Upper Convected Time Derivative

In continuum mechanics, including fluid dynamics, an upper-convected time derivative or Oldroyd derivative, named after James G. Oldroyd, is the rate of change of some tensor property of a small parcel of fluid that is written in the coordinate system rotating and stretching with the fluid.

The operator is specified by the following formula:

where:

  • is the upper-convected time derivative of a tensor field
  • is the substantive derivative
  • is the tensor of velocity derivatives for the fluid.

The formula can be rewritten as:

By definition the upper-convected time derivative of the Finger tensor is always zero.

The upper-convected derivative is widely use in polymer rheology for the description of behavior of a visco-elastic fluid under large deformations.

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