Similarity solutions that give rise to hyperbolicity and change of type in steady flow of a viscoelastic fluid (Q1117776)

Similarity solutions have proved to be a very useful tool for the study of flows of viscoelastic fluids since they allow as to check numerical computations against them. We compute here hyperbolic regions of the vorticity for an upper convected Maxwell model using the similarity solution of Phan-Thien for flow between rotating disks and using the similarity solution of Menon for an accelerated flow in cylindrical coordinates. We show that the extra tension becomes enormous at the edge of disks of ordinary rheometers under operating conditions.