| Abstract: | Shear stress and first normal stress difference data are presented for materials which exhibit a constant viscosity and yet at the same time exhibit elasticity levels of the same order as polymer melts. Flow pattern observations in circular die entry flows in conjunction with independent shear and normal stress measurement strongly suggest that these fluids would make excellent model fluids for melt studies. Studies in which the influence of elasticity in the absence of shear thinning and fluid inertia can easily be made. Furthermore it is clearly shown that a realistic solution to the die entry flow problem is not obtained using second order flow theory. In the second order region the secondary cell is observed to be almost identical in size to the cell observed for an inelastic Newtonian fluid in creeping flow. Marked growth in the secondary cell as a function of elasticity is not observed until the shear rates exceed the region of second order behavior. This growth in cell size as a result of elasticity is followed at higher shear rates by a spiraling flow instability like that observed for some polymer melts. |
