An Extended Thermodynamics Study for Second-Grade Adiabatic Fluids

Abstract

A 10-field theory for second-grade viscoelastic fluids is developed in the framework of Rational Extended Thermodynamics. The field variables are the density, the velocity, the temperature and the stress tensor. The particular case of an adiabatic fluid is considered. The field equations are determined by use of physical universal principles such as the Galileian and the Entropy Principles. As already proved, Rational Extended Thermodynamics is able to eliminate some inconsistencies with experiments that arise in Classical Thermodynamics. Moreover, the paper shows that, if the quadratic terms are taken into account, the classical constitutive relations for a second-grade fluid can be obtained as a limit case of the field equations of the present theory.