  The viscosity of dilute and semidilute unentangled DNA solutions, in steady
simple shear flow, has been measured across a range of temperatures and
concentrations. For polystyrene solutions, measurements of viscosity have been
carried out in the semidilute unentangled regime, while results of prior
experimental measurements in the dilute regime have been used for the purpose
of data analysis, and for comparison with the behaviour of DNA solutions.
Interpretation of the shear rate dependence of viscosity in terms of suitably
defined non-dimensional variables, is shown to lead to master plots,
independent of temperature and concentration, in each of the two concentration
regimes. In the case of semidilute unentangled solutions, defining the
Weissenberg number in terms of a concentration dependent large scale relaxation
time is found not to lead to data collapse across different concentrations. On
the other hand, the use of an alternative relaxation time, with the
concentration dependence of a single correlation blob, suggests the existence
of universal shear thinning behaviour at large shear rates.
