Hyperbolicity and change of type in the flow of viscoelastic fluids through channels (Q1067510)

We consider steady flow of an upper convected Maxwell fluid through a channel with wavy walls. The vorticity of this flow will change type when the velocity in the center of the channel is larger than a critical value defined by the propagation of shear waves. There is then a central region of the channel in which the vorticity equation is hyperbolic and a low speed region near the walls where the vorticity equation is elliptic. We linearize the problem for small amplitude waviness and the linearized problem is solved in detail.