Phase-Textured Complex Viscosity in Linear Viscous Flows: Non-Normality Without Advection, Corner Defects, and 3D Mode Coupling
Abstract
We consider time-harmonic incompressible flow with a spatially resolved complex viscosity field and, at fixed forcing frequency , its constitutive phase texture . In three-dimensional domains periodic in a spanwise direction , -dependence of converts coefficient multiplication into convolution in spanwise Fourier index, yielding an operator-valued Toeplitz/Laurent coupling of modes. Consequently, even spanwise-uniform forcing generically produces sidebands in the harmonic response as a \emph{linear, constitutive} effect. We place at the closure level , as the boundary value of the Laplace transform of a causal stress-memory kernel. Under the passivity condition , the oscillatory Stokes/Oseen operators are realized as m-sectorial operators associated with coercive sectorial forms on bounded Lipschitz (including cornered) domains, yielding existence, uniqueness, and frequency-dependent stability bounds. Spatial variation of renders the viscous operator intrinsically non-normal even in the absence of advection, so amplification is governed by resolvent geometry (and associated pseudospectra), not by eigenvalues alone. In the pure-phase class , the texture strength is quantified by .
Cite
@article{arxiv.2601.08231,
title = {Phase-Textured Complex Viscosity in Linear Viscous Flows: Non-Normality Without Advection, Corner Defects, and 3D Mode Coupling},
author = {Lillian St. Kleess},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.08231},
year = {2026}
}