Showing posts with label Fluid Mechanics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fluid Mechanics. Show all posts

Saturday, July 10, 2010

How Euler Derived the Momentum Equations

In this post, I will present Euler's derivation of the momentum balance equations for a fluid flow. Please note that I will use modern notation with a few modifications to the original derivation to clarify certain issues. Nonetheless, the core of Euler's derivation is maintained.

Considering two dimensional flows with axial and transverse velocities denoted by u(x,y,t) and v(x,y,t), respectively, Euler first forms the total differentials of these fields
Next, dividing both equations by dt, we obtain
but
then, upon substitution, we recover
One can infer that Euler is heading towards Newton's law. The previous expressions represent the acceleration of a fluid element. As to the forces, Euler identifies pressure, friction, and gravity. For the time being, he abandons friction and focuses on pressure and gravity.

For gravity, the force is in the transverse direction and is given by
where
is the mass of the fluid element.

For the pressure, he considers a rectangular fluid element as shown below.
Euler then assumes that the pressure at point L is p and deduces the values at the corners of the control volume. The net force acting on each side is calculated by taking the average pressure at the vertices defining that side and multiplying it by the area. This is shown in the figure below

Then, the net forces in the axial and transverse directions are given by
and

Now, by applying Newton's law, we have
or, by projecting in both directions, we have
and
Upon expansion, we get
and
Finally, we get the Euler equations
and

Voila!

[Next: Momentum Eqs. in Cartesian Coordinates]

Cite as:
Saad, T. "How Euler Derived the Momentum Equations". Weblog entry from Please Make A Note. http://pleasemakeanote.blogspot.com/2010/07/how-euler-derived-momentum-equations.html

Sunday, July 4, 2010

9. Derivation of the Continuity Equation in Spherical Coordinates

We start by selecting a spherical control volume dV. As shown in the figure below, this is given by
where r, θ, and φ stand for the radius, polar, and azimuthal angles, respectively. The azimuthal angle is also referred to as the zenith or colatitude angle.

The differential mass is


We will represent the velocity field via


In an Eulerian reference frame mass conservation is represented by accumulation, net flow, and source terms in a control volume.

Accumulation

The accumulation term is given by the time rate of change of mass. We therefore have

The net flow through the control volume can be divided into that corresponding to each direction.

Radial Flow

Starting with the radial direction, we have
The inflow area Ain is a trapezoid whose area is given by
The key term here is the sine term. Note that the mid segment is the average of the bases (parallel sides). Upon expansion of Ain, and in the limit of vanishing dθ, we have
substitution into Ain yields
where high order terms have been dropped.

The outflow in the radial direction is
but
where
and
By only keeping the lowest (second & third) order terms in the resulting expression, we have
Note, that in the expression for Aout, we kept both second order and third order terms. The reason for this is that this term will be multiplied by "dr" and therefore, the overall order will be three. In principle, one must carry all those terms until the final substitution is made, and only then one can compare terms and keep those with the lowest order.

At the outset, the net flow in the radial direction is given by

Polar Flow (θ)

The inflow in the polar direction is
where

The outflow in the θ direction is
where
Upon expansion, and keeping both second and third order terms, we get

Finally, the net flow in the polar direction is

Azimuthal Flow (φ)

The inflow in the azimuthal direction is given by
with
while the outflow is
and

At the outset, the net flow in the polar direction is

Continuity Equation

Now, by collecting all mass fluxes we have
which, upon dividing by dV and combining terms, reduces to

Cite as:
Saad, T. "9. Derivation of the Continuity Equation in Spherical Coordinates". Weblog entry from Please Make A Note. http://pleasemakeanote.blogspot.com/2010/02/9-derivation-of-continuity-equation-in.html

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Integrating Exact Differentials

Often times I am faced with the integration of a system of differential equations of the form
This system describes the behaviour of the primitive function "p". In fact, these equations stem from the total differential of p
Two cases arise in this situation. If "dp" is an exact differential, then the system is integrable independent of the path of integration. A differential equation "dp" is said to be an exact differential if the primitive function "p" exists. A necessary and sufficient condition for "dp" to be an exact differential if "p" is continuous and twice differentiable. In other words, when the mixed derivatives of "p" exist and are equal. For example, given
then, "dp" is an exact differential if, and only if,
If the total differential is not exact, then the integration can only be carried out along a specified path of the domain.

Integration of an Exact Differential

The typical approach to integrating the system of differential equations is to first integrate in one coordinate direction, add a function of the remaining coordinates, substitute into the remaining equations and so on.

However, there is another technique that only requires the following three steps:
  1. Integrate each equation with respect to its coordinate without adding any integration constants
  2. Add the results
  3. Subtract the common part
Here's an example. Consider
Integrating in each direction, we get
Then, the primitive function is
or
While this methods works, I have not seen any proof of why it does. Therefore, in this post, I will provide an independent proof. To simplify the process, I will only present this in two dimensions. I will also provide two methods for proving this. The words integral and primitive will be used interchangeably. Furthermore, I will refer to the individual differentials of a function as its constitutive differentials. For example,
are called the constitutive differentials of "p".


Method 1:

A differential system of equations can be written in general as

and let "p1" and "p2" denote the integrals of the above equations without the addition of an integration constant. Thus
Now let us first integrate in the "x" direction
or
Note the addition of the integration constant "N(y)". Substituting into the second differential, we get
or
(Note that it is assumed here that dN/dy is a function of y ONLY, so that the right hand side of the above equation will evaluate of a function of y and only y). Integrating with respect to "y", we recover
or
substituting "N(y)" into the equation for "p(x,y)", we have
So far, we have shown that the primitive function is the sum of the integrals in each direction (i.e. p1 and p2) minus some term denoted by M(x,y). It remains to show that M(x,y) represents a part that is common to both "p1" and "p2". To arrive at this, we invoke the fact that the this system's total differential is exat, i.e.
or
collecting terms, we get
This is true if
with T(x,y) being continuous and twice differentiable. Given this, we rewrite M(x,y) as
Finally, we now rewrite "p1" and "p2" using T(x,y)
It is therefore clear that M(x,y) is actually a common term for "p1" and "p2" and the primitive is given by
Q.E.D.

Note: One can now verify that the integration constant N(y) is a function of y, and only y. Reconsider the equation for dN/dy
writing in terms of T(x,y), we have
or

Method 2:

Consider a real continuous and twice differentiable function "p(x,y)". In general, this function can be written as
where "c" is a constant and the component functions are also real, continuous, and twice differentiable. Now form the total differential of "p"
where
The key component of this derivation are the derivatives of "q" in both differentials. We now define the integrals of the above system without adding an integration constant. We get
but we know that
When written in terms of "p1" and "p2", one recovers
where q(x,y) is the common part.
Q.E.D.

This shows that the primitive of an exact differential is equal to the sum of primitives of its constitutive functions minus the common part. Integration of the constitutive differentials is carried out without adding integration constants.

Summary:
While I have shown that the method of separate integrations works, one must remember that this technique is applicable ONLY to exact differentials. Therefore, the mixed derivatives test must be first applied before carrying out this type of integration. In my next post, I will discuss how to handle inexact differentials.

Cite as:
Saad, T. "Integrating Exact Differentials". Weblog entry from Please Make A Note. http://pleasemakeanote.blogspot.com/2010/07/integrating-totalexact-differentials.html