Our aim is to formulate hydrodynamicslike theory for the fluids for wh
ich the classical hydrodynamics fails (e.g., polymeric fluids). In add
ition, we limit ourselves in this paper to the fluids for which the en
larged set of classical hydrodynamic fields, enlarged by the fields of
the extra stress tensor and the extra energy flux, represent a dynami
cally closed set of state variables. We say, roughly speaking, that a
set of state variables is dynamically closed if predictions calculated
from the dynamical theory that uses this set of state variables agree
, to some extent, with results of hydrodynamicslike (rheological) obse
rvations. Examples of such fluids can be found in Jou et al., [Extende
d Irreversible Thermodynamics (Springer, Berlin, 1996)]. In this book
the hydrodynamicslike theory whose consequences are compared with resu
lts of observations is linear in the fields that extend the set of cla
ssical hydrodynamic fields. In this paper we extend the linear theory
to a fully nonlinear theory. The additional physical insight that make
s the extension possible is the requirement of a generalized Hamiltoni
an structure. This structure has been identified in all dynamical theo
ries (on all levels of description, including, for example, kinetic th
eory) that describe the time evolution of externally unforced fluids (
i.e., fluids that eventually reach equilibrium states at which they ca
n be well described by equilibrium thermodynamics). A prominent new fe
ature of the nonlinear theory is that the extra fields extending the s
et of classical hydrodynamical fields are not exactly the fields of th
e extra stress and the extra energy flux, but new fields from which th
e extra stress and the extra energy flux can always be calculated. The
inverse of this map exists, however, always only in the linear case.
(C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.