Kinetic energy of incompressiblue fluid

949 Views Asked by At

I am trying to show that the kinetic energy for an incompressible and irrotational fluid with no sources and no sinks is given by

$$\frac{\delta}{2} \iint_{S} \psi \frac{\partial \psi}{\partial n} dS $$

I tried to use that Kinetic Energy$= \frac{1}{2} \iiint_{V} \delta v^{2} d V $ where $\psi$ is the velocity potential, $v= \nabla \psi$

and that $v^2= \nabla^2 \psi ^2$ and then tried using divergence theorem but I cant get it to work .

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On BEST ANSWER

Use the vector calculus identity

$$\nabla \cdot (\psi \nabla \psi)= \nabla \psi \cdot \nabla \psi + \nabla \cdot\nabla \psi.$$

Then with $\mathbb{v} = \nabla \psi$ we have

$$\nabla \cdot (\psi \nabla \psi)= \mathbb{v}\cdot\mathbb{v} + \nabla \cdot \mathbb{v} = v^2,$$

since $\nabla \cdot \mathbb{v} = 0$ in incompressible flow.

Hence, by the divergence theorem

$$\int_V v^2 dV = \int_V \nabla \cdot (\psi \nabla \psi) dV= \int_S\psi \nabla \psi \cdot \mathbb{n}dS,$$

where $\mathbb{n}$ is the outward unit normal vector. The dot product of the gradient with the normal vector is by definition the normal derivative of the potential.

Thus,

$$\int_V v^2 dV = \int_S\psi \frac{ \partial \psi}{\partial n} dS$$