CHAPTER
2
FUNDAMENTAL
EQUATIONS OF
COMPRESSIBLE
VISCOUS FLOW
2-1 INTRODUCTION
‘The equations of viscous flow have been known for more than 100 years. In their
complete form, these equations are very difficult to solve, even on modem digital
computers. In fact, at high Reynolds numbers (turbulent flow), the equations are, in
effect, impossible to solve with present mathesnatical techniques because the bound-
ary conditions become randomly time-dependent, Nevertheless, it is very insteuctive
to derive and discuss these fundamental equations because they give many insights,
yield several particular solutions, and can be examined for modeling Iaws. Also,
these exact equations can then be simplified, using Prandit's boundary-layer approx-
imations. The resulting simpler system is very practical and yields many fruitful
engineering solutions.
2-2 CLASSIFICATION OF THE
FUNDAMENTAL EQUATIONS,
The basic equations considered here are the three laws of conservation for physical
systems
1. Conservation of mass (continuity)
2. Conservation of momentum (Newton's second law)
3. Conservation of energy (first law of thermodynamics)
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