For isotropic linear elasticity with volumetric expansion coefficient , the stress-free thermal strain is . Thus the thermal stress term is , where is the bulk modulus. A uniformly heated body with its full boundary fixed has zero displacement and the displayed compressive stress. For spatially varying temperature and zero body force, the displacement instead solves with its boundary values; the uniform formula is not automatic. A body force per volume cancels this thermal forcing in the equilibrium equation, but does not by itself cancel the stress or its boundary tractions.
Universal simple-shear normal-stress identity Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-11-05
For simple shear, . The off-diagonal entry of is . Coaxiality of isotropic elastic stress therefore proves the identity for . At , material isotropy makes the stress isotropic, proving the same identity.
Upper-convected Maxwell model Created 2026-09-29 Updated 2026-11-05
The Upper-convected Maxwell model evolves viscoelastic stress according toIt has constant shear viscosity and predicts a divergent extensional viscosity at a finite extension rate.
Valve leaflet 2026-11-05
A valve leaflet is a mobile tissue flap forming part of a heart valve. Its movement and contact with neighboring leaflets help permit forward blood flow while limiting backward flow. The supporting cardiac valve annulus, the pressure difference and the leaflet's geometry all contribute to its behavior. The meeting of leaflet surfaces that closes a valve is called coaptation.[ref]
The mitral valve and tricuspid valve have leaflets supported by chordae tendineae and papillary muscles. The aortic valve and pulmonary valve instead have pocket-like cusps without that chordal apparatus. A leaflet is therefore a functional part of a particular valve structure, not an isolated rigid door.
An original force estimate illustrates the loading scale. A uniform pressure difference over an effective area gives a resultant . For stipulated kPa and cm, N. Doubling the area at the same pressure doubles this resultant, but it does not specify how the load is divided among attachments or distributed as tissue stress.
A primary left-heart simulator experiment measured chordae tendineae forces while moving papillary muscles and found responses that depended on the chordal type.[ref]
Effects of papillary muscle position on chordal force distribution: an in-vitro study by Jorge Hernan Jimenez and others. Abstract, Methods and Results
This gives a concrete reason to examine leaflet geometry and supporting connections together. Complete coaptation is a contact-and-motion condition; an accurate measurement of one chordal force does not by itself show that the entire valve seals. Vertical Jeans equation Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-11-05
For a steady axisymmetric stellar population with no mean vertical motion, the vertical Jeans equation balances the gradient of the vertical random-motion stress and the radial gradient of the tilted velocity ellipsoid against the vertical Newtonian gravitational field. Neglecting the mixed moment gives . A tracer density need not equal the density sourcing the gravitational potential.
Vertically averaged viscous disk equations Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-11-05
In an axisymmetric thin disc with no vertical mass or torque flux, integrate mass and conservation of angular momentum over height. With fixed height-independent , the equations are and . Their difference gives . The density-weighted viscosity of a disk supplies the integrated stress.
Viscoelasticity Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-11-05
Viscoelasticity combines recoverable elastic response with dissipative and time-dependent response. Two specimens may react similarly to a rapid pull but behave differently when the same load is maintained. In a material creep test, constant stress produces evolving strain; in a stress relaxation test, fixed strain produces evolving stress.
The Maxwell model makes the distinction explicit by placing an elastic spring and viscous element in series. In simple shear strain it obeysAfter a small step to fixed , its shear stress decays as with viscoelastic relaxation time . Under constant shear stress , it instead continues to deform, with . These are predictions of this particular model: a Kelvin-Voigt model has bounded creep and different short-time behavior. Small-amplitude oscillatory shear measures the same competition through storage modulus and loss modulus, rather than assuming that one constant dynamic viscosity characterizes the material.
Viscoelastic relaxation time Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-11-05
A viscoelastic relaxation time is the characteristic time over which stored stress decays after deformation. A single-mode material commonly crosses from viscous to elastic response around .
Viscous dissipation potential Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-11-05
A convex scalar function on symmetric rate-of-strain tensors generates stress by . For incompressible flow, its argument is trace free and a pressure reaction must be added to the stress. At nondifferentiable points the law is , where the subdifferential is defined by for every admissible . This is a strain-rate potential, in contrast with potentials parameterized by thermodynamic forces.
Viscous evolution of an accretion disk Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-11-05
Viscous evolution of an accretion disk follows the redistribution of surface density as internal stresses exchange angular momentum between rings. For an axisymmetric Keplerian disk without mass loss, combining mass and angular-momentum conservation gives . Here is an effective kinematic viscosity. The equation describes both inward accretion and outward spreading; the sign of local mass flow follows from the radial gradient, rather than viscosity alone.[ref]
Dynamics of Astrophysical Discs by Gordon I. Ogilvie. Lecture4, section4.2: diffusion equation for mass evolution
Viscous fluid flow Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-11-05
Viscous fluid flow includes the transfer of momentum by internal viscous stresses. For an incompressible Newtonian fluid with constant dynamic viscosity , the extra stress is proportional to the rate-of-strain tensor:Combining this relation with momentum conservation gives the Navier-Stokes equation. Other constitutive equations, including those for non-Newtonian fluids, give different stress responses.
A simple example is Couette flow between plates separated by , with one fixed and the other moving at speed . A steady linear profile produces uniform shear stress . The moving plate supplies power per area , which becomes viscous dissipation. [ref]
The Reynolds number compares advective momentum transport with viscous transport. Small values motivate Stokes flow; large values can still require thin viscous boundary layers near solid walls. Viscous flow therefore includes both smooth laminar flow and turbulent flow.
Viscous sheet Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-11-05
A viscous sheet is a thin fluid layer whose motion is controlled by viscous fluid flow and whose two broad faces can move freely. Unlike a no-slip wall film, an extensional sheet with shear-free faces has leading tangential velocity nearly uniform across its thickness. The in-plane stresses depend on extension in both horizontal directions.
Viscous stress tensor Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-14
The viscous stress tensor is the part of the Cauchy stress tensor associated with deformation rates. For an isotropic Newtonian fluid in incompressible flow,Here is pressure, is the identity matrix, is dynamic viscosity, and is the strain-rate tensor. The convention is ; denotes transpose and denotes trace. Across a plane with unit normal vector , the viscous traction is . The tensor makes this rule work for any plane orientation. [ref]
https://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/fluids/fluids.pdf. David Tong, Fluid Mechanics, section 3.1.1, equations (3.5)–(3.6)
In the worked Couette flow, , soIn particular, while the shear rate is ; the factor in recovers . On the upper face of a fluid slice, gives viscous traction ; on the lower face it is . Constant stress can therefore transmit a force between the plates even though its divergence, and the net viscous force on each slice, vanish.
Compare planar extension with solid-body rotation :Extension changes lengths and produces viscous normal stresses . Rotation preserves distances and gives zero viscous stress, despite its nonzero velocity gradient and vorticity . For and , extension gives and ; rotation gives zero. A rotating fluid may still have a pressure gradient supplying its centripetal acceleration.
For an isotropic Newtonian fluid in three-dimensional compressible flow, separate shape change from volume change:The first term is deviatoric stress, with zero trace; is volume viscosity, also called bulk viscosity. For uniform expansion , and , so the shear contribution vanishes and the viscous stress is . Thus dynamic viscosity and volume viscosity describe distinct responses, and incompressible flow removes only the volume-change term. [ref]
https://notes.shreyasmandre.com/fluid-dynamics-notes/Ch2.html. Shreyas Mandre, Fluid Dynamics Lecture Notes, section 2.11.3, equation (2.49)
Viscous sublayer Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-11-05
The near-wall region where molecular momentum diffusion dominates turbulent transport. Using the shear velocity gives the viscous wall length . The precise extent depends on the chosen crossover criterion and wall condition. In this region constant stress and no slip give ; the logarithmic law of the wall applies outside it.
Viscous-thread drawing Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-11-05
In steady viscous-thread drawing the conserved volume flux couples thinning directly to acceleration. The axial tensile stress is , so solutions with larger positive thin more rapidly.
Voigt elastic approximation Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-11-05
The Voigt elastic approximation assumes uniform strain. Differentiating its averaged strain energy density gives the averaged local stress. For linear elasticity the predicted elastic stiffness tensor is . The uniform strain is an admissible affine displacement trial field, so this gives an upper elastic energy bound for convex local energy.
The change in output voltage per input stress under specified geometry, loading direction, frequency and electrical boundary conditions.
Volume viscosity Created 2026-10-13 Updated 2026-11-05
Bulk viscosity is the dissipative response to a fluid's volume expansion or compression, distinct from the shear response. For a Newtonian isotropic fluid its isotropic dissipative stress includes , and nonnegative gives nonnegative compression-related dissipation. A condensate's relative-density-flow bulk coefficient must be identified from its particular hydrodynamic equation; it is not automatically numerically identical to a dimensional Newtonian viscosity.
Wave-driven ice-band compaction 2026-10-07
If forward-going surface-gravity-wave energy decays as and local wave force is , its spatial decrease is . In a weak-reflection independent-layer approximation, . Standard deep-water wave radiation stress gives , hence a compaction-force density . Different amplitude or force conventions change the coefficient; the force formula alone does not fix . This quantity is force per horizontal area, not automatically the three-dimensional stress in the ice skeleton.
Weak-pressure Couette-Poiseuille expansion Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-11-05
Perturb the Couette flow between walls moving at +-U by a small pressure gradient -G. The mean shear rate remains U/h, and the stress variation across the gap is -Gy. Linearizing the monotone generalized Newtonian fluid law divides this variation by differential viscosity, giving the displayed velocity and flux per unit width. Require and a smooth constitutive law on the perturbed rates. For a power-law fluid, the denominator is .
