On the use of the Astarita flow field for viscoelastic fluids to develop a generalised Newtonian fluid model incorporating flow type (GNFFTy)

The two-dimensional, steady, homogeneous flow field proposed by Astarita (J. Rheol. , vol. 35, 1991, pp. 687–689) is studied for a range of viscoelastic constitutive equations of differential form including the models due to Oldroyd (the upper and lower convected Maxwell; UCM/LCM), Phan-Thien and Tanner (simplified, linear form; sPTT) and Giesekus. As the flow is steady and homogeneous, the sPTT model results also give the FENE-P model solutions via a simple transformation of parameters. The flow field has the interesting feature that a scalar parameter may be used to vary the flow ‘type’ continuously from solid-body rotation to simple shearing to planar extension whilst the rate of deformation tensor D remains constant (i. e. independent of flow type). The response of the models is probed in order to determine how a scalar ‘viscosity’ function may be rigorously constructed which includes flow-type dependence. We show that for most of these models – the Giesekus being the exception – the first and second invariants of the resulting extra stress tensor are linearly related, and for models based on the upper convected derivative, this link is simply via a material property, i. e. half the modulus. By defining a frame-invariant coordinate system with respect to the eigenvectors of D, we associate a ‘viscosity’ for each of the flows to a deviatoric stress component and show how this quantity varies with the flow-type parameter. For elliptical motions, rate thinning is always observed and all models give essentially the UCM response. For strong flows, i. e. flow types containing at least some extension, thickening occurs and only a small element of extension is required to remove any shear thinning inherent in the model (e. g. as occurs in steady simple shearing for the sPTT/Giesekus models). Finally, a functional form of a viscosity equation which could incorporate flow type, but be otherwise inelastic, the so-called GNFFTy (generalised Newtonian fluid model incorporating flow type, pronounced ‘nifty’), is proposed. In the frame-invariant coordinate system proposed, this model is also capable of capturing normal-stress differences.