Free energies and asymptotic behaviour for incompressible viscoelastic fluids

Abstract

The existence, uniqueness and asymptotic stability for an incompressible, linear viscoelastic fluid is studied using a new free energy, the representation of which is based on the concept of a minimal state. A restriction imposed by thermodynamics is also used. Furthermore, an expression for the minimum free energy in the time domain is derived, which shows explicitly its dependence on the minimal state.