SUFFICIENT CONDITIONS FOR STABILITY OF FLUID MOTIONS CONSTITUTIVELY DESCRIBED BY INFINITESIMAL THEORY OF VISCOELASTICITY

An energy method is employed to determine sufficient conditions for the stability of fluid motions which are constitutively described by the infinitesimal theory of viscoelasticity. The analysis is restricted to situations for which the fluid is either totally confined by solid walls or the velocity field for the disturbed fluid motion may be assumed to be periodic along an axis of symmetry. The sufficient conditions for stability established appear to be somewhat conservative. For the conditions to yield nontrivial information, the fluid memory must have a Newtonian aspect to it such that emphasis must be placed on events occurring at the present time. © 1969, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.