RHEOLOGY

According to Wikipedia:

Rheology is the study of the flow of matter, primarily in a liquid or gas state,
but also as "soft solids" or solids under conditions in which they respond with
plastic or viscoelastic flow rather than deforming only elastically in response to
an applied force.

This definition raises a first series of questions:

What is meant by « soft solid »? Is a solid likely to flow ?

What is meant by « viscoelastic flow » ?

Can a material behave both as a viscous fluid and as an elastic solid ?

 RHEOLOGY

Panta rhei » (Πάντα ῥεῖ)

A citation at the origin of the word:
« Everything flows »

Heraclitus of Ephesus even the mountains flow, if you wait long

(535-475 BC) enough
 RHEOLOGY

This suggests that the same material may behave:

As an elastic solid at short times (stress proportional to strain)

AND as an viscous liquid at long times (stress proportional to strain rate)

A dimensionless number is introduced, the so-called Deborah number:

Characteristic time of the material: =  for a purely elastic solid

tC = 0 for a purely viscous liquid
De =
tP
Characteristic time of the process (observation
time)

De » 1: elastic behavior De « 1: viscous behavior

De  1: « viscoelastic » behavior
 RHEOLOGY

According to Wikipedia:
Rheology is the study of the flow of matter, primarily in a liquid
or gas state, but also as "soft solids" or solids under conditions in
which they respond with plastic or viscoelastic flow rather than
deforming only elastically in response to an applied force.

Also required is a proper definition of strain, strain rate and stress

As in fluid mechanics, stress, strain and strain rate are continuous

functions of space coordinates

The concept of « material point » is usefully introduced

 RHEOLOGY

macroscopic microscopic
At molecular scale, properties are discontinuous

Continuum hypothesis:

Macroscopic properties are explained by assuming matter to be

continuously distributed and to fill space completely. All relevant
quantities (mass densities, displacements, velocities, stresses, …) are
continuous fields, i.e. they vary smoothly with space coordinates and time,
so they are continuously differentiable.
 RHEOLOGY

L: macroscopic scale Lp: mesoscopic scale d: microscopic scale

(mean free path)
mass:
dm= (x,y,z)dV

d
volume: V
volume: dV
« Material point » or « fluid particle »
𝐝 ≪ 𝐋𝐩 ≪ 𝐋

A material point contains many microscopic particles (molecules): it can be

thought of as a small thermodynamic system whose properties result from
averaging in time and space over the microscopic behavior of the particles
contained in dV
 RHEOLOGY

Conservation equations are written for a material point (local form):

𝜕ρ
Conservation of mass: + 𝛻. (ρv) dV = 0
𝜕t
𝐃𝐯
Conservation of momentum (Newton’s second law): 𝐝𝐦 × 𝐚 = 𝐝𝐦 × = 𝐝𝐅
𝐃𝐭
D 𝜕
v velocity a acceleration = 𝜕t + v. 𝛻 substantial time derivative
Dt

dm × g :weight
Pressure forces hydrostatics

dF forces on material point:

Viscous friction forces
hydrodynamics
Viscoelastic forces
(complex fluids)
 RHEOLOGY

Fluid at rest – hydrostatics 𝐝𝐦 × 𝐚 = 𝟎 = 𝐝𝐦 × 𝐠 + 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬

Pressure forces Projection along z:

The considered fluid
−p z + dz dxdy + p z dxdy
particle (cartesian
dp
coordinates) = − dxdydz
dz

𝟎
𝟎
𝐝𝐅 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 = − 𝐝𝐩 𝐝𝐕
𝐝𝐳

Pressure forces along x and y cancel out

 Fluid at rest – hydrostatics

  
 a  0  dm  g  pressure forces
Projection along z
0
0 0
0 dp
dm 0 − dp dV = 0 ρg + =0
−g 0 dz
dz

If =Cst (liquids) one can integrate:

𝐩 + 𝛒𝐠𝐳 = 𝐂𝐬𝐭 “Driving pressure”

Uniformly accelerated fluid

p  pA
 z
a

g
x

𝜕p
0 a 𝜕x
𝜕p
dm 0 + dF(pressure) = dm 0 dF pressure = − dV
𝜕y
−g 0
𝜕p
𝜕z
Uniformly accelerated fluid

𝐩 = 𝐩𝐀 z
𝐚

𝐠
x

𝜕p 𝜕p
= −ρa
𝜕x 𝜕x
0 𝜕p a 𝜕p
dm 0 − dV = dm 0 =0
𝜕y 𝜕y
−g 0 𝜕p
𝜕p = −ρg
𝜕z 𝜕z

⇒ 𝐩 𝐱, 𝐲, 𝐳 = −𝛒 𝐚𝐱 + 𝐠𝐳 + 𝐂𝐬𝐭
Nabla operator: a vector

Law of hydrostatics (valid in any coordinate system)

𝛒𝐚 = 𝛒𝐠 − 𝛁𝐩

No friction forces or negligible viscosity