In Newtonian mechanics, linear momentum, translational momentum, or simply momentum is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction in three-dimensional space. If m is an object's mass and v is the velocity, then the momentum is
In physics, equations of motion are equations that describe the behavior of a physical system in terms of its motion as a function of time. More specifically, the equations of motion describe the behaviour of a physical system as a set of mathematical functions in terms of dynamic variables: normally spatial coordinates and time are used, but others are also possible, such as momentum components and time. The most general choice are generalized coordinates which can be any convenient variables characteristic of the physical system. The functions are defined in a Euclidean space in classical mechanics, but are replaced by curved spaces in relativity. If the dynamics of a system is known, the equations are the solutions to the differential equations describing the motion of the dynamics.
In physics, a force is said to do work if, when acting, there is a displacement of the point of application in the direction of the force. For example, when a ball is held above the ground and then dropped, the work done on the ball as it falls is equal to the weight of the ball multiplied by the distance to the ground. When the force is constant and the angle between the force and the displacement is θ, then the work done is given by W = Fs cos θ.
In fluid dynamics, the Euler equations are a set of quasilinear hyperbolic equations governing adiabatic and inviscid flow. They are named after Leonhard Euler. The equations represent Cauchy equations of conservation of mass (continuity), and balance of momentum and energy, and can be seen as particular Navier–Stokes equations with zero viscosity and zero thermal conductivity. In fact, Euler equations can be obtained by linearization of some more precise continuity equations like Navier–Stokes equations in a local equilibrium state given by a Maxwellian. The Euler equations can be applied to incompressible and to compressible flow – assuming the flow velocity is a solenoidal field, or using another appropriate energy equation respectively. Historically, only the incompressible equations have been derived by Euler. However, fluid dynamics literature often refers to the full set – including the energy equation – of the more general compressible equations together as "the Euler equations".
In theoretical physics and mathematical physics, analytical mechanics, or theoretical mechanics is a collection of closely related alternative formulations of classical mechanics. It was developed by many scientists and mathematicians during the 18th century and onward, after Newtonian mechanics. Since Newtonian mechanics considers vector quantities of motion, particularly accelerations, momenta, forces, of the constituents of the system, an alternative name for the mechanics governed by Newton's laws and Euler's laws is vectorial mechanics.
In physics, Hamilton's principle is William Rowan Hamilton's formulation of the principle of stationary action. It states that the dynamics of a physical system is determined by a variational problem for a functional based on a single function, the Lagrangian, which contains all physical information concerning the system and the forces acting on it. The variational problem is equivalent to and allows for the derivation of the differential equations of motion of the physical system. Although formulated originally for classical mechanics, Hamilton's principle also applies to classical fields such as the electromagnetic and gravitational fields, and plays an important role in quantum mechanics, quantum field theory and criticality theories.
Potential vorticity (PV) is seen as one of the important theoretical successes of modern meteorology. It is a simplified approach for understanding fluid motions in a rotating system such as the Earth's atmosphere and ocean. Its development traces back to the circulation theorem by Bjerknes in 1898, which is a specialized form of Kelvin's circulation theorem. Starting from Hoskins et al., 1985, PV has been more commonly used in operational weather diagnosis such as tracing dynamics of air parcels and inverting for the full flow field. Even after detailed numerical weather forecasts on finer scales were made possible by increases in computational power, the PV view is still used in academia and routine weather forecasts, shedding light on the synoptic scale features for forecasters and researchers.
Conservation form or Eulerian form refers to an arrangement of an equation or system of equations, usually representing a hyperbolic system, that emphasizes that a property represented is conserved, i.e. a type of continuity equation. The term is usually used in the context of continuum mechanics.
The intent of this article is to highlight the important points of the derivation of the Navier–Stokes equations as well as its application and formulation for different families of fluids.
The omega equation is of great importance in meteorology and atmospheric physics. It is a partial differential equation for the vertical velocity, , which is defined as the Lagrangian rate of change of pressure with time. Mathematically, , where represents a material derivative. It is valid for large scale flows under the conditions of quasi-geostrophy and hydrostatic balance. In fact, one may consider the vertical velocity that results from solving the omega equation as that which is needed to maintain quasi-geostrophy and hydrostasy.
The equation reads:
In computational fluid dynamics, the volume of fluid (VOF) method is a free-surface modelling technique, i.e. a numerical technique for tracking and locating the free surface. It belongs to the class of Eulerian methods which are characterized by a mesh that is either stationary or is moving in a certain prescribed manner to accommodate the evolving shape of the interface. As such, VOF is an advection scheme—a numerical recipe that allows the programmer to track the shape and position of the interface, but it is not a standalone flow solving algorithm. The Navier–Stokes equations describing the motion of the flow have to be solved separately. The same applies for all other advection algorithms.
Turbulent diffusion is the transport of mass, heat, or momentum within a system due to random and chaotic time dependent motions. It occurs when turbulent fluid systems reach critical conditions in response to shear flow, which results from a combination of steep concentration gradients, density gradients, and high velocities. It occurs much more rapidly than molecular diffusion and is therefore extremely important for problems concerning mixing and transport in systems dealing with combustion, contaminants, dissolved oxygen, and solutions in industry. In these fields, turbulent diffusion acts as an excellent process for quickly reducing the concentrations of a species in a fluid or environment, in cases where this is needed for rapid mixing during processing, or rapid pollutant or contaminant reduction for safety.
Lagrangian mechanics is a reformulation of classical mechanics, introduced by the Italian-French mathematician and astronomer Joseph-Louis Lagrange in 1788.
In chaos theory and fluid dynamics, chaotic mixing is a process by which flow tracers develop into complex fractals under the action of a fluid flow. The flow is characterized by an exponential growth of fluid filaments. Even very simple flows, such as the blinking vortex, or finitely resolved wind fields can generate exceptionally complex patterns from initially simple tracer fields.
Geophysical fluid dynamics, in its broadest meaning, refers to the fluid dynamics of naturally occurring flows, such as lava flows, oceans, and planetary atmospheres, on Earth and other planets.
The multiphase particle-in-cell method (MP-PIC) is a numerical method for modeling particle-fluid and particle-particle interactions in a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculation. The MP-PIC method achieves greater stability than its particle-in-cell predecessor by simultaneously treating the solid particles as computational particles and as a continuum. In the MP-PIC approach, the particle properties are mapped from the Lagrangian coordinates to an Eulerian grid through the use of interpolation functions. After evaluation of the continuum derivative terms, the particle properties are mapped back to the individual particles. This method has proven to be stable in dense particle flows, computationally efficient, and physically accurate. This has allowed the MP-PIC method to be used as particle-flow solver for the simulation of industrial-scale chemical processes involving particle-fluid flows.
In theoretical physics, relativistic Lagrangian mechanics is Lagrangian mechanics applied in the context of special relativity and general relativity.
