Linear viscoelastic fluid 2026-10-14
A linear viscoelastic fluid has causal stress response linear in the deformation history, often expressed as . The approximation requires small deformation and rotation over the relevant memory times. High frequency is allowed at sufficiently small amplitude. An integrable decaying relaxation modulus gives a finite zero-shear viscosity; an instantaneous solvent term may be written separately.
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 are
For shear-rate amplitude the mean dissipated power per unit volume is . For the exponential Maxwell fluid memory kernel, direct integration gives
The 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 give
Define and , choosing either square-root branch consistently; the flux expression is even in . The symmetric solution is
Its 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 , . Hence
In 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 satisfies
Its real part tends to a positive constant, so remains bounded although it oscillates. Thus and
The 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 is
Here 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.
For the specified affine linear PTT fluid, perturb about the relaxed state , . Products of with the velocity gradient and the term are second order in the perturbation. The material-advection term is also second order. The linearized equation is therefore
With vanishing stress in the remote past, an integrating factor gives
Since , comparison with the linear viscoelastic fluid convolution yields and zero-shear viscosity . The nonlinear relaxation parameter does not appear at linear order; the response is that of a Maxwell fluid.
For uniaxial extensional flow use , so . Again put and . A steady diagonal tensor has
Set . Then
Since and , multiplication gives
This is the cubic for uniaxial extension of an affine linear PTT fluid. For , choose its physical root , continuous from at rest. The product on the left grows strictly from zero to infinity in that interval, so this root is unique. The other algebraic roots need not describe an admissible steady material state.
The extensional viscosity is the axial-minus-transverse normal stress divided by the principal extension rate. Isotropic pressure cancels, leaving
At small , and . Thus
the Trouton ratio of three relative to the zero-shear viscosity. At large with fixed , the positive cubic root remains bounded and tends to : dividing the cubic by gives . Therefore
The nonlinear relaxation prevents the divergent high-rate response of the affine Maxwell model. If , the physically stable steady branch instead has and ends at ; no finite positive high-rate limit follows. The finite plateau consequently presumes the usual positive PTT relaxation parameter, as well as .
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.