For a linear viscoelastic fluid, write the solvent stress explicitly as , or use the displayed kernel with a causal endpoint delta satisfying . If a symmetric delta is integrated with half its weight at the endpoint, its coefficient must instead be . Mixing those conventions loses a factor of two. The Oldroyd-B model has the displayed exponentially decaying polymer part after linearization.
Oldroyd-A model 2026-09-24
The Oldroyd-A model is the lower-convected counterpart of the Oldroyd-B model: its polymeric stress evolves using a lower-convected derivative.
For a linear viscoelastic fluid, causal superposition gives
The relaxation modulus is the stress response to a unit small step of shear strain. The equation assumes an isotropic reference state and deformations and rotations small enough over the significant memory times that nonlinear transport and strain products can be neglected. Small-amplitude motion can have high frequency; linearity does not require low frequency by itself. The infinite-past integral encodes the preceding history, rather than assuming that stress vanishes whenever the present rate vanishes.
For a small constant shear rate maintained from the remote past, the rate can be taken outside the integral. Therefore the zero-shear viscosity is
provided the kernel is integrable, with any instantaneous contribution counted fully. A nondecaying solid-like modulus would not yield a finite fluid viscosity.
To linearize the stated Oldroyd-B model, put and absorb the isotropic into pressure. The products of the small deformation tensor C and velocity gradient are second order. Using the paper's derivative-index-first gradient convention therefore gives
An integrating factor, with the prescribed preceding history, gives . Thus the linear nonpressure stress is
The regular relaxation tail is , while the solvent is instantaneous. Equivalently, the instantaneous solvent term in a relaxation modulus can be represented by
Here the causal endpoint delta is defined by . If instead a symmetric Dirac delta is assigned half its mass at the endpoint, the same solvent term is written . Stating the convention prevents a factor-of-two error in the viscosity; the explicit stress formula above has no such ambiguity.
In a cone-and-plate rheometer, the small-angle gap is and the local wall speed is , so the shear rate is independent of radius to leading order: . Write for shear stress and for its polymer part. The linear constitutive response is
The uniform shear stress gives torque
For the initial steady torque T, put and , . The steady polymer stress is , with . Hence the initial angular velocity is
For , the total stress is , but the polymer stress is continuous at the torque reversal. Since , a finite jump in shear rate is possible even though P cannot jump. Its immediate value is
Eliminating P from the constant-stress equations for gives
The decay time is the Retardation time of an Oldroyd fluid . Solving this first-order equation with the actual initial value yields the complete torque reversal of a linear Oldroyd fluid:
In particular, but is more negative. The stored polymer stress initially retains its old positive sign, requiring a larger negative solvent shear stress to attain the new negative total torque. This produces the backward-speed overshoot and its subsequent relaxation. Apparatus inertia would smooth the instantaneous jump, but is neglected in the question. The torque must be sufficiently small for the entire transient, including its enhanced initial rate, to remain in the linear viscoelastic regime; small pre-reversal rate alone is not sufficient when is large.
Write for the Kirchhoff stress tensor and for the second Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor. Since and for the velocity gradient,
Therefore the upper-convected rate as a stress push-forward is
For the simple shear flow, put and . The velocity gradient and rate-of-strain tensor are
Their upper-convected derivative gives
Denote the symmetric extra stress by , and the relaxation time by to distinguish it from . The Oldroyd-B model in the question becomes
For the steady constitutive response, , and . Hence
A constant imposed shear rate can still have startup transients; these values describe the steady response.
For circular Couette flow , the velocity gradient in the orthonormal polar basis is
For completeness, in fixed Cartesian coordinates let and . Then and . Along a particle, the polar basis rotates at angular speed . Its contribution to the material derivative cancels the rigid-rotation part of in the upper-convected derivative. The rotating-frame reduction of circular viscoelastic shear therefore leaves
The flow direction is now and the gradient direction is . With , the same simple-shear constitutive calculation gives
Angular force balance implies is constant. Integrating gives . With and ,
The radial force balance is . Thus the inertialess Oldroyd-B circular Couette pressure is
The constant is fixed by a pressure or normal-traction boundary condition.
Write the velocity gradient as
where is the spin tensor. Expanding the upper-convected derivative in the structure equation gives
For , the first four terms reproduce the upper-convected derivative. Setting
therefore gives
With polymeric stress , this is the Oldroyd-B model. For , its relaxation time and polymer viscosity are
Indeed the total stress obeys
For , the coefficient of

is , so the objective derivative becomes the lower-convected derivative. Hence
recovers the Oldroyd-A model, again with for a finite positive relaxation time. Parameter choices such as give the degenerate Newtonian limit.
A plain material derivative of the conformation tensor is not an objective time derivative: an observer undergoing a time-dependent rigid rotation would infer a different constitutive response, and even rigid-body rotation could appear to change polymer deformation. The upper-convected derivative subtracts deformation and rotation carried by the velocity gradient and is frame indifferent.
The Oldroyd-B model is often inadequate because its Hookean dumbbells are infinitely extensible. It predicts constant shear viscosity rather than shear thinning, zero second normal-stress difference, and an unbounded extensional viscosity at a finite extension rate. Real polymer chains have finite extensibility and commonly exhibit shear thinning, bounded extensional stress, multiple relaxation times, and nonlinear solvent or concentration effects.
Zero-shear viscosity 2026-10-14
For an integrable relaxation modulus, a small constant shear rate sustained from the remote past gives stress equal to that rate times the displayed integral, including any instantaneous solvent mass. For the linear Oldroyd-B model it is . A nondecaying elastic modulus would make this integral infinite rather than describe a fluid with finite steady viscosity.