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For example, in the mass continuity equation for flowing water, if 1 gram per second of water is flowing through a pipe with cross-sectional area 1 cm 2, then the average mass flux j inside the pipe is (1 g/s) / cm 2, and its direction is along the pipe in the direction that the water is flowing. Outside the pipe, where there is no water, the ...
In the analysis of a flow, it is often desirable to reduce the number of equations and/or the number of variables. The incompressible Navier–Stokes equation with mass continuity (four equations in four unknowns) can be reduced to a single equation with a single dependent variable in 2D, or one vector equation in 3D.
Navier–Stokes equation and the continuity equation [ edit ] In order to analytically find the stability of fluid flows, it is useful to note that hydrodynamic stability has a lot in common with stability in other fields, such as magnetohydrodynamics , plasma physics and elasticity ; although the physics is different in each case, the ...
Therefore, the continuity equation for an incompressible fluid reduces further to: = This relationship, =, identifies that the divergence of the flow velocity vector is equal to zero (), which means that for an incompressible fluid the flow velocity field is a solenoidal vector field or a divergence-free vector field.
The second equation is the incompressible constraint, stating the flow velocity is a solenoidal field (the order of the equations is not causal, but underlines the fact that the incompressible constraint is not a degenerate form of the continuity equation, but rather of the energy equation, as it will become clear in the following).
The velocity satisfies the continuity equation for incompressible flow: ∇ ⋅ u = 0. {\displaystyle \quad \nabla \cdot \mathbf {u} =0.} Although in principle the stream function doesn't require the use of a particular coordinate system, for convenience the description presented here uses a right-handed Cartesian coordinate system with ...
The flow speed of a fluid can be measured using a device such as a Venturi meter or an orifice plate, which can be placed into a pipeline to reduce the diameter of the flow. For a horizontal device, the continuity equation shows that for an incompressible fluid, the reduction in diameter will cause an increase in the fluid flow speed.
() then provides the governing equation for pressure computation. The idea of pressure-correction also exists in the case of variable density and high Mach numbers, although in this case there is a real physical meaning behind the coupling of dynamic pressure and velocity as arising from the continuity equation