  We investigate the phenomenology of freely expanding fluids, with different
material properties, evolving through the Israel-Stewart (IS) causal viscous
hydrodynamics, and compare our results with those obtained in the relativistic
Eckart-Landau-Navier-Stokes (ELNS) acausal viscous hydrodynamics. Through the
analysis of scaling invariants we give a definition of thermalization time
which can be self-consistently determined in viscous hydrodynamics. Next we
construct the solutions for one-dimensional boost-invariant flows. Expansion of
viscous fluids is slower than that of one-dimensional ideal fluids, resulting
in entropy production. At late times, these flows are reasonably well
approximated by solutions obtained in ELNS hydrodynamics. Estimates of initial
energy densities from observed final values are strongly dependent on the
dynamics one chooses. For the same material, and the same final state, IS
hydrodynamics gives the smallest initial energy density. We also study
fluctuations about these one-dimensional boost-invariant backgrounds; they are
damped in ELNS hydrodynamics but can become sound waves in IS hydrodynamics.
The difference is obvious in power spectra due to clear signals of
wave-interference in IS hydrodynamics, which is completely absent in ELNS
dynamics.
