For stress and slip derivative , the steady viscometric functions are , and . Solving the three symmetric xy conformation equations gives , , and .
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 are
In 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 are
Thus span the allowed stress components. Material isotropy and reversal of the shear show that their scalar coefficients depend on . Define the viscometric functions by
Solving for the matrix coefficients gives
This 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 is
Equivalently, 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 give
hence
The 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 yields
The volume flux per unit axial length is . The integrated bracket is , so the power-law coating on a rotating cylinder has
At the gravitational term vanishes by continuity. Steady mass conservation makes independent of .
On the uphill half, put and . The local flux is , with
It has a unique maximum at
A 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. Consequently
For 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.
At rest the tensor equation relaxes toward and the stretch equation relaxes toward one. Thus
The equilibrium nonpressure stress is isotropic and can be absorbed into the arbitrary pressure in incompressible flow.
For the linear response, put , and take the velocity gradient to be . The first-order tensor equation is
Its matrix trace has no forcing, because incompressibility gives . Starting relaxed, . The first-order stretch equation is , hence . Consequently , and its anisotropic stress is . From the relaxed remote past,
The linear and second-order response of the differential pom-pom model therefore has
The stretch time does not enter the linear shear relaxation modulus.
For the second-order fluid constants, additionally make the slow-flow expansion: count as first order and as raising the order by one. Iterating
gives
Using the Rivlin-Ericksen tensor convention , the identity
reduces this to . Since , normalization gives
Stretch first changes at second order. Its equation gives . Multiplication by therefore adds only an isotropic stress at second order; multiplying its second-order increment by the anisotropic first-order term would be third order. Absorb these isotropic corrections into to obtain
Comparison with the viscometric functions parametrization yields
Equivalently, in , the constants are and . The general small-amplitude linear response above permits fast oscillation; the local second-order fluid expansion also requires the slow-flow ordering just used.
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 gives
The additional observer spin cancels from the symmetric part, proving that the rate-of-strain tensor is objective.
Along the same material particle, differentiating gives
The two extra terms cancel those from . Moreover . Hence the complete objective time derivative satisfies
This 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 gives
with 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 give
Substituting 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 therefore
The 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 , and
The 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 at
with the smaller root giving the maximum. Negative-rate curves are obtained by odd reflection.
Figure 1.
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 .
Viscometric flow 2026-10-14
A viscometric flow has the local relative deformation history of steady simple shear flow, up to rigid changes of frame. For an isotropic simple fluid, symmetry leaves one shear stress and two independent normal-stress differences. The corresponding viscometric functions depend on the magnitude of the shear rate, while pressure supplies the isotropic part.