Newtonian Limit of Maxwell Fluid Flows

In this paper, we revise Maxwell’s constitutive relation and formulate a system of first-order partial differential equations with two parameters for compressible viscoelastic fluid flows. The system is shown to possess a nice conservation–dissipation (relaxation) structure and therefore is symmetrizable hyperbolic. Moreover, for smooth flows we rigorously verify that the revised Maxwell’s constitutive relations are compatible with Newton’s law of viscosity.