This paper is concerned with the numerical solution of the unified first order hyperbolic formulation of continuum mechanics recently proposed by Peshkov & Romenski [106], further denoted as HPR model. In that framework, the viscous stresses are computed from the so-called distortion tensor A, which is one of the primary state variables in the proposed first order system. A very important key feature of the HPR model is its ability to describe at the same time the behavior of inviscid and viscous compressible Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids with heat conduction, as well as the behavior of elastic and visco-plastic solids. Actually, the model treats viscous and inviscid fluids as generalized visco-plastic solids. This is achieved via a stiff source term that accounts for strain relaxation in the evolution equations of A. Also heat conduction is included via a first order hyperbolic evolution equation of the thermal impulse, from which the heat flux is computed. The governing PDE system is hyperbolic and fully consistent with the first and the second principle of thermodynamics. It is also fundamentally different from first order Maxwell-Cattaneo-type relaxation models based on extended irreversible thermodynamics. The HPR model represents therefore a novel and unified description of continuum mechanics, which applies at the same time to fluid mechanics and solid mechanics. In this paper, the direct connection between the HPR model and the classical hyperbolic-parabolic Navier-Stokes-Fourier theory is established for the first time via a formal asymptotic analysis in the stiff relaxation limit.From a numerical point of view, the governing partial differential equations are very challenging, since they form a large nonlinear hyperbolic PDE system that includes stiff source terms and non-conservative products. We apply the successful family of one-step ADER-WENO finite volume (FV) and ADER discontinuous Galerkin (DG) finite element schemes to the HPR model in the stiff relaxation limit, and compare the numerical results with exact or numerical reference solutions obtained for the Euler and Navier-Stokes equations. Numerical convergence results are also provided. To show the universality of the HPR model, the paper is rounded-off with an application to wave propagation in elastic solids, for which one only needs to switch off the strain relaxation source term in the governing PDE system.We provide various examples showing that for the purpose of flow visualization, the distortion tensor A seems to be particularly useful.Key words: ADER-WENO finite volume schemes, arbitrary high-order Discontinuous Galerkin schemes, path-conservative methods and stiff source terms, unified first order hyperbolic formulation of nonlinear continuum mechanics, fluid mechanics and solid mechanics, viscous compressible fluids and elastic solids * Corresponding author * * Ilya Peshkov is on leave from Sobolev

We discuss a pure hyperbolic alternative to the Navier-Stokes equations, which are of parabolic type. As a result of the substitution of the concept of the viscosity coefficient by a microphysics-based temporal characteristic, particle settled life (PSL) time, it becomes possible to formulate a model for viscous fluids in a form of first order hyperbolic partial differential equations. Moreover, the concept of PSL time allows the use of the same model for flows of viscous fluids (Newtonian or non-Newtonian) as well as irreversible deformation of solids. In the theory presented, a continuum is interpreted as a system of material particles connected by bonds; the internal resistance to flow is interpreted as elastic stretching of the particle bonds; and a flow is a result of bond destructions and rearrangements of particles. Finally, we examine the model for simple shear flows, arbitrary incompressible and compressible flows of Newtonian fluids and demonstrate that Newton's viscous law can be obtained in the framework of the developed hyperbolic theory as a steady-state limit. A basic relation between the viscosity coefficient, PSL time, and the shear sound velocity is also obtained.

SpoilerContinuum mechanics with dislocations, with the Cattaneo type heat conduction, with mass transfer, and with electromagnetic fields is put into the Hamiltonian form and into the form of the Godunov type system of the first order, symmetric hyperbolic partial differential equations (SHTC equations). The compatibility with thermodynamics of the time reversible part of the governing equations is mathematically expressed in the former formulation as degeneracy of the Hamiltonian structure and in the latter formulation as the existence of a companion conservation law. In both formulations the time irreversible part represents gradient dynamics. The Godunov type formulation brings the mathematical rigor (the well-posedness of the Cauchy initial value problem) and the possibility to discretize while keeping the physical content of the governing equations (the Godunov finite volume discretization).