Stresses in concentrated polymer solutions: Part I. Shear dependence of viscosity

A method is suggested for calculating stresses in sheared polymeric liquids. It synthesizes Kirkwood's correlation function techniques and Fixman's formulation for the stress tensor P . The dependence of P on powers of solute concentration, in the concentrated solution range, arises from a consideration of intermolecular forces. A non‐Newtonian viscosity, characterized by only two parameters (low shear viscosity limit η o and time constant λ), is derived from simple choices of functions which appear in the expression for P .