Plane flow of a second-order fluid past submerged boundaries

We consider the plane flow of a second-order fluid past submerged obstacles such as circular and elliptical cylinders in situations where inertia effects cannot be neglected. The effect of the short memory of the fluid upon the flow features is analyzed in detail. In particular, it is found that the viscoelasticity of the fluid reduces the drag coefficient for very low Reynolds numbers, while the opposite is true for large Reynolds numbers.