Initial layer of the incompressible Oldroyd-B model for weakly viscoelastic fluids at the low Weissenberg number (Q6180464)

The authors address the study of incompressible viscoelastic fluid using the Oldroyd-B model, particularly focusing on fluids with low viscosity when the Weissenberg number approaches zero. The paper explores the convergence of solutions from a viscoelastic fluid model towards the solutions of an ``effective dynamics'' model, as a parameter representing the material elasticity tends to zero. Emphasis is placed on analyzing the proximity of the solutions and their convergence rate. The primary objective of this research is to gain a better understanding of the Newtonian limit and elucidate the dynamic behavior of the initial layer. Given that the non-slip boundary condition aligns with the Newtonian limit, phenomena associated with boundary layers are expected not to occur, at least at the leading order in Weissenberg number. Consequently, the study concentrates on the Cauchy problem across the entire domain \(\mathbb{R}^3\), with the specified initial conditions: \[ u(x,0) = u_0(x), \quad \sigma(x,0) = \sigma_0(x), \quad x \in \mathbb{R}^3 \] (here \(\sigma\) denotes the elastic part of stress tensor).