In recent years several papers [Grad(9), Condiff and Dahler(5), Baronowski and Romatowski(2), Eringen(8), Allen and de Silva(i)] have been written dealing with the possibility of antisymmetric stress in a fluid and its relationship with the internal micro-structure of the fluid. In the classical fluid dynamics of the Navier–Stokes equations, the molecules of the fluid element are treated as material points devoid of any internal spin motion and the only type of angular motion that the macroscopic elements of the fluid possess is the usual vorticity ½ curl v, the velocity of the fluid being v. In the case of fluids whose molecules are not regarded as material points, but are treated as micro-structures having internal spin, the total angular velocity of a macroscopic volume element will be equal to the vector sum of spins of the micro-structures and the part due to the vorticity.
