Chapter 2:POTENTIAL FLOW

2.1 THE BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF FLUID IN MOTION:

It is helpful to understanding the certain different types of fluid flow and here we introduce some of terminology used. 2.1.1 Uniform & non-uniform flow: In general, quantities such as velocity, pressure and density which describe the behavior or state of a fluid vary with respect to both space and time. If, at particular instant, the various quantities dont change from point to point over a specified region, then the flow is said to be uniform over that region. If however, changes occur from point to another, the flow is said to be nonuniform; these change with position may be found in the direction of the flow or in directions perpendicular to it. 2.1.2 Internal & external flow: When the motion of a fluid is between bounded surface the flow described as internal flow; air flow management systems which used to control the quality of air within buildings & vehicles such is an example of an internal flow. Conversely, when a body is surrounded by a fluid n motion, the flow around the immersed body is described as external flow; examples for this flow are the flows around aircraft wings, around entire aircraft and road vehicles. 2.1.3 Laminar & turbulent flow: Form about 1840, it had been realized that the flow of a fluid could be of two different types, the distinction in between was clearified in 1880s by Osborne Reynolds (professor of engineer). In the first of flow, that occurring at the lower velocities, the particles of fluid are evidently moving entirely in Straight lines even though the velocity of particles in one line not

necessarily the same in another line; since the fluid may therefore be considered as moving in layers or laminate so the flow is called laminar. The second type the paths of individual particles of fluid are sinuous and crossing one another in disorderly manner so that a thorough mixing of the fluid takes place; so the flow is called turbulent.

Laminar flow

Turbulent flow

2.1.4 Steady & unsteady flow: Steady flow is defined as that in which the various parameters at any point do not change with time. Flow in which changes with time occurs is termed unsteady or non-steady. In practice, absolutely steady flow is exception rather than rule, but many problems may be studied effectively by assuming that the flow is steady. 2.1.5 Viscous & inviscid flow: All fluids offer resistance to any force tending to cause one layer to move over another, viscosity is the fluid property responsible for this resistance. The manifestation of a fluids viscous property anywhere within a flow depends upon the local magnitude of transverse velocity gradients; so wherever velocity gradients are large the effect of viscosity have an important bearing on the characteristics of the flow then it has to called

viscous flow. Conversely, wherever these velocity gradients are small, viscosity has a smaller influence on the behavior of the flow then it has to called inviscid flow or non-viscous flow. 2.1.6 Compressible & incompressible flow: The compressible flow is defined as in which density of the fluid varies throughout the flow. Conversely, the incompressible flow is defined as in which the density is everywhere constant.

2.2 THE PRINCIPLES GOVERNING FLUID IN MOTION:

There are numerous situations where we need a point to point description of flow; this necessitates a more complete knowledge of the flow field, we appeal to the general laws of fluid mechanics to give us the equations to solve, these are the conservation laws for mass, momentum and energy. 2.2.1 Conservation of mass: The principle of the mass conservation of mass expresses the fact that matter can neither be created nor destroyed. Applying the principle to a fixed region within a fluid as shown in the figure 2.1:

The net mass flow out of the element=The rate of mass decrease inside the element

Figure 2.1 ML= [u MB= [ MA= [ (u) dx] dy dz; MR=[u + () dy] dx dz; MT=[ + () dz] dx dy; MF=[ (u) dx ] dy dz () dy] dx dz () dz] dx dy

the net mass flow rate into the control volume as a consequence is given by, Mnet = MR - ML+ MT- MB + MA MF =[ (u) + () + ()] dx dy dz (2.1)

the rate of mass decrease,

(dx dy dz) . (2.2)

applying the principle expressed above we obtain, [ (u) + () + ()] dx dy dz + (dx dy dz) = 0 (2.3)

cancelling out dx dy dz, we have,

(u) +

() +

() = 0 (2.4)

the equation (2.4) is known as the continuity equation. Now if we bring in the gradient operator, namely, and represent velocity as a vector, then the continuity equation can be written in a compact manner as,

. ( ) = 0 (2.5)

this equation is the differential form of the continuity equation. 2.2.2 Bernoulli equation: This equation basically connects pressure at any point in flow with velocity. It is one of the widely used equations in fluid dynamics to calculate pressure with the knowledge of velocity. The relation between these changes may be studied by applying Newtons second law to small element of the fluid over which the changes of velocity and pressure are very small. The element is chosen that it occupies part a stream-tube of small cross-section (see figure 2.2).

The forces under investigation are those due to the pressure of the fluid around the element and to gravity; other forces such as due viscosity assumed negligibly small. It also assumed that the flow is steady.

The total force acting on the element in the direction of flow is, pA (p+p)(A + A) + (p+kp)A - gAs when the second order of small quantities is neglected, this reduce to, -Ap - gAs
.. (2.6)

since the mass of the element is constant, then the net force must, by Newtons second law, equal the mass multiplied by the acceleration in the direction of the force, that is, As ( s ) also we may write z= scos; then dividing by gAs and taking the limit we obtain,

+
the term,

+g

=0

(2.7)

=u

describes the acceleration, and for steady flow = 0 and so = u( ), then we

the local acceleration have,

+u

+g

=0

(2.8)

for fluid of constant density and take integration the result is,

+ gz = constant

(2.9)

this equation is usually known as Bernoullis equation. To sum up the condition to which Bernoullis equation applies are: the fluid must be inviscid (frictionless) and of constant density; the flow must be steady. 2.2.3 Momentum equation: It is often important to determine the force produced on a solid body by fluid flowing steadily over through it. For example, the aerodynamic forces
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lift and drag on an aircraft wings. In general the force is determined essentially by Newtons second law, the resulting equation is called momentum equation. Newtons second law imposed to the moving fluid element, The net force on the fluid element = its mass times the acceleration of the element This relation can be split into three scalar relations along the x, y and z axes. F = ma = body force (weight) + surface forces (pressure, viscous(normal, shear) The total force F, is given by, F = .p + 2.V + f (2.10) where . the divergence = we have, DV/ Dt = .p + 2.V + f
^ ^
(2.11)

^ +

^ +

^ , and F = DV/ Dt, so

which is the momentum equation for a viscous flow. This equation can be split into three scalar relations along the x, y and z axes, which called Navier Stokes equations in honor of tow scientists M.Navier & G.Stokes. We note here only forces acting at the boundaries of the fluid concern us; any force within this fluid is involved only as one half of an action-and-reaction pair and so does not affect the overall behavior. Moreover, there are many simplifications imposed to these equations such as compressible or incompressible, steady and with or without friction.

2.3 THE ELEMENTS OF POTENTIAL FLOW:

2.3.1 Velocity field:

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Velocity field implies a distribution of velocity in a given region say R (figure 2.3). It is denoted in a functional form as V(x,y,z,t) meaning that velocity is a function of the spatial and time coordinates.

Figure 2.3 It is useful to recall that we are studying fluid flow under the Continuum Hypothesis which allows us to define velocity at a point. Further velocity is a vector quantity i.e., it has a direction along with a magnitude. This is indicated by writing velocity field as,

velocity may have three components, one in each direction, i.e, u,v and w in x, y and z directions respectively. It is usual to write as,

It is clear that each of u, v and w can be functions of x,y,z and t. Thus,

each of the other variables involved in a fluid flow can also be given a field representation. We have temperature field, T(x,y,z,t), pressure field, p(x,y,z,t), density field, (x,y, z, t), etc.
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2.3.2 Stream function: Stream function is a very useful device in the study of fluid dynamics and was arrived at by the French mathematician Joseph Louis Lagrange in 1781. Of course, it is related to the streamlines of flow, a relationship which we will bring out later. We can define stream functions for both two and three dimensional flows. The latter one is quite complicated and not necessary for our purposes. We restrict ourselves to two-dimensional flows. Consider a two-dimensional incompressible flow, for which the continuity equation is given by,

A stream function

is one which satisfies,

2.3.3 Rotation & irrotation: Considering the element ABCD (figure 2.4), we notice that any rotation of AB or AD is brought about by a change in u velocity along ydirection and that of v velocity along x-direction. Let d and d be the angles through which sides AB and AD rotate.

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Now it is required that,

since angles d and d are small we have,

Rotation or angular velocity of the element (about the z-axis) is defined as,

substituting eqns (2.14) and (2.15) we have,

similarly we have for rotation about the other axes,

we see that is a vector given by be written in vector notation as,

, which can

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we now introduce another term Vorticity which is defined as twice rotation or,

this brings us to a class of flows for which vorticity (i.e., rotation) is zero. These are known as Irrotational flows. These are governed by the equation,

It should be noted that the concept of Irrotationality applies to a fluid element in a given flow than to the flow itself (see figure 2.5). The main flow may be a vortex where the streamlines are circles. But the individual elements of fluid may not rotate or distort making the flow irrotational. This is shown in Figure below where an irrotational flow about an aerofoil is sketched. Note that even though the main follows a path which seems to indicate distortion, the fluid elements are simply translated.

Figure 2.5 2.3.4 Velocity potential: We have seen that for an irrotational flow,

or,
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it follows from vector algebra that there should be a potential such that,

is called velocity potential. The velocity components are related to through the following relations,

velocity potential is a powerful tool in analyzing irrotational flows. First of all it meets with the irrotationality condition readily. In fact, it follows from that condition. As a check we substitute the velocity potential in the irrotationality condition, thus,

the next question we ask is does the velocity potential satisfy the continuity equation? To find out we consider the continuity equation for incompressible flows and substitute the expressions for velocity coordinates in them. Accordingly,

it is clear that to meet with the continuity requirements the velocity potential has to satisfy the equation,

in vector notation it is,

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this equation is known as Laplace equation and so a flow governed by this equation is called Potential flow. It may has lines along which potential is constant. These are called

equipotential lines of the flow. Thus along a potential line,

.

2.4 POTENTIAL FLOW:

In fluid dynamics, a potential flow is velocity field is described as gradient of scalar function: the velocity potential. As we see above a potential flow is characterized by an irrotational velocity field, which is a valid approximation for several applications. In case of an incompressible flow the velocity potential satisfies Laplace equation. However, potential flow has also been used to describe compressible flow. In incompressible, steady or unsteady, fluid dynamics, potential flow obeys the following equation,

this fact allows us to write,

which implies the Laplace equation. Potential flow does not include all characteristics of real flow. For example, potential flow excludes turbulence, which is commonly encountered in nature. Also, potential theory cannot be applied for viscous internal flow. Potential flow is unphysical that the only fluid to obey the assumptions was dry water, also makes a number of invalid predictions, more precisely potential flow cannot account for the behavior of flows that include a boundary layer.

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Nevertheless, potential flow finds many applications in fields such as aircraft design. For instance, in computational fluid dynamics and so the outer field for airfoils.

2.5 CIRCULATION & KUTTA- JOUKOWSKY THEORY:

2.5.1 Source and sink: Consider a radial flow going away from the origin at a velocity vr as shown in figure 2.6. This constitutes a Source Flow. This is a purely radial flow with no component of velocity in the tangential direction, i.e., v=0. If m is the volumetric flow rate we have,

Figure 2.6

We can now write down velocity potential and stream function for this flow,

It is easily verified that v=0, for this flow. Further, the equation we started out with, namely, Eqn(2.29) is the continuity equation for the source flow. It states that the volumetric flow rate (mass flow rate when multiplied by density) is constant in a radial direction and is equal to m, which is called the Strength of the source. 2.5.2 Vortex:

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We now consider flows which go in a circumferential direction with no radial flow. These are Vortex flows as shown in figure 2.7.

Figure 2.7 The velocity potential and stream function are given by,

The velocity components are given by,

It is seen that v is infinite at the origin and decreases as r increases and becomes zero as r approaches infinity. We should note that the term "Irrotational" refers to the behavior of a fluid element and not to the path taken by it. At an elemental level the flow is still irrotational. Such a vortex is called a free vortex. A good and familiar example is that of a bath tub vortex. Contrary to this we have a Forced Vortex which behaves like a solid body. These have their velocity given by,

with a zero velocity at the origin. The velocity increases as one move away from the origin. A water filled tank is a good example. 2.5.3 Doublet: A doublet is formed when the source and sink approach each other, at the same time , we see that,

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As a consequence the stream function becomes and velocity potential is,

Figure 2.8 The streamlines and the equipotential lines for a doublet are sketched in figure 2.8. It is seen that the streamlines are circles which are tangential to the x-axis while the equipotential lines are also circles but tangential to yaxis. 2.5.4 Circulation: We now discuss one other property of flows, that of circulation. Consider any closed curve C in a flow as shown in figure 2.9. Circulation is defined as the line integral around the curve of the arc length ds times the tangential component of velocity. Shear stress for the element is thus given by,

Figure 2.9
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And for two-dimensional flow,

2.5.5 Kutta-Joukowsky theory around airfoils: The Kutta condition is a principle in steady flow fluid dynamics, especially aerodynamics, that is applicable to solid bodies, which have sharp corners such as the trailing edges of airfoils. It is named for German mathematician and aerodynamicist Martin Wilhelm Kutta, and the Russian, Nikolai. E. Joukowsky. As the airfoil continues on its way, there is a stagnation point at the trailing edge. The flow over the topside conforms to the upper surface of the airfoil. The flow over both the topside and the underside join up at the trailing edge and leave the airfoil travelling parallel to one another. This is known as the Kutta condition. Whenever the speed or angle of attack of an airfoil changes there is a weak starting vortex which begins to form, either above or below the trailing edge. This week starting vortex causes the Kutta condition to be re-established for the new speed or angle of attack. As a result, the circulation around the airfoil changes and so too does the lift in response to the changed speed or angle of attack. This means the required amount of circulation is, = 4 a V sin () (2.37)

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Having obtained the correct flow pattern, the lift can be calculated as a function of the amount of circulation applied. Lift = V ............................................... (2.38) This is known as the KuttaJoukowsky law. It is one of the most useful results of inviscid flow theory.

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