. Other Formulations
Then the irrotationality condition is identically satisfied, but substituting u and w into the conservation of mass results in
In polar coordinates this is
This is the governing equation for potential flows, the Laplace equation. The perturbation velocity field is given by grad ф — , фф, (or in short notation
Vф). The boundary conditions become
VФ. П obstacle — (UІ + Vф).П obstacle — 0 (211)
Vф — 0 as x2 + z2 — ^ (2.11)
A streamfunction can be introduced: let ty(x, z) be the perturbation streamfunc – tion. The full stream function is & — Uz + ty(x, z). The perturbation velocity components are obtained from
дф дф u — , w — -д z д x |
(2.12) |
then the equation of conservation of mass is identically satisfied and substituting u and w in the irrotationality condition yields |
|
д2ф д2ф л* — d + a zt — 0 |
(2.13) |
In polar coordinates this is also |
|
1 дф дф Vr — r ~дв’ Ve — – d7 |
(2.14) |
д ( дф 1 д2ф dr Г dr + r дв2 0 |
(2.15) |
This is the governing equation for the streamfunction. The streamfunction also satisfies Laplace equation. The boundary conditions, however, read
& obstacle = (Uz + Ф) obstacle = const-
g■ – f) – 0 as x2 + z2 (2J6)
The first condition results from the identity V&.tobstacle — 0, where t represents a unit tangent vector to the solid surface (n. t — 0), which proves that & obstacie — const., the value of this constant is however not known a priori. The
Ф = const. lines are the streamlines of the flow. Solid obstacles are streamlines and conversely, streamlines can be materialized to represent a body surface.
When both, Ф and Ф exist, simultaneously, potential and stream functions are called conjugate harmonic functions. It can be easily shown that the curves Ф = const. are orthogonal to the curves Ф = const.