TRANSPORT PROCESSES IN A VISCOELASTIC BINARY MIXTURE

Generalized thermohydrodynamics is used to provide for a basis to comp ute transport coefficients of a binary isothermal solution consisting of a viscoelastic fluid in a viscous solvent. A description is made of the states of this system using, besides the conventional conserved d ensities, a set of non-conserved variables provided by the stress tens or and the mass flux of one of the components. Within a linearized sch eme, the solution to the evolution equations obeyed by the latter ones provides a set of constitutive equations which are in general both wa ve vector and frequency dependent. When the constitutive equations are substituted into the conservation equations, a complete set is obtain ed from which all relevant quantities may be computed. These involve w ave vector and frequency dependent expressions for the transport coeff icients as well as the dynamic structure factor which may be obtained by light or neutron scattering. These results are analyzed and compare d with other ones existing in the literature.