Abstract For incompressible fluids of second grade that are compatible with the Clausius-Duhem inequality, non-uniqueness of steady flows with small Reynolds number (i.e. creeping flows) is possible provided the ‘absorption number’ is also small. We discuss this uniqueness question, generalize a well-known theorem of Tanner concerning how solutions of the Stokes equations may be used to generate solutions of the creeping flow equations for fluids of second grade, and give a new uniqueness theorem appropriate to a class of problems for the steady creeping flow of fluids of second grade. Under the conditions for uniqueness, we obtain a simple formula for the drag force on a fixed body which is immersed in a fluid of second grade which is undergoing uniform creeping flow. For bodies with certain geometric symmetries, the non-Newtonian nature of the fluid has no effect upon the drag.
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