Lecture Notes in

Incompressible Fluid Dynamics:

Phenomenology,
Concepts
and Analytical Tools.

Jacques Lewalle
Syracuse University
2

c
Jacques Lewalle 2006
Contents

0.1 What is different about these notes? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

0.2 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
0.2.1 Part I: Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
0.2.2 Part II: Basic concepts and equations . . . . . . . . . . 14
0.2.3 Part III: Approximations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

1 Motivation 17
1.1 Internal Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.1.1 A simple problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.1.2 Entrance flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.1.3 Transition to turbulence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1.1.4 Pipe exit and secondary flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
1.1.5 Advanced problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
1.1.6 Food for thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
1.2 External flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
1.2.1 Control volume analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
1.2.2 Potential flow model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
1.2.3 Phenomenology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
1.2.4 Food for thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
1.3 Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

2 Kinematics 35
2.1 Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.1.1 Intrinsic notations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.1.2 Component notations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.1.3 Index notations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.2 Eulerian vs. Lagrangian descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.2.1 Lagrangian description of motion . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.2.2 Eulerian description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

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2.2.3 Pathlines, streaklines and streamlines . . . . . . . . . . 49

2.2.4 Caution! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
2.3 Differential concepts and their geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
2.3.1 Differentials and vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
2.4 Mass balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
2.4.1 Vector potential and stream function . . . . . . . . . . 59
2.5 Flow about a point: Helmholtz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
2.5.1 Rate of strain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
2.5.2 Local rotation and vorticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
2.6 Kinematic decompositions of a velocity field . . . . . . . . . . 64
2.7 Vorticity, ∇×, ∇−2 , etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
2.7.1 Biot-Savart relation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
2.7.2 Vorticity, streamfunctions, and more . . . . . . . . . . 68
2.7.3 Vorticity and boundary conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
2.7.4 Discrete vortices vs. continuous vorticity . . . . . . . . 69
2.7.5 Vorticity and circulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
2.7.6 The Helmholtz theorems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
2.7.7 Helicity, Lamb vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
2.7.8 Famous vortices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
2.8 Advanced topics and ideas for further reading . . . . . . . . . 79

3 Dynamics 83
3.1 Newtonian dynamics of continua . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
3.2 Stress at a point, Newtonian fluids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
3.2.1 The Navier-Stokes equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
3.2.2 Boundary conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
3.2.3 Pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
3.2.4 Vorticity in NS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
3.3 Vorticity equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
3.4 Energy and dissipation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
3.4.1 Bernoulli with losses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
3.5 Enstrophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
3.6 Structure of the equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
3.7 Incompressible flow approximation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
3.7.1 Small Mach number flows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
3.7.2 Boussinesq approximation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
3.8 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
3.9 Advanced topics and ideas for further reading . . . . . . . . . 101
CONTENTS 5

4 Dimensionless expressions 103

4.1 Dimensional analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
4.2 Non-dimensionalization of equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
4.3 Dimensionless Equations and Scaling Analysis . . . . . . . . . 110
4.4 Rational approximations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
4.4.1 Large Re . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
4.5 Advanced topics and ideas for further reading . . . . . . . . . 115

5 Inviscid Flows and Irrotational Flows 119

5.1 Inviscid flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
5.2 Bernoulli’s equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
5.2.1 The strong form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
5.2.2 The weaker form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
5.2.3 Bernoulli and energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
5.2.4 Simplified Crocco’s equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
5.2.5 Applications of Bernoulli’s equation . . . . . . . . . . . 126
5.2.6 Lagrange’s theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
5.2.7 Creation of vorticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
5.2.8 Kelvin’s theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
5.2.9 Helmholtz’s vortex theorems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
5.3 Irrotational flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
5.3.1 2D potential lines and streamlines . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
5.3.2 Superposition of 2D potentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
5.3.3 F=ma!? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
5.3.4 D’Alembert’s paradox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
5.4 Viscous potential flows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
5.5 Advanced topics and ideas for further reading . . . . . . . . . 143

6 Stokes Flows 145

6.1 Stokes’ equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
6.1.1 Kinematic reversibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
6.2 Stokes’ two problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
6.3 Stokes flow around a sphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
6.3.1 Nonlocal effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
6.3.2 Application: Slender bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
6.4 Cylinder: Stokes’ paradox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
6.5 Reynolds’ lubrication theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
6.6 Lagrangian turbulence, chaotic mixing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
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6.7 Advanced topics and ideas for further reading . . . . . . . . . 160

7 Interlude 163
7.1 The approximations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
7.2 Non-local effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
7.3 The role of vorticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

8 Narrow Flows 165

8.1 Flat plate boundary layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
8.1.1 Control volume analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
8.1.2 Scaling: mass balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
8.1.3 Scaling: streamwise momentum . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
8.1.4 Scaling: transverse momentum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
8.1.5 Scaling: pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
8.1.6 The ZPG BL equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
8.1.7 Similarity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
8.2 Vorticity and circulation in ZPGBL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
8.3 Descriptive: BL transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
8.4 Wakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
8.5 Jets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
8.5.1 Streamwise development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
8.5.2 Similarity profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
8.5.3 Entrainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
8.6 Advanced topics and ideas for further reading . . . . . . . . . 186

9 Flow Separation and Secondary Flow 189

9.1 Curved channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
9.2 Vorticity reversal in 2D separation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
9.3 Introduction of vorticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
9.4 Advanced topics and ideas for further reading . . . . . . . . . 199

10 Rotating Flows 201

10.1 Equations of motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
10.1.1 Coriolis force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
10.2 Scaling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
10.3 Geostrophic approximation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
10.3.1 Taylor columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
10.4 Rossby waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
CONTENTS 7

10.5 Advanced topics and ideas for further reading . . . . . . . . . 211

11 Linearization 213
11.1 Surface waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
11.1.1 Tsunami speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
11.1.2 Internal waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
11.1.3 More advanced topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
11.2 Inviscid linear stability: Kelvin-Helmholtz . . . . . . . . . . . 221
11.2.1 Setting up the problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
11.2.2 Perturbation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
11.2.3 Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
11.2.4 Stability as equilibrium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

12 Additional Reading 231

12.1 About this course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
12.2 Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
8 CONTENTS
Introduction

0.1 What is different about these notes?

These are lecture notes: not a textbook, even less a reference book. Supple-
mentary material, in the form of specific reading from existing texts and flow
visualization (movies and still photographs), allows these notes to remain
concise.
This material has been taught as an entry-level course for graduate stu-
dents in Mechanical Engineering and related programs for a few years. While
Fluid Dynamics is a well-established discipline, its focus has shifted over the
years, and the range of applications has diversified. The biggest change re-
sults from the widespread availability of desktop CFD packages in engineering
practice, which makes it possible to obtain solutions to complex problems.
The dependence on applied mathematics (as well as inclination for it and
level of proficiency) has decreased accordingly among typical students, but
it could be argued that physical insight is more important than ever. Actual
solutions, numerical or analytical or experimental, have built-in approxima-
tions and blind spots: with increasingly complex problems, it is important to
recognize these limitations, their possible effects on the solutions and their
interpretation. Analysis and insight are more difficult to combine in complex
flows.
Thus, I attempted to strike a new balance between the rich phenomenol-
ogy of incompressible flows, as presented e.g. by Tritton, and the wealth of
analytical methods found in references such as Batchelor, Panton and Currie.
There is also merit in a very selective approach such as Acheson. So, I have
devised my own mix of these excellent texts, and bits and pieces of them will
be recognized in this material. The classroom presentation will rely heavily
on movies (NSF series: GI Taylor, A Shapiro, F Abernathy, E Taylor, etc.)
and flow-vizualization still pictures (Van Dyke’s Album of Fluid Motion, the

9
10 CONTENTS

Figure 1: Overview of this approach

0.1. WHAT IS DIFFERENT ABOUT THESE NOTES? 11

Gallery of Fluid Motion in Physics of Fluids, and the many pictures on eflu-
ids.com), for the double purpose of using the wonder of flow phenomena as
motivation, and to start the process of analysis and interpretation.
The main innovation in these notes is the graphic representation of re-
lations between ideas. For years, I have observed that students need help
placing ideas in context, need bridges between mathematics and reality. A
systematic approach is provided by mind-mapping , a graphical technique
related to free-association in psychology and to left vs. right brain thinking,
used first in the context of business schools (N. Margulies, R. Carter) but
with versatile pedagogical merit (I learned about it from Mrs. Kate Regan,
my son’s fifth grade teacher). In this incarnation of the method, I ask the
students to map the web of concepts related to a given topic, so as to improve
awareness of connections, missing links, and analogies.
Take the example (Fig. 2) of what might have been learned about vis-
cosity at the undergraduate level: at the mention of the word ‘viscosity’, an
entire context should come to mind. A list of keywords (here: definition,
no-slip, friction and wall stress, Reynolds number, never Bernoulli, etc.), is
a skeleton for any written text. But conventional presentations (text or list
of keywords) are by necessity sequential. A 2-dimensional layout, empha-
sizing relations between keywords, is apparently read by a different part of
the brain: adding graphically expressive features and personal emphasis is
an important part of the excercise. Drawing a mind-map, first collectively
in class and then individually as assignments, helps students create a con-
text. The question of ‘Are we overlooking anything?’ is as important as
what is in the picture, but the context should be limited to items directly
related to the central topic, leaving further branchings (e.g. details about
Bernoulli, wall stress, etc.) for other diagrams. The end-result should be a
mental landscape, readable at a glance, showing connections and mismatches,
eventually supporting the analytical developments and the interpretation of
results. The frustration of ‘where to start?’ in traditional problems may give
way to excitement at the realization that the handle is usually easier to find
on the mind map: it connects the various pieces of the problem statement.
The version printed here is somewhat limited in expressive value: adding
colors, texture, etc., is more easily done by hand, although software with
clip-art libraries is now available. These maps of ideas can be more or less
detailed: one can, for example, trace vorticity throughout this text and get
a very different picture in Chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 7 or 8: context is
everything.
12 CONTENTS

Figure 2: Two versions of a mind-map based on the same keywords

0.2. OVERVIEW 13

While ideas and techniques need to be presented in detail, some ques-

tions are left unanswered in these notes so as not to spoil the fun of real-time
thinking in the classroom. In the selection of material, fundamentals and
variety were more important than completeness or depth: especially with
pointers to specific topics, going to the library for additional information is
a normal step at any level of learning. The goal is to lead the students to
a fundamental understanding of reasonably complex flows, including the na-
ture of approximations, possible shortcomings and opportunities for further
development. Formal manipulations are but one aspect of the learning: the
sequence of ideas, the relations with other fields (elasticity, thermodynam-
ics, etc.), and the ability to approach the wealth of applications, are more
important.

0.2 Overview
The help of a publisher would make two obvious improvements manageable:
the professional drafting of figures, and the inclusion of copyrighted pho-
tographs and movie clips in a multimedia package. The expansion of these
notes to include other topics would rely on contribution from co-authors: this
is my selection.
The course is in three parts. The students should review independently
some undegraduate topics, such as the Reynolds transport theorem, Bernoulli’s
equation (without and with losses) and dimensional similarity. These meth-
ods are assumed to be known, regardless of the students’ varied backgrounds.

0.2.1 Part I: Introduction

Ch. 1 is a short version of Tritton’s idea, to illustrate the limitations of
the undergraduate tools of analysis for both internal and external flows.
These topics involve a rich phenomenology for which new analytical tools
are required. This is the vehicle for two main ideas. First, the need to
understand the phenomena in question and their side-effects is motivation
for the introduction of more advanced concepts in Part II. Second, the maps
of ideas are introduced in a known context, and they summarize the many
loose ends.
14 CONTENTS

0.2.2 Part II: Basic concepts and equations

Chs. 2 and 3 are rather conventional in scope, with very few attempts at
originality (the relation between Biot-Savart and the inverse Laplacian being
an exception). Kinematics (Ch. 2) formalize the tools that do not involve
the effect of forces (Newton’s second law): the geometry of motion. At one
level, this is descriptive, including flow visualization and plotting of solutions
for various purposes of understanding and communication. At another level,
it is deeply analytical, with more partial derivatives than some students feel
comfortable with. The teacher’s challenge is to link graphical and analytical
aspects into one unified context. Chapter 3 is devoted to dynamics, i.e. the
form taken by Newton’s second law in continua (Cauchy’s equation), then
more precisely in inviscid (Euler’s equations) and Newtonian incompressible
flows (Navier-Stokes equations). Formal similarities for the balance of mo-
mentum, mass and energy are exploited, and the governing equations are
derived for related quantities such as pressure, energy and vorticity.

0.2.3 Part III: Approximations

Very few exact solutions are known for the Navier-Stokes (NS) equations.
For the Couette-Poiseuille class of fully-developed parallel steady flows, con-
vective terms cancel out and the simple balance of pressure and viscous forces
is featured in undergraduate texts. Unsteady problems of simple geometry
(Stokes’ problems: impulsively started and oscillating plates in a viscous
fluid) are also well known. But there are remarkably few exact solutions of
the NS equations including nonlinearities, and they are all time-independent.
Finding closed-form exact solutions is not what this field is about (although
if you do, you will be famous).
Of course, the naive student will think in terms of just solving the NS
equations numerically (or experimentally). But even computers and software
relate poorly to brute force: it is necessary to make approximations, and to
understand their implications (strengths and shortcomings). Experimentally,
not all variables can be controlled or measured, and again approximations
need to be interpreted correctly. The third part of the course is a survey
of approximation methods to be developed more fully in specialized courses.
More importantly, equations such as NS can yield a lot of information even
if we cannot solve them: it is all about extracting information and putting
it in context.
0.2. OVERVIEW 15

One overriding technique is presented first (Ch. 4): suitable scaling of the
equations brings out dimensionless coefficients to the various terms, some of
which may be relatively small and might be neglected (one needs to be careful
with this approach: very large Reynolds number is associated with turbu-
lence, while infinite Reynolds number may yield unique solutions). Then, in
turn, we explore the features of inviscid and of irrotational flow (Ch. 5), the
small Re limit (Stokes flow in Ch.6), narrow flows (boundary layer family)
in Ch. 8, rotating flows (small Rossby number) in Ch. 10, and linear waves
and stability (Ch. 11); and examine the phenomena responsible for flow sep-
aration and secondary flows (Ch. 9). The balance between depth of coverage
and breadth of ideas is constrained by the 1-semester format: this particular
selection is but one choice among other possibilities.
Many colleagues and students have contributed encouragements and con-
structive criticism. All suggestions were thankfully considered, even if they
were not adopted. There would be more questionable statements about vec-
tor notations and continuum mechanics without Prof. AJ Levy’s input, and
more typographical errors without A Nicolai’s and Y Wang’s patient proof-
reading. I will happily correct any errors introduced since, as I become aware
of them. And the other shortcomings are all mine, I am afraid.
JL
16 CONTENTS