Fluid Dynamics for Engineers

Dominique Thévenin (TEX version) & Gábor Janiga (WWW version)

June 30, 2023

 Copyright c 2009-2022 D. Thévenin & G. Janiga. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or
modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any
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Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the Appendix entitled “GNU Free
Documentation License”.
Contents

Preface 9

List of symbols 11

1 Introduction 17
1.1 Practical importance of fluid dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.2 What is a fluid? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.3 Continuum assumption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.4 Important flow variables and variable-based classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

2 Basic concepts 25
2.1 Mathematical operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.1.1 Gradient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.1.2 Divergence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.1.3 Laplacian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.1.4 Rotor or Curl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.2 Time derivatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.3 Characteristic flow structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.4 Control volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.5 Transport theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

3 Mass conservation 37
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.2 Point of view of physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.3 Point of view of mathematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.4 Integral formulation of mass conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.5 Local formulation of mass conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.5.1 Local formulation of mass conservation in cylindrical coordinates . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.6 Local mass conservation for an incompressible flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

4 Euler equation: conservation of momentum in a non-viscous flow 41

4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.2 Point of view of mathematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.3 Point of view of physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.4 Integral formulation of momentum conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.5 Local formulation of momentum conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.6 Boundary condition for velocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.7 Local momentum conservation for an incompressible flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.8 Integral formulation of angular momentum conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

1
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5 Hydrostatics and Aerostatics 49

5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
5.2 Fundamental equation of hydro- and aerostatics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
5.3 Pressure variation within an incompressible, static fluid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
5.4 Force exerted by an incompressible, static fluid, on a fully immersed body . . . . . . . . . 53
5.5 Force exerted on a partially immersed body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5.6 Stability of a partially immersed body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.7 Aerostatics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.7.1 Pressure variation in an isothermal, ideal gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.7.2 Principle of Archimedes in a gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.8 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

6 Potential flows 67
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
6.2 Potential flow equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
6.3 Potential function and stream function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
6.4 Most important canonical solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
6.5 Example of a direct superposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
6.6 Inverse problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
6.7 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

7 Bernoulli equations and applications 79

7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
7.2 Bernoulli equation for an irrotational flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
7.3 Link with hydrostatics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
7.4 Bernoulli equation (for a rotational flow) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
7.5 The Bernoulli triangle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
7.6 Simplification of the Bernoulli equation for a gas flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
7.7 Dynamic pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
7.8 Averaged Bernoulli equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
7.9 Hydraulic height . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
7.10 Generalized Bernoulli equation with losses and energy exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
7.10.1 Computing the exchanged specific work w . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
7.10.2 Computing the friction loss ef . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
7.10.3 Numerical equations used to estimate the friction factor f . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
7.10.4 Computing a localized loss el . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
7.11 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

8 Force and torque exerted by a flow 97

8.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
8.2 Force exerted by a flow on its surroundings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
8.3 Force exerted by a flow on a pipe wall surrounded by a fluid at constant pressure . . . . . 100
8.4 Torque exerted by a flow on its surroundings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
8.5 Torque exerted by a flow on a pipe wall surrounded by a fluid at constant pressure . . . . 106

9 Movement of a material control volume 109

9.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
9.2 Movement of a material control volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
9.3 Deformation tensor d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
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9.4 Rotation tensor ⌦ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

10 Navier-Stokes equation: conservation of momentum in a viscous flow 117

10.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
10.2 Point of view of mathematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
10.3 Point of view of physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
10.3.1 Pressure component Tp of the stress tensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
10.3.2 Friction component ⌧ of the stress tensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
10.3.3 Solution using the full stress tensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
10.4 Integral formulation of momentum conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
10.5 Local formulation of momentum conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
10.6 Boundary condition for velocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
10.7 Local momentum conservation for an incompressible flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
10.8 Local formulation of momentum conservation for a Newtonian fluid . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
10.9 Local formulation of momentum conservation (incompressible flow, Newtonian fluid) . . . 125
10.9.1 Local formulation of momentum conservation in cylindrical coordinates . . . . . . 126

11 Dimensional analysis and similarity conditions 127

11.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
11.2 Non-dimensional conservation equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
11.2.1 Non-dimensional mass conservation for an incompressible flow . . . . . . . . . . . 129
11.2.2 Non-dimensional momentum conservation (incompressible flow, Newtonian fluid) . 129
11.3 Non-dimensional parameters of Fluid Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
11.3.1 Strouhal number St . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
11.3.2 Froude number Fr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
11.3.3 Euler number Eu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
11.3.4 Reynolds number Re . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
11.3.5 Further non-dimensional parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
11.3.6 Choosing the reference quantities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
11.3.7 Summary: non-dimensional conservation equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
11.4 A faster solution: the ⇧-theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
11.5 Relevant dimensional variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
11.6 Similarity conditions in Fluid Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

12 Boundary layers 139

12.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
12.2 Simplifying the equations by considering orders of magnitudes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
12.3 Blasius solution for the laminar boundary layer at constant pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
12.4 Characteristic thickness parameters of the laminar boundary layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
12.4.1 Thickness (x) of the boundary layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
12.4.2 Displacement thickness ⇤ (x) of the boundary layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
12.4.3 Momentum thickness ✓(x) of the boundary layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
12.5 Wall shear stress ⌧w (x) and friction coefficient Cf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
12.6 Range of validity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
12.6.1 Detachment of the boundary layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
12.6.2 Transition to turbulence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
12.7 Turbulent boundary layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
12.7.1 Laminar sublayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
12.7.2 Bu↵er sublayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
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12.7.3 Logarithmic sublayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

12.7.4 External sublayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
12.7.5 Thickness of the turbulent boundary layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
12.7.6 Wall shear stress ⌧w (x) and friction coefficient Cf in a turbulent boundary layer . 165
12.8 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

13 One-dimensional isentropic compressible flows 167

13.1 Introduction and hypotheses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
13.2 Generic relations, also valid for a real gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
13.2.1 Conservation equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
13.2.2 What is a compressible gas flow? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
13.2.3 Influence of a modification of the cross-section A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
13.2.4 Critical conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
13.2.5 Laval nozzle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
13.3 Specific relations for a compressible flow of a perfect gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
13.3.1 What is a perfect gas? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
13.3.2 Isentropic relations for a perfect gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
13.3.3 Speed of sound for a perfect gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
13.3.4 Analytical solution for a compressible flow of a perfect gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
13.3.5 Critical conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
13.3.6 Solution procedure and remaining difficulties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
13.3.7 Minimal stagnation pressure for a properly working Laval-nozzle . . . . . . . . . . 185
13.3.8 Tables for compressible flows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
13.3.9 Solution using the critical Mach number M⇤ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
13.3.10 Discharge velocity vd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
13.4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

14 Compressible flows with friction and heat exchange 191

14.1 Introduction and hypotheses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
14.2 Generic relations, also valid for a real gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
14.2.1 Conservation equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
14.2.2 Generalized equation of Hugoniot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
14.2.3 Pressure variation for a constant flow cross-section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
14.3 Influence of heat exchange in a perfect gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
14.3.1 Mass conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
14.3.2 Conservation of momentum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
14.3.3 Energy conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
14.3.4 Solution procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
14.3.5 Flow modifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
14.3.6 Thermal choking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
14.4 Influence of friction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
14.4.1 Mass conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
14.4.2 Conservation of momentum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
14.4.3 Energy conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
14.4.4 Qualitative analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
14.4.5 Quantitative solution procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
14.4.6 Flow modifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
14.5 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
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15 Shock waves 213

15.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
15.2 Normal shock wave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
15.2.1 Considered configuration and hypotheses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
15.2.2 Conservation equations for a real gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
15.2.3 Conservation equations for a perfect gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
15.2.4 Jump relations involving M1 and M2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
15.2.5 Relation between the Mach numbers upstream and downstream of the normal shock216
15.2.6 Jump relations involving only the upstream Mach number M1 . . . . . . . . . . . 218
15.2.7 Necessary condition on M1 for the existence of a shock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
15.2.8 Shock relation of Prandtl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
15.2.9 Summary: evolution of all quantities through a normal shock . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
15.2.10 Normal shock tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
15.2.11 Solution and graphical representation using the critical Mach number . . . . . . . 225
15.2.12 Relation of Rankine-Hugoniot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
15.2.13 Rayleigh line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
15.2.14 Propagating shock waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
15.3 Why shock waves? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
15.4 Oblique shock wave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
15.4.1 Conservation equations for a real gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
15.4.2 Conservation equations for a perfect gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
15.4.3 Jump relations involving the upstream Mach number M1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
15.4.4 Summary: evolution of all quantities through an oblique shock . . . . . . . . . . . 239
15.4.5 Using the shock tables for an oblique shock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
15.4.6 Determining the shock angle " . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
15.4.7 Mach angle and Mach wave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
15.5 Polar curve and Busemann diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
15.6 Boundary conditions and shock reflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
15.7 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

16 Rarefaction waves 249

16.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
16.2 Characteristic lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
16.3 Mathematical derivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
16.4 Rarefaction wave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
16.5 Maximum possible deviation of a supersonic flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
16.6 Expansion fan of Prandtl-Meyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
16.7 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

17 Introduction to turbulence 261

17.1 Turbulence: complexity and importance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
17.2 A first taste of turbulence: the experiment of Reynolds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
17.3 Qualitative properties of turbulent flows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

A Basic concepts and keywords of fluid dynamics 265

A.1 Archimedes number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
A.2 Cavitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
A.3 Compressible flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
A.4 Compressible fluid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
6

A.5 Conservative force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

A.6 Contact force vs. non-contact force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
A.7 Hydraulic diameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
A.8 Incompressible flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
A.9 Incompressible fluid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
A.10 Internal flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
A.11 Irrotational flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
A.12 Laminar flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
A.13 Mach number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
A.14 Multiphase flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
A.15 Newtonian fluid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
A.16 Non-Newtonian fluid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
A.17 Non-viscous or viscous flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
A.18 One-dimensional flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
A.19 Open channel flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
A.20 Potential flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
A.21 Quasi-steady flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
A.22 Speed of sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
A.23 Standard coordinate system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
A.24 Steady flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
A.25 Stress in a fluid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
A.26 Subsonic flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
A.27 Supersonic flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
A.28 Turbulent flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
A.29 Unsteady flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
A.30 vena contracta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
A.31 Viscosity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

B Basic thermodynamic concepts needed for fluid dynamics 277

B.1 Adiabatic process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
B.2 Barotropic state . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
B.3 Enthalpy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
B.4 Entropy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
B.5 Gas constant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
B.6 Heat capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
B.7 Heat capacity ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
B.8 Ideal gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
B.9 Isentropic transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
B.10 Isobaric transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
B.11 Isochoric transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
B.12 Isothermal transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
B.13 Perfect gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
B.14 Polytropic process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
B.15 Prandtl number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
B.16 Real gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
B.17 Reversible process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
B.18 Specific quantity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
B.19 Standard thermodynamic conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
B.20 Thermal conductivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
 7

C Basic mathematical concepts needed for fluid dynamics 283

C.1 Angular relations in a right triangle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
C.2 Conic curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
C.3 Divergence theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
C.4 Logarithmic di↵erential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
C.5 Partial derivative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
C.6 Scalar product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
C.7 Summation convention of Einstein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
C.8 Surfaces and volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
C.8.1 Circle or disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
C.8.2 Sphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
C.8.3 Cylinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
C.8.4 Cone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
C.9 Taylor expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
C.10 Tensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
C.11 Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
C.12 Vector product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

D A selection of important scientists 289

D.1 Archimedes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
D.2 Amedeo Avogadro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
D.3 Daniel Bernoulli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
D.4 Blasius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
D.5 Ludwig Boltzmann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
D.6 Edgar Buckingham . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
D.7 Adolf Busemann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
D.8 Henry Darcy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
D.9 Leonard Euler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
D.10 Richard Feynman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
D.11 William Froude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
D.12 Galileo Galilei . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
D.13 Carl Friedrich Gauß . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
D.14 George Green . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
D.15 Otto von Guericke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
D.16 Pierre Henri Hugoniot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
D.17 Martin Knudsen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
D.18 Gustaf de Laval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
D.19 Joseph Louis Lagrange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
D.20 Horace Lamb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
D.21 Pierre-Simon de Laplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
D.22 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
D.23 Leonardo da Vinci . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
D.24 Ernst Mach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
D.25 Julius Robert von Mayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
D.26 Claude Louis Marie Henri Navier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
D.27 Isaac Newton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
D.28 Mikhail Vasilievich Ostrogradsky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
D.29 Blaise Pascal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
D.30 Ludwig Prandtl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
8

D.31 William Rankine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

D.32 Baron Rayleigh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
D.33 Osborne Reynolds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
D.34 George Gabriel Stokes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
D.35 Vincenc Strouhal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
D.36 Aimé Vaschy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
D.37 Theodore von Kármán . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
D.38 Julius Weisbach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

E Application table for subsonic compressible flows 293

F Application table for supersonic flows, shock waves and rarefaction waves 297

Bibliography 327

G GNU Free Documentation License 329

1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
2. VERBATIM COPYING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
3. COPYING IN QUANTITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
4. MODIFICATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
8. TRANSLATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
9. TERMINATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
11. RELICENSING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Preface

This digital book has been written over many years, the first chapter having been released in Magdeburg
already in 2007. It has been primarily developed as a support of the corresponding lectures given by
the main author, Dominique Thévenin, at the University of Magdeburg “Otto von Guericke” since 2002.
Most of the chapters dealing with compressible flows had been already published as a paper document
(in French!) at the end of the nineties, as D. Thévenin was still teaching at the Ecole Centrale Paris.
Let me thank here Prof. Sébastien Candel: under his kind supervision, I finally learned (I believe!)
what is Fluid Dynamics. . . I would very much recommend the reading of his book [Can90] to all those
who can understand French.
Thomas Hagemeier and Katharina Zähringer have been the main proofreaders of the book. Sethu-
raman Ramalingam helped writing some of the equations included in this document. Many colleagues
and researchers of my group have contributed beautiful images to illustrate the main concepts of Fluid
Dynamics. Many thanks to all of you!
Finally, let me thank also the developers of TEX, later LATEX: without this wonderful tool, I would
never have been able to find enough time for writing this document.

Magdeburg, March 2022

For the authors,

Dominique Thévenin

9
10

Free image by Hebi B. from Pixabay.

List of symbols

You will find here a unified and complete description of all notations and symbols used in the present
document.

Writing conventions
• Note that, throughout this document, bold symbolds (for example v) correspond to vector vari-
ables, while associated standard symbols (for example v) denote a scalar quantity. Tensors (to
be exact, second-order tensor fields) will be written with a so-called “Sans Serif” police, like for
example in ⌧ .

• Concerning thermodynamic properties, we will stick to the classical convention stating that low-
ercase symbols correspond to specific quantities (i.e., per unit mass).

• The summation convention of Einstein will be used every time it is applicable. Thus, repeated
identical indices in a term must be interpreted as a summation over all possible values.

Symbol Signification
constant constant value
constant>0 strictly positive constant value
:= definition
⇡ approximately equal to
⌘ same order of magnitude as
/ proportional to
⇥ vector product
· scalar product
[ adding surfaces or volumes
r nabla (fixed unit: 1/m)
[ ] unit of the variable
(R ) for a constant value of
RR
line (one-dimensional) integral
RRR
surface (two-dimensional) integral
volume (three-dimensional) integral

11
12

Lowercase latin symbols

Symbol Signification Unit

c speed of sound m/s
cp specific heat capacity at constant pressure J/(kg.K)
cv specific heat capacity at constant volume J/(kg.K)
d diameter m
dh hydraulic diameter m
d deformation tensor components in 1/s
e specific internal energy J/kg
e loss of specific energy J/kg
ex , ey , ez unit vectors associated to directions x, y, z -
f friction factor -
g gravity acceleration vector components in m/s2
h specific enthapy J/kg
kB Boltzmann constant, kB := 1.38 10 23 J/K
kvk Karman constant -
l length m
ṁ mass flow-rate kg/s
n unit vector normal to a given fluid-containing -
surface, pointing toward outside
n polytropic exponent -
p pressure Pa
p pressure head loss Pa
q dynamic pressure Pa
q̇ volumetric flow-rate m3 /s
r := R/W specific gas constant J/(kg.K)
r distance from origin for cylindrical coordinates m
s unit vector tangential to the local fluid velocity -
s specific entropy J/kg
t time s
t stress components in Pa
v velocity vector components in m/s
v magnitude of velocity vector, v :=k v k m/s
vd discharge velocity m/s
v1 , v2 , v3
or vx , vy , vz
or u, v, w components of velocity vector m/s
w velocity of control volume components in m/s
w specific work J/kg
x position vector components in m
x or x1 first spatial coordinate m
y or x2 second spatial coordinate m
z or x3 third spatial coordinate m
z elevation head loss m
 List of symbols 13

Uppercase latin symbols

Symbol Signification Unit

A surface area m2
A geometric surface, outer surface -
Cvc contraction ratio for vena contracta -
D dipole intensity m3 /s
F force N
F impulsion N
G unspecified mathematical function -
H total height, hydraulic head m
I identity matrix -
K loss coefficient -
L typical dimension of a profile m
M mass kg
M shock Mach number -
23
NA Avogadro constant, NA := 6.02 10 1/mol
P momentum (product mass⇥velocity) kg.m/s
Pw wetted perimeter (fluid/wall contact length) m
P power W
Q source or sink intensity m2 /s
R universal gas constant R = 8.314 J/(mol.K)
T temperature K
T torque N.m
T generic stress tensor components in Pa
U, V typical velocity components in boundary layer m/s
V volume m3
V three-dimensional body -
Vc control volume -
W molar mass of a gas kg/mol
X starting position (Lagrangian system) components in m

Uppercase greek symbols

Symbol Signification Unit

circulation m2 /s
Propagation speed of a normal shock in a quiescent atmosphere m/s
' Range of variation of ' depends
⇤ mean free path of fluid particles m
⇧ pressure jump through shock -
potential function m2 /s
stream function m2 /s
⌦ rotation vector components in 1/s
⌦ rotation tensor components in 1/s
14

Lowercase greek symbols

Symbol Signification Unit

↵ thermal di↵usivity (or thermal di↵usion coefficient)
⇣ ⌘ m2 /s
@⇢
↵p isobaric thermal expansion coefficient, ↵p := ⇢1 @T 1/K
⇣ ⌘ p
@⇢
T isothermal compressibility coefficient, T := ⇢1 @p T
1/Pa
heat capacity ratio -
deflection angle
(x) local thickness of boundary layer m
typical thickness of boundary layer m
⇤
(x) displacement thickness of boundary layer m
✏ wall roughness height m
" shock angle
⌘ efficiency of a conversion process, ⌘  1 -
✓ polar angle for cylindrical coordinates rad
✓(x) momentum thickness of boundary layer m
thermal conductivity W/(m.K)
µ viscosity (or dynamic viscosity) kg/(m.s) or Pa.s
µM Mach angle
⌫ kinematic viscosity, ⌫ := µ/⇢ m2 /s
⌫PM angle of Prandtl-Meyer
⇢ density kg/m3
stress tensor components in Pa
⌧ friction tensor components in Pa
⌧w wall shear stress Pa
angle of local velocity vs. main flow direction
' unspecified variable (depends)

Non-dimensional numbers
Symbol Name Describes
Ar Archimedes number influence of buoyancy
Eu Euler number influence of pressure (variation)
Fr Froude number influence of gravity
Kn Knudsen number continuum assumption
Ma= M := v/c Mach number compressibility e↵ects
Pr Prandtl number momentum di↵usivity vs. thermal di↵usivity
Re Reynolds number turbulence and viscosity e↵ects
Res Reynolds number
based on length-scale s turbulence and viscosity e↵ects
St Strouhal number unsteady e↵ects
 List of symbols 15

Indices
Symbol Signification
⇤ critical condition
? non-dimensional value
• reference value
0 isentropic stagnation value
1 inflow condition
2 outflow condition
1 condition found far upstream
a related to air, to the atmosphere
b related to a body
e external limit of boundary layer
f related to a fluid
g related to gravity
gas related to gas
i inflow condition
liq related to liquid
o nozzle outflow condition
p related to pressure

Unit conversions
Conversion For
1 atm := 101 325 Pa pressure
1 bar := 100 000 Pa pressure
1 centiPoise := 0.01 Poise dynamic viscosity
(or 1 cP)
0 C := 273.15 K temperature
1 mole := 6.02 1023 molecules -
1 Poise := 0.1 Pa.s dynamic viscosity
16

horizontal cut

vertical cut

Computation of the exhalation flow at the level of the larynx for a patient-specific geometry by Direct
Numerical Simulation. Result of a collaboration with Christoph Arens, Medical Faculty Magdeburg;
simulations by Abouelmagd Abdelsamie and Samuel Voß.
Chapter 1

Introduction

This chapter describes a few basic issues associated with fluid dynamics. Note that the concepts listed
alphabetically in the appendices might also be useful at this level, in particular for already experienced
readers.

1.1 Practical importance of fluid dynamics

Fluid dynamics is essential for so many applications that it is impossible to list all of them here. It
describes for example atmospheric behavior (weather forecast), is a key element for many environmental
and security issues (floods, typhoons, explosions. . . ), is central for all transportation systems (from cars
to aircrafts and spaceplanes) as well as energy production (internal combustion engines, turbomachines
like gas turbines and wind turbines, cooling of nuclear power plants, pollutant emissions in coal-firing
power plants. . . ).
For a start, a detailed visit of the reference Web-site called Efluids is probably the best idea. You
will find in particular there a large collection of impressive photographs illustrating many aspects of
Fluid Dynamics. As a complementary source of information, the application Web-site of the commercial
software ANSYS-Fluent is also describing many actual problems of Fluid Dynamics, that might be
solved by numerical simulation.

1.2 What is a fluid?

Per definition, a fluid is a substance that continuously deforms when a certain stress (i.e., force per unit
surface) is applied parallel to its surface (a so-called shear stress or shear force). The fluid does not come
back to its original form after disappearance of the stress (at the di↵erence of the elastic deformation of
a solid, for example).
A pure fluid can be either a liquid or a gas. A real, complex fluid might also involve a mixture of a
liquid and gas phase (e.g., in a bubble column), possibly containing also some amount of solid particles
(suspensions). The di↵erence between a gas and a liquid is that surface tension will play an important
role at the free surface of a liquid, while a gas will always occupy all the available volume, without
apparition of a free surface.
All gases are fluids. For liquids, the situation is somewhat more complex. Liquids with a simple
behavior, which will be defined later as Newtonian, are obviously fluids: in this case, there is a linear
relation between applied shear stress and liquid deformation and the corresponding straight line goes
through the origin (0, 0).
Non-Newtonian liquids might behave in a much more complex way. In particular, such liquids might
be able to withstand shear stress without deformation up to a certain level. They therefore constitute

17
18 Chapter 1. Introduction

Figure 1.1: A few examples of important problems and applications involving Fluid Dynamics. All
photos from FreeFoto, apart hurricane from Wikimedia Commons.

a link between liquids and solids. Nevertheless, the threshold associated with the onset of deformation
is usually quite low, much below the corresponding threshold for a solid (limit of plastic deformation).
Therefore, the di↵erence between such a liquid (fluid) and a solid (non-fluid) is still appearent.
Note, however, that the separation between a fluid and a solid might still be a subject of controversy
for some “exotic” cases. This is in particular the case for amorphous solids (like glass, which is claimed
to be able to flow under certain circumstances), for plasmas (a very special state of matter), or for some
polymer products. A funny video illustrating the unusual possibilities associated with Non-Newtonian
liquids can be found for instance under Efluids!

1.3 Continuum assumption

Any fluid (liquid or gas) is constituted by individual molecules. Therefore, it would be in principle
possible to describe the state and movement of this fluid by considering the individual movements of
all molecules together with their mutual interactions and by finally summing up all individual con-
tributions. This is indeed realizable in practice, at least for some simple conditions; but this is not
what is called Fluid Dynamics, and will therefore not be considered further in the present document.
Researchers working at molecular level deal with a (very interesting) part of science called “Statistical
Mechanics”(or Statistical Physics), founded by Boltzmann. Even if this approach is very interesting,
and sometimes the only possible way, it is much too difficult and cumbersome for many practical applica-
tions: billions of individual molecules must be considered before obtaining the resulting flow conditions
at (our) macroscopic scale.
Therefore, Fluid Dynamics do not consider individual molecules in a fluid. Instead, the so-called
3 Continuum assumption 19

Continuum Assumption is employed. This means that, from the point of view of Fluid Dynamics, there
are no “molecular bricks” and no “holes” within a fluid: it is a continuum state of matter; all flow
variables can be defined at any point within this fluid.
How is it possible to move from physical reality (existence of well-seperated molecules at a very small
scale) to the Continuum Assumption? Simply by a specific averaging process in space! This means in
practice that, from the point of view of Fluid Dynamics, a “point” is associated with a finite volume, at
the di↵erence of the rigorous, mathematical definition of a point (infinitely small, volume is necessarily
zero). A point for Fluid Dynamics, which will be called more usually a fluid element, is associated with
a volume Vc , very very small but nevertheless verifying Vc > 0! Indeed, the volume is chosen in such
a manner that a huge quantity of individual molecules are always contained within this volume. In
this manner, it is possible to “smooth out” the fast and chaotic variations associated with individual
molecules, and to obtain macroscopic fluid properties like density, pressure, temperature or velocity.
This is illustrated in figure 1.2, where the correct definition of local density ⇢ in the framework
of Fluid Dynamics is considered for the convective flow above a candle. In a thought experiment, a
control volume of varying extent is centered around a fixed point P. The corresponding volume V is
measured together with the mass of the fluid contained within V , written M . The ratio M/ V
is expressed in kg/m3 and would be suitable to define the local fluid density. Now, the macroscopic size
of the control volume influences of course our “measure” of density, M/ V . If the control volume
is too large, very inhomogeneous flow conditions are found within the control volume. Cold air from
the surroundings is found within V together with hot air from the candle plume. As a consequence,
the resulting “measured density” at point P varies with V : this is obviously not acceptable. On the
other hand, if V is chosen to be extremely small (near molecular scale), then it will contain only very
few molecules. Repeating the experiment several times with the same control volume, one would get
perhaps once 6 molecules, once 3, once 9 within V . The corresponding “measured density” would
therefore appear to be di↵erent for each measure. This is again not acceptable! Fortunately, there is
a (in fact relatively large) region in-between, where a plateau would be found experimentally for our
“measured density”: this is where Fluid Dynamics is applied. This plateau extends down to a lower size
limit Vc , used from now on to delineate the continuum regime.
Let us further illustrate this point by considering air under standard thermodynamic conditions and
assuming that the volume Vc of a fluid element is typically (1µm)3 , the volume Vc being in this case
considered as a cube with a side length of 1 µm; clearly, this is extremely small compared to the human
scale! But what about molecules? Air being an ideal gas, it is one basic property that 1 mol (containing
6.02 1023 molecules, the Avogadro constant) will occupy roughly a volume of 22.4 dm3 (or liter) under
such conditions. By a simple proportionality rule, we obtain that the volume Vc contains roughly 27
millions of molecules! This is obviously sufficient, by averaging over all the individual properties of the
molecules, to obtain a “smooth” value for all needed fluid properties at macroscopic scale.
Obviously, the Continuum Assumption means also that Fluid Dynamics cannot describe accurately
e↵ects that take place below the associated scale: microscopic e↵ects must be described appropriately by
adding corresponding models to the equation.
Furthermore, the appropriate volume Vc of a fluid element will depend on the local flow conditions.
For example, when considering the upper atmosphere (a very diluted gas, corresponding to an extremely
low density), a volume Vc of several cubic meters or even more will be required to accumulate a sufficient
number of molecules. In order to define in a rigorous manner the boundary defining the validity of Fluid
Dynamics concepts, the Knudsen number is introduced. This is one major non-dimensional number
associated with Fluid Dynamics, and is defined as:
⇤
Kn := (1.1)
L
where ⇤ is the mean free path of the fluid particles (i.e., the mean travel distance of a molecule between
20 Chapter 1. Introduction

Control volume
Control volume: too large:
•Mass ΔM Control volume
non-homogeneous
conditions!
•Volume ΔV too small:
molecular effects!

P ΔM
ΔV density ρ

Continuum
approximation: validity of
Fluid Dynamics!

Vc ΔV

Figure 1.2: Defining in a thought experiment the fluid density ⇢ at a point P within a candle plume
using a control volume of varying size.

two collisions with another molecule) deduced from the kinetic theory and L is a characteristic (macro-
scopic) length scale of the considered flow. The mean free path can be computed for an ideal gas using
following equation:
kB T
⇤= p (1.2)
2⇡d2 p
where all variables are standard and defined in the Nomenclature; in particular, kB is the Boltzmann
constant and d is the collision diameter of the considered gas particles.
Fluid Dynamics deal with problems corresponding to Kn⌧ 1, sometimes up to Kn< 1, while statisti-
cal physics must be employed if Kn 1; in the latter case, the typical scale of the problem is comparable
with the mean free path, so that individual particle movements at the molecular scale must be taken
into account.

1.4 Important flow variables and variable-based classification

In order to understand fluid dynamics and classify di↵erent applications, it is useful to understand what
are the variables really needed to describe the local, instantaneous state of a fluid. In this document,
we will employ following variables, by decreasing order of importance:

• the fluid pressure p,

4 Important flow variables and variable-based classification 21

Figure 1.3: Spaceship just before landing (left) or at the beginning of atmospheric re-entry (right). The
left picture corresponds to a problem solvable by Fluid Dynamics (mean free path much below typical
flow scale). The right picture corresponds to a problem solvable by Statistical Physics (mean free path
roughly equal to typical flow scale, the black points representing gas molecules).

• the fluid velocity v,

• the fluid density ⇢,

• and a variable describing the internal energy of the fluid, either in the form of the specific enthalpy
h or of the temperature T .

The fluid pressure p is the normal stress component within a fluid. It is a scalar quantity, since
pressure in a fluid is isotropic and thus acting equally in all directions. It is expressed in Pascal (Pa).
The fluid velocity v is the ratio between the total momentum and the total mass of a fluid element,
such as defined in Section 1.3. It is therefore expressed in m/s.
The fluid density ⇢ is the ratio between the total mass and the total volume of a fluid element, such
as defined in Section 1.3. It is therefore expressed in kg/m3 .
The fluid specific enthalpy h is related to the fluid specific internal energy e by the fundamental
relation
p
h := e + (1.3)
⇢
Temperature T (expressed in Kelvin, K) is a thermodynamic notion, which is directly connected to the
specific internal energy e of the considered fluid.
It is now possible to classify the di↵erent applications we will consider in this document by looking at
the important variables for this case. We will begin applications by considering in Chapter 5 Hydrostatics
and Aerostatics, i.e. “non-flowing flows”. In the case of Hydrostatics, only the fluid pressure p will be
variable, all other variables being constant. For aerostatics, pressure, density and temperature will
vary, while velocity will still be constant and equal to zero. After that, we will consider the Bernoulli
equation. In that case, we will consider only incompressible flows, and only pressure p and velocity
v will be important. When considering the forces induced by a fluid, or the Navier-Stokes equations,
all three variables, p, v and ⇢ will be considered variable. Finally, for the most complex applications
(compressible flows), all variables introduced previously will really vary. The situation is summarized
in table 1.1 and in figure 1.4.
22 Chapter 1. Introduction

Application Important variables Complexity level

Hydrostatics p Very low
Aerostatics p (and ⇢, T through thermodynamic relations) Low
Incompressible flow p, v Intermediate
Forces exerted by fluids p, v, ⇢ Intermediate
Generic Navier-Stokes p, v, ⇢ High
Compressible flow p, v, ⇢, h (or T ) High

Table 1.1: Important flow variables for di↵erent domains of application with a growing level of complexity

pa pressure
0

depth

ity
c omplex
problem

Figure 1.4: Two flow problems at a very di↵erent complexity level, from the hydrostatic pressure
distribution in a water volume at rest (photo from FreeFoto) to a starting space rocket of type Ariane
5 (photo from Arianespace).

Considering a flow perpendicular to a given cross-section A associated with an area A, the flow
velocity v (of magnitude v) and fluid density ⇢ introduced previously can be readily combined to
compute the mass flow-rate ṁ, expressed in kg/s through:

ṁ := ⇢vA (1.4)

Similarly, they can be employed to compute the volumetric flow-rate q̇, expressed in m3 /s through:

q̇ := vA (1.5)
 23

There is obviously a direct link between both flow-rates:

ṁ = ⇢q̇ (1.6)
24

Flow pathlines within the patient-specific geometry of a cerebral aneurysm after treatment by a flow
diverter (shown in purple), as obtained by Computational Fluid Dynamics. Result of a collaboration
with Martin Skalej and Oliver Beuing, Medical Faculty Magdeburg; simulations by Philipp Berg and
Gábor Janiga.
Chapter 2

Basic concepts

This chapter describes some basic concepts of Fluid Dynamics that will be used throughout this docu-
ment. Note that a much more complete list of useful concepts organized alphabetically is also proposed
in Appendix A.

2.1 Mathematical operators

In Fluid Dynamics, di↵erent mathematical operators will be used very often to compute important
flow quantities and to write corresponding conservation equations. All these operators employ partial
derivatives. The most important ones are introduced now. They are illustrated by applying them
for analyzing a turbulent non-premixed hydrogen flame computed in our research group using Direct
Numerical Simulations (figure 2.1).

−3 Velocity field (vector plot)

x 10
8

5
Y [m]

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
X [m] −3
x 10

Figure 2.1: Instantaneous structure of a mildly turbulent non-premixed flame computed using Direct
Numerical Simulations by Gordon Fru. Left: density; right: velocity vectors.

2.1.1 Gradient
In Fluid Dynamics, the gradient will be introduced to quantify the variation of a function in space.
Typically, the gradient operates on a scalar quantity ' and delivers a vector quantity, written grad(')

25
26 Chapter 2. Basic concepts

or more often r', defined as

!
@' @' @'
r' := , , (2.1)
@x @y @z

By computing the gradient of a scalar quantity (figure 2.2), one obtains a vector field. By plotting this
vector field, one gets directly a very good feeling concerning the spatial evolution of ': the resulting
vectors show the direction of fastest changes of '; the magnitude of these vectors tells us how fast these
changes are.

−3 Gradient of density field

x 10
8

Y [m]
4

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
X [m] −3
x 10

Figure 2.2: Instantaneous structure of a mildly turbulent non-premixed flame computed using Direct
Numerical Simulations by Gordon Fru. Left: density; right: gradient of density.

Later, we will also consider gradients of a vector quantity, resulting in a tensor.

Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

2.1.2 Divergence
In Fluid Dynamics, the divergence will be mostly introduced to determine if vectors tend to “diverge”
(pointing in various directions starting from a common origin) or to “converge” (pointing onto the same
point starting from di↵erent origins). Mostly, we will compute the divergence of the flow velocity, the
vector quantity v, and we will obtain its divergence, a scalar quantity written div(v) or more often r · v,
and defined as
@vx @vy @vz
r · v := + + (2.2)
@x @y @z

The divergence of the flow velocity (figure 2.3) is particularly interesting, since we will demonstrate later
that, for an incompressible flow local mass conservation can be simply written r · v = 0.
Later, we will also consider the divergence of a tensor, resulting in a vector. This is simply the
result obtained when considering each line of the tensor (containing three components) as a vector and
computing the divergence as usual. Thus, each line leads to a scalar value (divergence of a vector).
Combining these 3 scalars, a vector is obtained as a final result.
One fundamental relation associated with the divergence reads, when considering the product of a
scalar ' with a vector ':
r · ('') = 'r · ' + '.r' (2.3)
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.
1 Mathematical operators 27

−3 Velocity field (vector plot)

x 10
8

5
Y [m]

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
X [m] −3
x 10

Figure 2.3: Instantaneous structure of a mildly turbulent non-premixed flame computed using Direct
Numerical Simulations by Gordon Fru. Left: velocity; right: divergence of velocity.

2.1.3 Laplacian
In Fluid Dynamics, the Laplace operator or Laplacian will be mostly introduced to quantify di↵usion
processes, in particular di↵usive transport of momentum. The Laplacian (figure 2.4) acts mostly on a
scalar quantity ' and delivers again a scalar quantity, written ' or more often r2 ', and defined as

@ 2' @ 2' @ 2'

r2 ' := + 2 + 2 (2.4)
@x2 @y @z

As can be seen, the Laplacian relies on the second partial derivatives in space, at the di↵erence of all
other operators, employing only the first partial derivatives.

Figure 2.4: Instantaneous structure of a mildly turbulent non-premixed flame computed using Direct
Numerical Simulations by Gordon Fru. Left: density; right: Laplacian of density.

Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

28 Chapter 2. Basic concepts

2.1.4 Rotor or Curl

In Fluid Dynamics, the rotor operator (very often called curl) will be mostly introduced to quantify the
importance of vortical structures in a flow. For this purpose, we will usually compute the curl of the
flow velocity, the vector quantity v, and we will obtain another vector quantity written rot(v) or more
often r ⇥ v, and defined as
!
@vz @vy @vx @vz @vy @vx
r ⇥ v := , , (2.5)
@y @z @z @x @x @y

The curl of the flow velocity (figure 2.5) is particularly interesting, since we will demonstrate later that
an irrotational flow, i.e., a flow verifying r ⇥ v = 0 is always particularly simple.
Note that, in a purely two-dimensional flow involving only directions x and y (no z-direction), the
two first components of the curl given by Eq. (2.5) cannot be computed at all, since all the terms
involve the (non-existing) direction z. Only the third component remains. In that sense, the curl in a
two-dimensional flow can also be defined as a single scalar quantity:
@vy @vx
! := (2.6)
@x @y
Hence, a two-dimensional irrotational flow verifies ! = 0.
−3 Velocity field (vector plot)
x 10
8

5
Y [m]

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
X [m] −3
x 10

Figure 2.5: Instantaneous structure of a mildly turbulent non-premixed flame computed using Direct
Numerical Simulations by Gordon Fru. Left: velocity; right: curl of velocity.

In order to quantify rotation, we introduce also the rotation vector ⌦ defined as:
1
⌦ := r ⇥ v (2.7)
2
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

2.2 Time derivatives

One quite unique feature of Fluid Dynamics is that two di↵erent and equally useful time derivatives
will be introduced. They can be traced back to two very important contributors to this field of science,
Euler and Lagrange. The basic idea of both time derivatives is illustrated in figure 2.6.
These two scientists defended a very di↵erent view concerning the most suitable time derivative in
a flow:
2 Time derivatives 29

p
Eulerian (at point M)
(or classical)
time derivative
time t

M
p
(at different points along pathline –
including M)

time t
Lagrangian
(or material)
time derivative

Figure 2.6: Comparison between the Eulerian (or classical) time derivative and its Lagrangian (or
material) counterpart concerning the time derivative of pressure p at a given point M along a flow
pathline.

• For Euler, a flow is nothing special, so that the time derivative should be defined there as for
any other field of physics. Therefore, the observer is “sitting” at a fixed position x within the
fluid (point M in figure 2.6), measures there the evolution of some interesting quantity with time,
and just computes the time derivative by deriving the resulting curve. This is just the standard
partial derivative in time at position x! It will therefore be written as usual. The (Eulerian) time
derivative of a variable ' is simply written
!
@'
(2.8)
@t x=constant

or simply
@'
(2.9)
@t
• For Lagrange, the key property of a flow is that. . . it flows! Therefore, Lagrange chooses an observer
moving with the flow, and therefore behaving himself like a fluid element. While moving with the
flow, this observer again measures the evolution of some interesting quantity with time, and now
computes the time derivative by deriving the resulting curve. It is probably obvious for you that
the resulting time derivative at the same position (again, point M in figure 2.6) and even at the
same time will nevertheless usually not be the same, since the frame of reference is di↵erent!
Therefore, this alternative definition of the time derivative will be written di↵erently, as
D'
(2.10)
Dt
30 Chapter 2. Basic concepts

This time derivative is called either Lagrangian time derivative, substantial time derivative or
total time derivative. For this approach, the important point is not the current position of the
fluid element, point x, but its origin at the beginning of the observation, point X in space. As a
consequence, one can also state that, for a Lagrangian observer, the time derivative is computed
for a fixed origin of the movement, point X. This is expressed by following equivalence:
!
D' @'
= (2.11)
Dt @t X=constant

• Even if both definitions (and therefore both derivatives) di↵er, it is nevertheless possible to relate
both results by using the flow velocity v. It is first clear that the local, instantaneous flow velocity
v at point x is nothing else that the time derivative of its position following the flow, as usual:
!
@x
v= (2.12)
@t X=constant

Let us now consider an arbitrary function ' of space and time. This function might represent
equally well a scalar quantity, a vector or a tensor, even if it is written as a scalar for the following
proof. This arbitrary function can be equally well represented in an Eulerian frame, ' = '(x, t)
and in a Lagrangian frame, ' = '(X, t). For the same time t and the same instantaneous position,
both values are of course identical. For such conditions, where Euler and Lagrange meet at the
same point, one can therefore write:
'(x, t) = '(X, t) (2.13)
Let us now compute the Lagrangian derivative of this arbitrary function:
!
D' @'
= (2.14)
Dt @t X=constant
!
@'(x, t)
= (2.15)
@t X

The corresponding derivative is computed while the observer is moving with the flow, thus along
a trajectory x(X, t) with X = constant. Hence
!
D' @'(x1 (X, t), x2 (X, t), x3 (X, t), t)
= (2.16)
Dt @t X
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
@' @x1 (X, t) @' @x2 (X, t) @' @x3 (X, t) @' @t
= + + +
@x1 x
@t X
@x2 x
@t X
@x3 x
@t X
@t x
@t X

Taking into account Eq.(2.12), one obtains now directly:

D' @' @' @' @'
= v1 + v2 + v3 + 1 (2.17)
Dt @x1 @x2 @x3 @t
Reordering the right-hand side, the corresponding, very important relation reads finally:

D' @'
= + (v · r)' (2.18)
Dt @t
or in a longer, but equivalent manner:

D' @' @' @' @'

= + vx + vy + vz (2.19)
Dt @t @x @y @z
3 Characteristic flow structures 31

It is easy to demonstrate mathematically that the last term in Eq.(2.18), i.e., the convective term
can be replaced by introducing a gradient and a curl. For example, considering the flow velocity v, it
comes: !
v2
(v · r)v = r + [(r ⇥ v) ⇥ v] (2.20)
2
We will use this relation later in Chapter 7.

2.3 Characteristic flow structures

Three di↵erent characteristic lines will be often used to characterize and analyze the flow structures.
• A streamline is a line that is at any point tangent to the local flow velocity v(t). It is quite easy
to draw a streamline by hand on top of a plotted field of instantaneous velocity v(t) (figure 2.7).

Figure 2.7: Streamlines (blue) computed by post-processing two-dimensional velocity fields measured by
Nico Krause and Elemér Pap using Particle Image Velocimetry in the rotating impeller of a centrifugal
pump.

The mathematical definition of a streamline relies on the fact that the vector product between two
collinear (i.e. “tangential”) vectors is 0. Therefore, if xs defines the geometry of the streamline in
space, its computation is based on integrating the di↵erential relation:
dxs ⇥ v(xs , t) = 0 (2.21)
starting from some chosen position xs0 . This relation simply states that the displacement along
the streamline is tangent to the local instantaneous flow velocity v(xs , t). Component-wise, this
di↵erential relation can be written as well under the form of three scalar relations:
vz (xs , t)dys vy (xs , t)dzs = 0 (2.22)
vx (xs , t)dzs vz (xs , t)dxs = 0 (2.23)
vy (xs , t)dxs vx (xs , t)dys = 0 (2.24)
32 Chapter 2. Basic concepts

A streamline is first an instantaneous concept. For any fixed time t, we can obtain a full set of
streamlines. Now, it is of course possible to compute the resulting streamlines for successive time
values and to assemble the resulting pictures to produce a video.
Using streamlines, it is easy to define also a streamtube (figure 2.8). For this purpose, we just need
to choose a closed one-dimensional curve C in the three-dimensional space. By joigning together all
the streamlines going at some point through this curve C, a streamtube is obtained. This notion is
particularly interesting, since the boundary of a streamtube cannot be crossed by any fluid particle
(remember that the local direction of the fluid movement, i.e., the flow velocity, is per definition
tangential to the local streamline). Therefore, a streamtube is somehow similar to an internal
flow within a duct of variable cross-section (that of the streamtube). If the flow can furthermore
be considered non-viscous, the flow within the resulting streamtube is almost equivalent to the
corresponding internal flow.

C streamlines

Figure 2.8: Streamtube obtained by joining streamlines through a closed curve.

• A pathline (or trajectory) corresponds to the line obtained in the three-dimensional space by
following an individual fluid particle during its displacement with time. It is sometimes described
also as a long-exposure “photograph” of one and the same particle. An infinity of di↵erent pathlines
can be defined, each associated to another fluid particle. Mathematically, if xp is the vector
containing the three components of the pathline position, the geometry of the pathline can be
obtained by integrating in time the vector relation
dxp
= v(xp , t) (2.25)
dt
starting from some chosen position xp0 and eliminating time t. This relation simply states that
the movement along the pathline is purely due to the instantaneous local flow velocity v(xp , t). In
order to compute a pathline, some finite time duration must be considered: a pathline is not an
instantaneous concept; time must elapse!

• A streakline (also called emission line) associated with some user-chosen point P is the locus of all
fluid elements having passed through point P at some previous time instant. The denomination
“emission line” is indeed quite clear: in order to obtain a streakline, a dye tracer will be in practice
injected into the flow at a fixed point P. Taking a picture of the resulting dye distribution somewhat
later, the emission line associated with point P can be obtained.
As such, the concept of emission line is an instantaneous concept (the picture shows the instan-
taneous dye distribution) but necessitates a finite time duration in the past. The dye particles
4 Control volume 33

visible on the photograph all went through point P, some of them 30 seconds ago, some of them
10 seconds ago, some of them just 1 ms ago; the past history of the flow is made visible on the
instantaneous picture.

Since the definitions of pathline, streamline and streakline are di↵erent, the resulting lines will usually
di↵er, too. Nevertheless, for a steady flow (and only for such a flow) the resulting geometrical lines will
look identical when plotted.
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

2.4 Control volume

In order to derive conservation equations for the most important flow variables, it is now necessary to
introduce control volumes. A control volume Vc (figure 2.9) is a three-dimensional volume bounded by
a closed surface Ac and placed in a fluid. Of course, it exists only as a theoretical object and is not a
real body. As such, this control volume does not lead to any modification of the fluid properties; fluid
elements can move freely through the boundary Ac of a control volume Vc .
Furthermore, a control volume can move freely with its own velocity within the fluid. To characterize
this movement, a velocity w is defined at any point of the control volume.

Outer surface Ac

n
w
Control volume Vc
dA
n dV

w w
n
flow velocity v

Figure 2.9: Generic control volume in a fluid.

Up to now, the concept we have introduced is a generic control volume Vc . Two specific sub-families
must now be introduced:
1. a fixed control volume Vcf is a control volume that does not move, i.e., with w = 0 (figure 2.10).
As a consequence, the geometry of such a control volume cannot change with time; if the control
volume is a sphere at the start of time, it will remain a sphere all the time, with fluid entering and
leaving freely through the outer surface Acf .

2. a material control volume Vcm is a control volume containing always the same fluid elements; if
a fluid element is contained within Vcm at the beginning of time, it will remain within it all the
time; if it is outside of Vcm at the beginning, it can never enter it. How is this possible, since we
Appendix A

Basic concepts and keywords of fluid

dynamics

This chapter is a gathering of the most important concepts and keywords used in the rest of the
document. It is ordered alphabetically. Usually, you will simply access specifically one or of the other
of the sections by following the appropriate links in the main text.

A.1 Archimedes number

The Archimedes number is the non-dimensional parameter of Fluid Dynamics (see Chapter 11) used to
quantify the influence of buoyancy. It is defined as:

gl3 ⇢f (⇢b ⇢f )
Ar := (A.1)
µ2

and involves the typical size l of the object, and the di↵erence in density between fluid ⇢f and body ⇢b .
Note that this Archimedes number can be either positive or negative.
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

A.2 Cavitation
Cavitation is a transition of state between liquid and gas phase, similar to boiling but associated with
a change in pressure and not in temperature. For boiling, increasing the temperature of a liquid allows
to travel in the phase space from the liquid phase to the gas phase, keeping the pressure constant.
Similarly, for cavitation, decreasing the pressure of a liquid allows to travel in the phase space from
the liquid phase to the gas phase, keeping the temperature constant. The corresponding cavitation
pressure pc (saturated vapor pressure) associated to the transition between a liquid and a gas depends
of course on the liquid, on the temperature, but also in practice very much on possible impurities present
in the liquid and on the possible existence of suitable seeds promoting cavitation.
The appearance of cavitation is by itself not a real problem. But the resulting bubbles usually collapse
back to the liquid phase when encountering a higher pressure at some later point of the flow. Such
collapsing bubbles induce very intense shock waves in the liquid, and the resulting pressure variations
may damage very rapidly any wall or structure placed in the vicinity. Due to this structural damage,
cavitation must usually be avoided.
Depending on water purity and on the temperature, the critical cavitation pressure pc for water has
an order of magnitude pc ⇡ 0.01 bar (hundred times smaller than typical atmospheric pressure).

265
266 Appendix A. Basic concepts and keywords of fluid dynamics

True cavitation involves thus a two-phase mixture of a liquid with its own vapour. The somewhat
similar, but less harmful process called pseudo-cavitation appears when a gas (for instance air) dissolved
in a liquid leads to the formation of bubbles in this liquid at some point in the flow where low pressures
are found. In that case, we observe again a two-phase flow (liquid/gas), but the gas is not the vapour
of the liquid.
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

A.3 Compressible flow

Throughout this document, a flow is called compressible if the change of density induced by a modifi-
cation of pressure (and thus indirectly of velocity) cannot be neglected. Further details can be found in
the section dealing with the opposite notion, incompressible flows.

A.4 Compressible fluid

Throughout this document, a fluid is called compressible if it is possible at all to change its density.
Further details can be found in the section dealing with the opposite notion, incompressible fluids. Note
that, in reality, all fluids are in fact compressible, at least to some extent.

A.5 Conservative force

A force is called conservative if the work associated with the action of this force is independant from
the way followed during the movement, but only depends on the starting point and endpoint of this
displacement. All the non-contact forces considered in this document are conservative and their local
action on the fluid can be written ⇢k, with k the corresponding acceleration vector. Mathematically,
such a force is conservative if it meets one of the two following, equivalent conditions:
r ⇥ k = 0 or (A.2)
k = r' (A.3)
where ' is the scalar field of potential energy associated with the considered acceleration vector. Con-
sidering as an example the earth gravity field using the standard coordinate system, one obtains
'(x) = '(z) = gz (A.4)
and consequently
k= r' = gez = g (A.5)
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

A.6 Contact force vs. non-contact force

Throughout this document, a contact force is defined as a force that can only be active between two fluid
elements in direct contact with each other. This is distinct from a non-contact force (a force that acts
over a long distance), such as gravity. From a fundamental point of view, this is a somewhat inaccurate
view of the real physics. It will nevertheless be useful to separate between long-range forces (for us, in
particular gravity) and forces, which take place only when two fluid elements are in direct vicinity to
each other (this will concern for us mainly the pressure force and to a lesser extent the force associated
to surface tension).
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.
7 Hydraulic diameter 267

A.7 Hydraulic diameter

For a cylindrical pipe, it is obviously a straightforward task to dermine its diameter d. For a non-
cylindrical cross-section, it is then useful to introduce an equivalent diameter, called in practice hydraulic
diameter dh and defined as:
4A
dh := (A.6)
Pw

and connecting the cross-section area A (in m2 ) with the wetted perimeter (or contact length between
fluid and wall) Pw (in m). As a result, the hydraulic diameter has obviously the right dimension. For a
cylindrical tube, A = ⇡d2 /4 while Pw = ⇡d, so that dh = d, as expected!
The concept of hydraulic diameter, as defined by Eq.(A.6) can now be used for any complex geo-
metrical cross-section. For a few standard cases, the computed hydraulic diameter for internal flows is
as follows:
square cross-section, side-length l dh = l
2l1 l2
rectangular cross-section, side-lengths l1 ⇥ l2 dh =
l 1 + l2
l
equilateral triangular cross-section, side-length l dh = p
3
flow between two infinite parallel plates, separation distance l dh = 2l
enclosure between two concentric cylinders, diameters d1 < d2 dh = d2 d1
For an open channel flow, the top part of the fluid does not lead to any shear stress and is therefore
not included in the computation of the wetted perimeter Pw . As a consequence, the hydraulic diameter
is now dh = 4(lH)/(l + 2H), with H the height of the liquid and l the side length of the flow. If we are
considering a film or a shallow flow (H ⌧ l), this simplifies to dh ⇡ 4H.
Finally, note that the concept of hydraulic diameter is not an exact description of the underlying
physics. It is just an adequate procedure to re-use the measurements results presented for a cylindrical
pipe in the Moody-Colebrook chart (figure 7.7) when the cross-section looks di↵erent. Due to this poor
physical background, errors must be expected. The errors observed for non-cylindrical cross-sections
are indeed considerable (20% or more) in the laminar regime. They are usually quite small (a few %) in
highly turbulent flows, due to the diminishing importance of the exact geometry under such conditions.

A.8 Incompressible flow

Throughout this document, a flow is called an incompressible flow if the change of density induced by
a modification of pressure (and thus indirectly of velocity) can be safely neglected. This definition is
somewhat inaccurate, since it involves a user-dependent threshold (what may be “neglected” or not?).
As such, the notion of incompressible flow should not be confused with the clear (even if somewhat
irrealistic) notion of incompressible fluid (see next section):

• an incompressible fluid always leads to an incompressible flow;

• but an incompressible flow can involve an easily compressible fluid, for instance a gas like air.

For a compressible fluid, the notion of compressible vs. incompressible flow will be clarified in the chapter
dealing with one-dimensional, isentropic compressible flows. We will prove in particular in Chapter 13
that the relative change of density ⇢ induced indirectly by a corresponding relative change of the velocity
magnitude v reads:
d⇢ dv
= M2 (A.7)
⇢ v
268 Appendix A. Basic concepts and keywords of fluid dynamics

M (d⇢/⇢)/(dv/v) (in %)
0 0
0.1 1
0.2 4
0.3 9
0.4 16
0.5 25
1 100

Table A.1: Ratio between the relative variation of density and the relative variation of velocity magnitude
as a function of the Mach number M

where the Mach number M appears as a key quantity. As a function of the Mach number, the ratio
between the relative variation of density and the relative variation of velocity magnitude can then be
directly computed, leading e.g. to Table A.1.
Now, the threshold can be defined more clearly. If, as usual for engineering purposes, 10% is con-
sidered as some kind of “magical limit” under which an e↵ect can be neglected, then a Mach number
of 0.3 (strictly speaking, of 0.333 . . .) corresponds to the limit between incompressible (M  0.3) and
compressible (M > 0.3) flows. If, for some reason, the accuracy of the computation must be very high,
so that only a maximal error of 1% can be tolerated, then incompressible flows take place only up to
M = 0.1. This is illustrated in figure A.1.
The opposite of an incompressible flow is called a compressible flow.

sonic
subsonic supersonic
incom-
compressible
pressible
flow
flow

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 1 Mach number

M
Value depends on accuracy
requirements, typically
between M=0.1 and 0.3

Figure A.1: Compressible vs. incompressible flow conditions.

9 Incompressible fluid 269

A.9 Incompressible fluid

Throughout this document, a fluid is called an incompressible fluid if it can be considered that it is
impossible to change its density ⇢ by any means, i.e. ⇢ = constant for any realizable thermodynamic
conditions. This is of course only an assumption, there is no perfectly incompressible fluid (in the sense
of this definition) in reality. This will nevertheless be a very good approximation for most simple liquids
at nearly constant temperature (figure A.2). For example, pure water at ambient temperature is a close
approximation of an incompressible fluid with ⇢ ⇡ 1000 kg/m3 . The notion of incompressible fluid
should not be confused with the notion of incompressible flow (see previous section).

air water

p
p =

Figure A.2: A gas is typically easily compressible, a liquid shows a nearly constant density when varying
pressure.

To be more accurate, the compressibility of a fluid at constant temperature T is defined in fact with
the isothermal compressibility coefficient as
!
1 @⇢
T := (A.8)
⇢ @p T

while its thermal expansion at constant pressure is defined with the isobaric thermal expansion coefficient
as !
1 @⇢
↵p := (A.9)
⇢ @T p
With these concepts, we can now finally clarify what is an incompressible fluid: it is a fluid with T = 0
1/Pa and simultaneously ↵p = 0 1/K. Once again, such a fluid does not really exist. But standard water
under ambient conditions shows for example an extremely small isothermal compressibility coefficient,
10
T ⇡ 0.5 1/GPa or ⇡ 5 10 1/Pa, meaning that it is extremely difficult to change the density of water
by changing its pressure at constant temperature. At the same time, its thermal expansion coefficient at
constant pressure and 20 C is roughly ↵p ⇡ 2 10 4 1/K, showing again that it is quite difficult to change
density by changing temperature at constant pressure, even if ↵p is far from being 0 (in fact, for a liquid,
this is even a relatively large value). Therefore, as a whole, liquid water can be safely considered as an
270 Appendix A. Basic concepts and keywords of fluid dynamics

incompressible fluid as long as temperature does not change too much and as long as pressure does not
reach extreme values.
Further information on the topic can be found for instance under Wikipedia. Additional details
concerning thermal expansion are given under Wikipedia/Thermal expansion.

A.10 Internal flow

A flow is called an internal flow if it is everywhere surrounded sideways by solid walls. The typical
example of an internal flow is the flow within a duct, pipe or channel. Of course, in most cases, there
will still be openings somewhere to allow the flow to enter and/or leave this duct or channel.

A.11 Irrotational flow

A flow is called irrotational flow if the curl of the corresponding velocity field v is zero:

r⇥v =0 (A.10)

Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

A.12 Laminar flow

It is difficult to give an exact and simple definition of a laminar flow, in particular for beginners. Let us
state simply here that a laminar flow is a smooth, regular, simple flow. The evolution of a laminar flow
with time can be predicted with a very high accuracy (laminar flows are predictable).
The contrary of a laminar flow is a turbulent flow, as described in Chapter 17.
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

A.13 Mach number

The Mach number is the most important non-dimensional number for compressible flows. It is defined
as the ratio between the magnitude of flow velocity v and local speed of sound c. It is therefore a scalar
field variable, that will usually depend on space and time, M(x, t).
v
M := (A.11)
c
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

A.14 Multiphase flow

A multiphase flow is a flow involving di↵erent phase components that cannot be perfectly mixed at
molecular level. This might be for example a spray (liquid droplets transported by a gas phase), a
crystallization reactor (solid crystals transported by a liquid) or a sooty flame (solid soot particles
transported by a gas); all these are two-phase flows. A three-phase flow might be for example found
in an internal combustion engine, where liquid fuel droplets will burn with (gaseous) air and produce
among other solid particles of soot; or when considering a fluidized bed involving spray coating (liquid
droplets interacting with solid particles in a gas flow).
15 Newtonian fluid 271

Substance Dynamic viscosity µ (Pa s)

Air 10 5
Water 10 3
Mercury 1.5 10 3
Olive oil 10 1
Glycerin 1.5
Liquid honey ⇡ 10
Corn syrup ⇡ 100
Molten polymer ⇡ 1000
Molten glass ⇡ 1012

Table A.2: Order of magnitude of the dynamic viscosity for di↵erent Newtonian fluids at room temper-
ature [Chh07]

A.15 Newtonian fluid

A Newtonian fluid is a simple fluid, for which the relation between the shear force applied on the fluid
(more rigorously, the associated shear stress) and the resulting deformation of this fluid is linear and
goes through the origin. The associated proportionality constant (slope of the straight line) is the
dynamic viscosity of the fluid; as described later, viscosity is one key fluid property, which is a function
of temperature, but stays constant for an isothermal process and for a Newtonian fluid.
Pure water, air and any ideal gas can be considered as Newtonian fluids; but also most gases, many
liquids of low molar mass, molten salts, most liquid metals. . . are at least approximately behaving like
Newtonian fluids. As a consequence, the study of these Newtonian fluids covers a lot of practical
applications.
Even if Newtonian fluids show a similar qualitative behavior, human beings might get a di↵erent
feeling, simply due to a widely varying viscosity (Table A.2).
The contrary of a Newtonian fluid is a non-Newtonian fluid.
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

A.16 Non-Newtonian fluid

A non-Newtonian fluid is a fluid associated with more complex properties compared to a Newtonian fluid.
For a non-Newtonian fluid, the relation between the shear force applied on the fluid (more rigorously,
the associated shear stress) and its resulting deformation is not linear and/or does not go through the
origin.
Examples of non-Newtonian fluids are blood, toothpaste, many alimentation products like ketchup,
many cosmetics, heavily-loaded suspensions. . .
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

A.17 Non-viscous or viscous flow

Per definition, a non-viscous flow is a flow for which the influence of viscosity is considered negligible and
will therefore not be further taken into account. Note that this kind of flow, if in addition incompressible,
is often called “ideal flow” in the literature. Since this is a source of confusion with the ideal gas, the
term “ideal flow” will never be used in this document and will be replaced by the term “potential flow”.
272 Appendix A. Basic concepts and keywords of fluid dynamics

Since kinematic viscosity is in fact the di↵usion coefficient of momentum in the fluid, this approx-
imation is indeed exact for all flow conditions associated with a uniform momentum, for example for
hydrostatics and aerostatics (momentum equals zero everywhere) or for a fully homogeneous flow (same
momentum everywhere).
The opposite of a non-viscous flow, i.e., a flow where viscous e↵ects are important, is called a viscous
flow. This is obviously the more realistic case.

A.18 One-dimensional flow

Throughout this document, a flow is called one-dimensional if all flow variables depend in space only
on one spatial coordinate, a scalar value written x, and not as usual on a vector position x involving
three components: ' = '(x) instead of ' = '(x). Note that one-dimensional flows do not really exist in
practice (they could at best exist for some limited sub-region of the flow) and constitute only a practical
approximation.

A.19 Open channel flow

As already expressed in the name, an open channel flow is a liquid flow with a top surface in contact with
the surrounding atmosphere. Due to molecular exchange processes taking place along the gas/liquid
contact surface, there is no shear stress acting there. Typical examples of open channel flows are the
water flow in a river or a gravity-driven film flow along an inclined plate.

A.20 Potential flow

A flow is called a potential flow if a scalar function '(x) can be found that satisfies:

r' = v (A.12)

where v is the velocity field associated with this flow. Using suitable mathematical relations, it is possible
to demonstrate that this condition is equivalent to the fact that the corresponding flow is irrotational. In
the chapter, dealing specifically with potential flows, we will assume further that these flows are always
incompressible flows, which is very often done in practice and leads to particularly simple solutions.
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

A.21 Quasi-steady flow

A flow is called a quasi-steady flow if the flow parameters change with time (this is therefore not a
steady flow!) but if simultaneously the instantaneous solution obtained for these flow variables (pressure,
velocity, density. . . ) is identical to the solution that would be in principle obtained for the corresponding
steady flow at the same instant in time. In other words, a quasi-steady flow is an unsteady flow described
as a succession in time of equivalent steady flow solutions. This corresponds for example to a barrel full
of water being slowly emptied by a small opening in the bottom.
The concept of a quasi-steady flow is extremely useful in practice. Most practical flows are indeed
unsteady. But, if they can be assumed to be quasi-steady, all the results developed for steady flows are
equally valid for such quasi-steady conditions, as long as they are only used at a fixed time instant.
22 Speed of sound 273

A.22 Speed of sound

The speed of sound c is the speed at which a small pressure perturbation travels in a compressible
fluid (for an incompressible fluid, the speed of sound would be infinite, which demonstrates again that
incompressible fluids do not really exist in practice and constitute only a practical approximation). The
speed of sound is used in the definition of the Mach number.
For a generic fluid, the square of the speed of sound is defined as the ratio between pressure change and
density change between two thermodynamic states of this fluid related by an isentropic transformation:
!
2 @p
c := (A.13)
@⇢ s

Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

A.23 Standard coordinate system

Throughout this document, we consider that the spatial domain is associated with an orthonormal,
Cartesian coordinate system involving three spatial directions, denoted either x = (x, y, z) or (x1 , x2 , x3 ),
as represented in figure A.3.
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

z z

O x O x
Figure A.3: Standard coordinate system.

A.24 Steady flow

Throughout this document, a flow is called steady if all flow variables do not depend on time t, but
only on the spatial position x. As a consequence, the time derivative of any flow-related quantity ' is
obviously 0:
@'
=0 (A.14)
@t
By averaging all flow variations in time, a real, time-dependent flow can be of course reduced to a steady
flow; but this is only a simplified approximation of reality. The opposite of a steady flow is an unsteady
274 Appendix A. Basic concepts and keywords of fluid dynamics

flow; for practical purposes, this is the general case. A very interesting complementary category is that
of quasi-steady flows.

A.25 Stress in a fluid

Generally speaking, the stress is the ratio between a force and the area A of the geometrical surface A
onto which this force is acting. As such, it is a vector quantity with components expressed in Pascal
(Pa), equivalent of N/m2 .

p2
12
C B

x2

p1
O x1
21

D A

Figure A.4: Concepts of normal and shear stress.

A shear stress corresponds to the case where the force is acting in the tangential plane of the
corresponding surface A (arrows tangential to the cubic fluid volume in figure A.4).
A normal stress corresponds to the case where the force is acting in the normal direction of the
corresponding surface A (arrows normal to the cubic fluid volume in figure A.4).
Let us now consider in more detail the infinitesimal cubic element of fluid medium shown in figure A.4,
which has the point of interest at its center and whose square faces, of side-length d, lie perpendicular to
the cartesian axes x1 , x2 (and x3 perpendicular to the page). The arrows labelled p1 and p2 in the figure
indicate forces, of magnitude d2 p1 and d2 p2 respectively, exerted on the cube of fluid by two normal stress
components, also called pressures, which act on the planes AB and BC. The arrows labelled 21 and
2 2
12 indicate forces of magnitude d 21 and d 12 respectively, exerted on the cube of fluid by two shear
stress components acting on the same planes; here, the first suffix indicates the direction of the force
and the second the direction of the normal to the plane under consideration. Unlabelled arrows indicate
26 Subsonic flow 275

balancing forces which are exerted on the opposite faces CD and DA. The balance must obviously be
exact in the limit d ! 0 (infinitesimal volume): any di↵erence between say p1 on one side and the
corresponding pressure p01 on the opposite side would result in a force proportional to d2 acting on a
mass proportional to d3 (volume). For d ! 0, this would induce infinite accelerations which, as a result,
would eliminate immediately the pressure di↵erence.
A similar argument shows that 21 and 12 must always be equal. If they were not equal, the cube
would experience a torque about the x3 -axis of magnitude varying like d3 ( 21 12 ), and the resultant
angular acceleration would again be infinite for d ! 0 because the moment of inertia of the cube is
proportional to d5 . Hence, the shear stresses are always symmetric. The associated shear stress tensor
of components ( ij ) is hence also symmetric:
T
= (A.15)

Cutting now our cube in two halves along the diagonal (AC) and producing in this manner two
prisms, BAC and DAC, the same procedure can be repeated for the two resulting, infinitesimal prisms.
Since the stress components acting on the prisms can be directly deduced from those acting on the
original cube, the same analysis leads finally to the fact that:

p1 = p 2 = p 3 = p (A.16)

This is a very important observation: the normal stress is simply a scalar quantity, completely described
by an isotropic value, the pressure p. This is sometimes known as Pascal’s theorem.
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

A.26 Subsonic flow

A flow is called subsonic if the local Mach number M is below 1:

M 1 (A.17)

A.27 Supersonic flow

A flow is called supersonic if the local Mach number M is larger than 1:

M 1 (A.18)

A.28 Turbulent flow

It is difficult to give an exact and simple definition of a turbulent flow, in particular for beginners.
Let us state simply here that a turbulent flow is an irregular, chaotic, complex flow. Such turbulent
flows, as described in more detail in Chapter 17, change rapidly with time (unsteady flow) and involve
three-dimensional vortical structures (a turbulent flow is never irrotational). Chaotic means that the
evolution of a turbulent flow with time cannot be predicted with a very high accuracy for a longer time
scale (turbulent flows will rapidly be unpredictable in the sense of chaotic theory).
The contrary of a turbulent flow is a laminar flow.
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.
276 Appendix A. Basic concepts and keywords of fluid dynamics

A.29 Unsteady flow

A flow is called unsteady if the flow variables are varying with time. If it is nevertheless quasi-steady,
then the instantaneous fields of pressure and velocity and still coupled at each instant in the same
manner as in a steady flow, i.e., a flow in which time does not play any role. If it is not quasi-steady
any more, then a completely di↵erent instantaneous solution is found.
There is therefore a continuous progression between a steady flow (time plays no role at all), a quasi-
steady flow (flow variables are changing with time, but in a similar manner to a steady flow) and a fully
unsteady flow (flow variables are changing with time in a di↵erent manner as in a steady flow).

A.30 vena contracta

In particular when considering a liquid flow exiting through an opening of surface A, it is very often
observed in practice that, shortly after this opening, the e↵ective section of the liquid stream Ae↵ is
indeed lower than the surface A of the opening. This contraction e↵ect is called vena contracta (Latin
name) and has been known for a very long time. This e↵ect is usefully quantified through the contraction
ratio
A
Cvc := e↵  1 (A.19)
A
For a sharp orifice in a straight wall, values of Cvc between 0.6 and 0.65 are typically found.
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

A.31 Viscosity
Two related viscosity concepts will be used in this document. The dynamic viscosity (also called simply
viscosity) is written µ and expressed in kg/(m.s) or equivalently Pa.s. Knowing the density ⇢, a related
quantity called kinematic viscosity, written ⌫ and expressed in m2 /s is introduced by
µ
⌫ := (A.20)
⇢
Physically, the kinematic viscosity is the di↵usion coeffient associated with di↵usion of momentum in a
fluid.
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.
Appendix B

Basic thermodynamic concepts needed for

fluid dynamics

This chapter is a gathering of the most important thermodynamic concepts needed for a correct under-
standing of fluid dynamics. Of course, we cannot go deep into detail! Therefore, only a very superficial
description of thermodynamic ideas will be proposed here. Hundreds of suitable textbooks can be found
to learn more about thermodynamics.
The chapter is ordered alphabetically. Usually, you will not read this chapter at length, but you will
access specifically one or the other of the sections by following the appropriate links in the main text.

B.1 Adiabatic process

A change of thermodynamic state is called adiabatic if it takes place without any exchange of heat
with the surroundings. Most (but not all) applications considered in this document will be assumed
adiabatic. Since this notion comes from thermodynamics and not primarily from fluid dynamics, we
will not consider it further here.
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

B.2 Barotropic state

A fluid is in a barotropic state if there is a direct function relating its pressure p to its density ⇢:

p = Gp (⇢) (B.1)

or conversely
⇢ = G⇢ (p) (B.2)
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

B.3 Enthalpy
Since the notion of enthalpy comes from thermodynamics and not primarily from fluid dynamics, we
will not consider it in great detail here. Let us state only here that the specific enthalpy h is defined
from the specific internal energy e of a gas using:
p
h := e + (B.3)
⇢

277
278 Appendix B. Basic thermodynamic concepts needed for fluid dynamics

As such, the enthalpy is also the appropriate measure for the energy contained in a compressible gas
per unit mass when taking into account pressure changes. We will therefore use the enthalpy instead of
the internal energy when writing energy conservation in a compressible gas.
One further important relation relates the change of enthalpy dh with the corresponding change of
entropy ds

dp
dh = T ds + (B.4)
⇢

through temperature T , density ⇢, and associated pressure change dp.

Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

B.4 Entropy
Defining in a clear and accurate way the entropy is a major challenge! Since this notion comes from
thermodynamics and not primarily from fluid dynamics, we will not consider it in great detail here. You
will find plenty of excellent books dealing with this notion [KP98], and sometimes considering nothing
else [Dug96, The07]! For us, let us state only here that the specific entropy s is a measure of the disorder
of the fluid system, s increasing when the disorder grows. For an ideal gas, the specific entropy s can be
directly computed as a function of pressure, density (or temperature) and thermodynamic coefficients.
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

B.5 Gas constant

In this work, two di↵erent gas constants will be employed. The first one, written R, is the universal gas
constant, valid for any gas, and equal to R := 8.314 J/(mol.K). In many cases, it is more practical to
introduce the specific gas constant, written r and related to R by:

R
r := (B.5)
W
where W is the molar mass of the considered gas. As such, r is expressed in J/(kg.K) and is a constant
for a given gas, but depends on this gas. For most examples considered in this document, air will be
used. In that case, r = r(air) ⇡ 287 J/(kg.K).
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

B.6 Heat capacity

In principle, the heat capacity describes the capacity of a substance to store heat. The specific heat
capacity is the measure of the heat energy required to increase the temperature of a unit mass quantity
(1 kg) of a fluid by a unit temperature interval (1 K). It is therefore logically expressed in J/(kg.K).
Using Mayer’s relation (Eq. B.9) combined with the definition of the specific gas constant (Eq. B.5)
in order to eliminate cv , it is easy to obtain for example:
r
cp = (B.6)
1

Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

7 Heat capacity ratio 279

B.7 Heat capacity ratio

The ratio between the specific heat capacity at constant pressure cp and its equivalent at constant
volume (or constant density) cv is an essential thermodynamic parameter, in particular for a gas:
cp
:= (B.7)
cv

This quantity, sometimes called also isentropic factor or isentropic exponent, is a constant for an ideal
gas. For many gases under usual conditions, the value of can be safely assumed to be constant and
approximately equal to 1.4.
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

B.8 Ideal gas

Since the notion of an ideal gas comes from thermodynamics and not primarily from fluid dynamics, we
will not consider it in great detail here. An ideal gas is in principle a gas for which the molecules can be
considered as point particles interacting with each other only through collisions conserving momentum
and energy. Under usual conditions for pressure and temperature, many gases (but not all) behave
indeed very closely like an ideal gas. Usually, this assumption will be violated for either very low
temperatures, very high pressures, or when supplementary interaction processes occur between the gas
molecules. We will use in this document only a few essential properties of ideal gases:

• An ideal gas obeys the ideal gas law, relating pressure, density and temperature through the
specific gas constant r:
p = ⇢rT (B.8)

• One mole of this gas (1 mole := 6.02 1023 molecules) occupies roughly 22.4 dm3 (or l) under
standard thermodynamic conditions.

• Mayer’s relation between specific heat capacity and specific gas constant:

cp cv = r (B.9)

Further general information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

B.9 Isentropic transformation

A change of thermodynamic state is called isentropic if it takes place at constant entropy s. A thermody-
namic process that is both thermodynamically reversible and adiabatic is always isentropic. Isentropic
flows will always be particularly simple, compared to flows involving a change in entropy.
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

B.10 Isobaric transformation

A change of thermodynamic state is called isobaric if it takes place at constant pressure p.
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.
280 Appendix B. Basic thermodynamic concepts needed for fluid dynamics

B.11 Isochoric transformation

A change of thermodynamic state is called isochoric if it takes place at constant volume V . Considering
an isolated system (therefore necessarily conserving mass), an isochoric transformation is equivalently a
transformation for which the density ⇢ remains constant.
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

B.12 Isothermal transformation

A change of thermodynamic state is called isothermal if it takes place at constant temperature T .
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

B.13 Perfect gas

The notion of perfect gas is mostly used in Fluid Dynamics and is therefore not primarily a thermo-
dynamic concept. Per definition, a perfect gas is an ideal gas associated with constant specific heat
capacities (cp = constant or cv = constant, this is equivalent). We will use in this document some
important relations verified by any perfect gas:
• The specific entropy s of a perfect gas can be computed by
!
p
s = cv ln + constant (B.10)
⇢

• For an isentropic change of state, following equivalent relations apply, all involving the constant
heat capacity ratio :
p
= constant (B.11)
⇢
T
1
= constant (B.12)
⇢
1
p
= constant (B.13)
T
(B.14)

For further information, see Wikipedia.

• The specific enthalpy h of a perfect gas can be computed by

h = cp T + constant (B.15)

By choosing appropriately the reference state, the constant can be removed, leading to

h = cp T (B.16)

B.14 Polytropic process

A thermodynamic process is called a polytropic process if there is a relation between pressure p and
density ⇢ following:
p
= constant (B.17)
⇢n
15 Prandtl number 281

with n the polytropic exponent. Depending on the value of n (with n 0) and of the gas, di↵erent
conditions can be found:

• For n = 0, an isobaric evolution is found (p = constant).

• For n = 1 and for an ideal gas, an isothermal process is necessarily found, since
p
= constant = rT (B.18)
⇢

• Finally, for an ideal gas, n = (the heat capacity ratio), corresponds to an isentropic process.
Further details can be found in Section 13.3.2 as well as when dealing with a perfect gas.

Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

B.15 Prandtl number

The Prandtl number Pr is a key non-dimensional number coupling fluid dynamics and thermodynamics,
and comparing the di↵usivity of fluid momentum (di↵usion coefficient ⌫ = µ/⇢) with the di↵usivity of
heat (di↵usion coefficient ↵ = /(⇢cp )):
µcp
Pr = (B.19)

Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

B.16 Real gas

Since the notion of a real gas comes from thermodynamics and not primarily from fluid dynamics, we
will not consider it in great detail here. Compared to the ideal gas, a real gas is in fact a more realistic
representation of the thermodynamic relations between the state variables. This can be in particular
important at very low temperature or very high pressure.
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

B.17 Reversible process

A change of thermodynamic state is called reversible if, after it has taken place, it can be reversed;
the system can find back to its original state without noticeable change in either the considered system
or its surroundings. This definition is somewhat inaccurate and it is indeed not easy to give a very
good definition. Since, however, this notion comes from thermodynamics and not primarily from fluid
dynamics, we will not consider it further here.
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

B.18 Specific quantity

A thermodynamic parameter is called specific when it is related to a unit mass (1 kg) of the considered
fluid. As far as possible, specific quantities are written in lower-case symbols.
282 Appendix B. Basic thermodynamic concepts needed for fluid dynamics

B.19 Standard thermodynamic conditions

Per convention, the standard thermodynamic conditions correspond to a temperature T = 0 C= 273.15
K and a pressure p = 1 atm= 101325 Pa. Note, unfortunately, that there is still a certain inhomogeneity
concerning these values, since a normalization at an international level has not been possible until now.
These standard conditions should not be confused with the so-called “ambient conditions”, defined as
T = 25 C= 298.15 K and a pressure p = 1 bar= 105 Pa.

B.20 Thermal conductivity

The thermal conductivity is a fluid property that measures its ability to conduct heat. It is expressed
in W/(m.K).
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.
Appendix C

Basic mathematical concepts needed for

fluid dynamics

This chapter is a gathering of the most important mathematical concepts and derivations needed for a
correct understanding of fluid dynamics. Of course, we cannot start back at the level of second grade!
Only (relatively) “advanced” mathematical concepts and derivations can be treated here.
The chapter is ordered alphabetically. Usually, you will not read this chapter at length, but you will
access specifically one or the other of the sections by following the appropriate links in the main text.

C.1 Angular relations in a right triangle

In a right triangle (one of the angle is equal to 90 ), it is directly possible to compute the sine, cosine
and tangent of any angle ↵ by using the following angular relations (figure C.1):

opposed side length

sin ↵ = (C.1)
hypotenuse side length
adjacent side length
cos ↵ = (C.2)
hypotenuse side length
opposed side length
tan ↵ = (C.3)
adjacent side length

Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

adjacent
opposed

α
hypotenuse
Figure C.1: Angular relations in a right triangle.

283
284 Appendix C. Basic mathematical concepts needed for fluid dynamics

C.2 Conic curves

When intersecting a cone with a plane, a conic curve is obtained. Its generic equation in the two-
dimensional cutting plane parametrized by a Cartesian coordinate system with axis x and y reads:

C1 x2 + C2 xy + C3 y 2 + C4 x + C5 y + C6 = 0 (C.4)

where C1 , C2 , C3 , C4 , C5 , C6 are arbitrary constants verifying that C1 , C2 and C3 are not simultaneously
equal to 0.
The resulting curve is:

• an ellipse (or a circle) if C22 4C1 C3 < 0.

• a parabola if C22 4C1 C3 = 0.

• an hyperbola if C22 4C1 C3 > 0.

Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

C.3 Divergence theorem

The divergence theorem is an extremely famous relation called also integral rule or theorem of Gauß,
of Ostrogradsky, of Gauß-Ostrogradsky or of Green-Ostrogradsky. With so many possible fathers, you
immediately understand the importance of this theorem, allowing a direct relation between a volume
integral on an arbitrary volume Vc and a surface integral on the associated boundary Ac ! Di↵erent
(equivalent) formulations of the divergence theorem might be given, depending on the fact that a scalar
field or a vector field might be considered.
For a vector field ':
Z Z Z Z Z
r · ' dV = ' · n dA (C.5)
Vc Ac

For a scalar field ':

Z Z Z Z Z
r' dV = 'n dA (C.6)
Vc Ac

In both formulations, n is as usual the unit vector normal to the surface Ac and pointing toward the
outside of the volume Vc . It is trivial to switch between both formulations (Eqs. C.5 and C.6), just by
decomposing a vector into its three components.
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

C.4 Logarithmic di↵erential

A logarithmic di↵erential form is simply the result of computing first the logarithm of a strictly positive
expression G before di↵erentiating it, leading to:

dG
d log(G) = (C.7)
G

Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

5 Partial derivative 285

C.5 Partial derivative

For an arbitrary function G depending on several variables, as many partial derivatives may be defined
as there are independent variables. For instance, let us consider the pressure p. Generally, pressure will
depend on space and time, p(x, t) = p(x, y, z, t). Hence, four partial derivatives may be defined. For this
purpose, the function is derived by considering each variable in turn while keeping all other variables
constant. In order to make them easier to recognize, partial derivatives are written using a @ symbol
instead of the standard symbol d, used for functions of a single variable. Finally, the partial derivative
of pressure in time is for example:
!
@[p(x, y, z, t)] d[p(x, y, z, t)]
= (C.8)
@t dt (x,y,z)

Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

C.6 Scalar product

In our standard coordinate system, the scalar product between two arbitrary vectors a = (ax , ay , az )
and b = (bx , by , bz ) is a scalar quantity, simply defined as:

a · b := ax bx + ay by + az bz (C.9)

Two vectors are orthogonal if and only if their scalar product is zero.
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

C.7 Summation convention of Einstein

The summation convention of Einstein states that, when the same index is repeated identically twice in
a single term, this means automatically that a sum must be considered over all possible values of this
index. For instance, if i and j denote spatial coordinates (and thus i = 1 . . . 3, j = 1 . . . 3):

@⌧ij @⌧1j @⌧2j @⌧3j

= + + (C.10)
@xi @x1 @x2 @x3
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

C.8 Surfaces and volumes

Let us recall here briefly some important results concerning surfaces and volumes of selected geometrical
objects.

C.8.1 Circle or disk

The circumference of a circle of diameter d is ⇡d, the surface delimited by the circle (surface of the disk)
is ⇡d2 /4.

C.8.2 Sphere
The surface of a sphere of diameter d is ⇡d2 , the volume delimited by the sphere is ⇡d3 /6.
286 Appendix C. Basic mathematical concepts needed for fluid dynamics

C.8.3 Cylinder
!
d
The external surface of a cylinder of diameter d and height H is ⇡d H + , the volume delimited by
2
this cylinder is ⇡Hd2 /4.

C.8.4 Cone
d⇣ p ⌘
The external surface of a right circular cone of base diameter d and height H is ⇡ d + d2 + 4H 2 ,
4
the volume delimited by this cone is ⇡Hd2 /12.

C.9 Taylor expansion

The Taylor expansion is a widely used, approximate representation of the unknown value of a function at
one point x using a partial sum of terms calculated from the known values of its derivatives at another,
fixed point P.
! ! !
dG (x xP )2 d2 G (x xP )3 d3 G
G(x) ⇡ G(xP ) + (x xP ) + + + ... (C.11)
dx P 2 dx2 P 3! dx3 P

In this document, we will only use first-order Taylor expansion, following:

!
dG
G(x) ⇡ G(xP ) + (x xP ) (C.12)
dx P

Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

C.10 Tensors
Tensors are very useful constructs in Fluid Dynamics, but are somewhat ambiguous, due in particular
to the fact that they are employed with a slightly di↵erent background in mathematics and in physics.
In what follows, we will consider only the physical point of view. It is easy to find useful information
on the mathematical point of view in the scientific literature.
In Fluid Dynamics, we will consider only tensors of order 2 (or second-order tensors). This just
means that 2 indices are required to describe all the components of this tensor. Note that a tensor of
order 1 is simply a vector, something you already know quite well.
From the point of view of Fluid Dynamics, a (second order) tensor T is similar to a two-dimensional
matrix with a number of lines and columns given by the number of spatial dimensions. Hence, it
will be a 3 ⇥ 3 matrix in three dimensions, or a 2 ⇥ 2 matrix in two dimensions. Furthermore, this
tensor T is varying continuously in the considered space (this would be called indeed a tensor field by a
mathematician, not a tensor).
Finally, for a usual three-dimensional space, a generic tensor T looks somehow like:
0 1
T11 T12 T13
T = (Tij ) for (i = 1, 2, 3; j = 1, 2, 3) = @ T21 T22 T23 C
B
A (C.13)
T31 T32 T33

Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

11 Vectors 287

C.11 Vectors
A vector (rigorously speaking, an Euclidean vector) is an object associated simultaneously with a mag-
nitude (or length), a direction and a sense (i.e., an orientation). In the standard coordinate system
employed in this document, a vector is conveniently described by three components, associated with the
three spatial directions. For example for position x or velocity v:

x = (x, y, z) (C.14)
v = (vx , vy , vz ) (C.15)

Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.

C.12 Vector product

In our standard coordinate system, the vector product (sometimes also called cross product) between
two arbitrary vectors a = (ax , ay , az ) and b = (bx , by , bz ) is another vector, simply defined as:

a ⇥ b := (ay bz az by , az bx ax bz , ax by ay bx ) (C.16)

The resulting vector is always perpendicular to the plane containing the two starting vectors a and b.
Two vectors are collinear (i.e., parallel to each other) if and only if their vector product is zero.
Further information can be found for instance under Wikipedia.
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