shear viscosity captures the relevant stress and elastic normal stresses do not significantly influence the motion. It is not a general replacement in rapidly changing flows or in flows controlled by elastic stresses. Two specific failures are stress relaxation after deformation stops, since this law has no memory, and nonzero normal-stress differences in steady simple shear flow, since the only nonzero nonpressure components are off diagonal. A rate-dependent viscosity alone cannot repair either limitation.
Take the usual physical power-law fluid range , , and . The steady unidirectional Couette-Poiseuille flow satisfies . The stated upper-wall stress thus givesPut . Inverting this monotone stress law gives . Integration from the lower no-slip boundary condition gives the power-law Couette-Poiseuille flow profileThe upper no-slip boundary condition requiresThe bracket is a strictly increasing function of with value zero at , so the equation determines a unique positive . The absolute values are essential: for sufficiently strong pressure driving, the shear can reverse inside the channel. For a Newtonian fluid, , , and the bracket reduces to , yieldingFor zero pressure gradient the limit is pure Couette flow; the parameterization of wall stress by then becomes singular rather than indicating zero Couette stress.
For weak pressure forcing, let and . Write the center-plane shear stress as . Linearization of the power-law relation about the positive base shear givesIntegrating across the channel must still give . The Gy term has zero mean, so at first order. Hence the weak-pressure Couette-Poiseuille expansion isIt is a small positive parabolic displacement of the straight Couette profile, preserving both wall velocities. For fixed positive n the stated controls the expansion; when n is very small one needs the stronger incremental condition .
The volume flux per unit spanwise width is . The odd Couette part contributes zero and the parabola contributes times its coefficient, soThis correctly reduces to the exact Newtonian flux at .
The extension to a general smooth generalized Newtonian fluid uses its differential shear viscosity, rather than its secant viscosity. Let for positive shear rate, and assumeLinearizing the stress law repeats the preceding calculation with replaced by . ThusThe expansion requires small rate changes, , and a smooth constitutive law on the perturbed rates. At zero differential viscosity the regular first-order expansion fails. A negative differential viscosity is still locally invertible mathematically, so the formula is formally applicable, but belongs to a decreasing, mechanically unstable constitutive branch. The usual stable-flow interpretation requires positive differential viscosity. Thus “any” generalized-Newtonian law needs these local qualifications.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 78 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The spin tensor is skew, and means and . Differentiate all factors to obtain the corotating-frame representation of a Jaumann derivative:Thus the Jaumann derivative is the ordinary derivative of the tensor components in this rotating frame.
Put , , and , . The corotational Jeffreys fluid equation reduces toFor , an integrating factor gives the complete finite-initial-time solutionThe infinite-past constitutive history selects , as holds for bounded past stress histories, and assumes convergence of the integral. Taking that limit and rotating back provesA general initial stress would retain the displayed homogeneous term. Incompressibility means ; the pressure reaction is added as and does not affect this deviatoric stress equation.
For simple shear deformation, direct multiplication gives the velocity gradient and its symmetric and skew parts:Use the signed counterclockwise angle withThus the material frame rotates clockwise for positive shear rate. This angle convention is necessary for the signs of the sine terms. Set . With and , multiplication yieldsSubstitution in the history formula provesThe suppressed third row and column are zero for the selected infinite-past history.
For constant shear rate , . Put . The real and imaginary parts of the elementary exponential integral giveThe constant-rate deviatoric stress therefore has componentsThe normal-stress difference is . As checks, the small-rate shear viscosity is , and removes all memory and normal stresses, leaving the Newtonian relation .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 76 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Differentiate the pulled-back Kirchhoff stress tensor , using the velocity gradient convention :Thus the lower-convected stress pull-back givesFor an explicit objective time derivative check, superpose , with and skew. Then and , whereasThe additional terms in are . They cancel the extra material-derivative terms, proving . The translation has no effect on a stress or velocity gradient.
For the incompressible Oldroyd-A model, avoid using the same symbol for a stress tensor and its relaxation time by referring to below only as the scalar relaxation time. Define . The constitutive equation becomesBy the pull-back identity, satisfiesAn integrating factor givesPush forward by and . For a convergent, fading remote-past history with the transported homogeneous term tending to zero as , this proves the fading-memory representation of the Oldroyd-A model:For arbitrary finite-time initial data retain . Thus the printed integral-only expression incorporates an initial-memory condition; it is not an unconditional replacement for all initial-value solutions.
For time-dependent simple shear,Put . The relative deformation is , so the entire transported integrand simplifies toConsequently the explicit nonpressure stresses areSymmetry gives , and the unshown third-direction nonpressure components vanish. The superscript here labels the paper's nonpressure constitutive stress; it need not have zero trace. Subtracting supplies the total Cauchy stress tensor.
For constant shear rate , use and the integrals and . This gives the steady simple shear of an Oldroyd-A fluid resultand thereforeThe incompressibility pressure cancels from this normal-stress difference. With the usual , it is nonnegative, while the second normal-stress difference equals its negative.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 342 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
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 identifiesIn 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.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 342 2 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
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 givesThe 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 isFor , 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.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 iii Paper 352 2 d Solution 2026-09-29
At order , the preceding equations giveAt order , the quadratic term is evaluated on . Solving first the equation, then , then , givesThus the apparent shear viscosity isso positive produces shear thinning. The expansion requires and ; it cannot describe arbitrarily high shear rates even when is numerically small.
Using the normal-stress difference definitionswe findIn the low-rate limit, . A cone-and-plate or parallel-plate rheometer can measure shear stress and normal thrust over a low-rate range; combining and then estimates independently of the viscosity scale.


