Multicritical phenomena in flow of viscoelastic liquids. 1. Zaremba-Fromm-De Witt liquid

It has been shown that multicritical phenomena caused by nonlinearity of viscosity and high elasticity, and forced anisotropy at finite shear rates take place during flow of viscoelastic polymer melts which are isotropic in the resting state. The sign of the low-frequency asymptotic values of the dynamic viscosity and elasticity measured during steady flow is a criterion of the appearance of instability. These arguments are illustrated by the solution and analysis of the complex reaction to low-amplitude, periodic shear of a steady-flowing, very simple viscoelastic liquid — ZFD liquid. It was shown that the instability of viscoelastic liquids for a given steady shear rate is due to the effect of perturbations lasting for no less than some limiting value and its manifestations are caused by superposition of different types of instability — multicritical phenomena.