Couette flows of fluids with pressure dependent viscosity

For liquids such as water, for a range of pressures for which the density remains nearly constant, the viscosity could change by several orders of magnitude. Thus, such liquids could be approximated as incompressible liquids whose viscosity depends on the pressure. Stokes (1945) recognized this possibility and the fact that the viscosity could be considered to be independent of the pressure in only special flows. That this is indeed so has been verified in the case of numerous liquids (Bridgman, 1931). In this short study, we allow the viscosity of the fluid to be dependent on the pressure and investigate the consequence of the effect of gravity in simple flows such as Couette flows between parallel plates. We find that gravity can have a profound effect on the structure of the flow. Its presence leads to the concentration of vorticity adjacent to one of the plates.