COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS: Conservation Laws and Mathematical Preliminaries

Dr K M Singh, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee NPTEL L4.1

Lecture 4
CONSERVATION LAWS AND MATHEMATICAL
PRELIMINARIES
4.1 CONSERVATION LAWS
CFD is based on fundamental governing equations of fluid dynamics which are essentially
mathematical models of conservation laws of physics. Assuming a fluid to be a continuum,
these conservation laws are
1. Conservation of mass
2. Conservation of momentum (Newtons second law)
3. Conservation of energy (first law of thermodynamics)
These conservation laws are supplemented with constitutive relations (e.g. stress-strain rate
relation, heat diffusion law, etc.) for a specific material.

In this lecture, we provide a brief overview mathematical notation and a few important
theorems which are used to obtain mathematical statements of the conservation laws, in
integral as well as differential forms. The integral forms provide the starting point for the
finite volume method whereas the differential form of conservation equations is used by the
finite difference and the finite element methods. This lecture closely follows the approach of
Kundu and Cohen (2008) and Panton (2005) which should be consulted for further details
and supplemental reading.
4.2 MATHEMATICAL NOTATIONS
Conservation laws of a continuum medium involve vector and tensor quantities. Following
three different types of notations are usually employed in continuum mechanics:

- Dyadic or vector notation
- Expanded or component form
- Cartesian tensor notation

Dyadic or vector notation
Dyadic notation is usually preferred for clear enunciation of the underlying physical
principles in a compact form. In this notation, form of governing equations is independent of
the choice of coordinate axes. Hence, this is also known as coordinate-free form. We would
use bold face letters to denote vectors or tensor quantities (e.g. velocity v), whereas simple
italics symbols are used for scalars (e.g., temperature T, pressure p).

Expanded or component form
Component form of governing equations is dependent on the choice of coordinate axes.
Algebraic manipulations are a lot simpler with an expanded form of conservation equations
(say, in Cartesian coordinates).







COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS: Conservation Laws and Mathematical Preliminaries
Dr K M Singh, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee NPTEL L4.2
Cartesian tensor notation
Cartesian tensor notation provides compactness of the dyadic notation and ease of algebraic
manipulation of Cartesian coordinate representation. In this notation,
1 2 3
x x x
O represents the
Cartesian reference frame
xyz
O , and n subscripts are used for an nth order tensor. Thus,
- one subscript is used to denote a vector (e.g.,
i
v denotes the vector v);
- two subscripts are used to denote a second order tensor (e.g.
ij
t represents stress tensor
).
The summation convention given below is widely used in Cartesian tensor notation.

Summation convention
A repeated index in a term implies summation over the range of that index. For example
i i i i
i
a b a b

(Dot product of two vectors a and b) (4.1)

3 1 2
1 2 3
i i
i i
v v v v v
x x x x x
c c c c c
= + +
c c c c c

(Divergence of vector v) (4.2)

Kronecker delta
The Kronecker delta,
ij
o , is a second order isotropic tensor defined as
1 if
0 if
ij
i j
i j
o
=
=

=

(4.3)
Substitution property of Kronecker delta:

ij j i
u u o = (4.4)

Alternating tensor (permutation symbol)
The alternating tensor,
ijk
c is isotropic tensor of third order defined as
1 if 123, 231 or 312 (cyclic order)
0 if any two indices are equal
1 if 321, 213 or 132 (anticyclic order)
ijk
ijk
ijk
c
=

(4.5)

Products of Two Vectors a and b
- Scalar or dot product
1 1 2 2 3 3 i i
a b a b a b a b = = + + = a b b a (4.6)
- Vector or cross product
i ijk j k
c a b c = = c a b (4.7)
- Tensor product
ij i j
C a b = = C ab (4.8)

Products of Two Second Order Tensors A and B
- Simple tensor product
ijkl ij kl
C A B = C = AB (4.9)
- Singly contracted product (dot product)
( )
ij ik kj
A B = A B (4.10)



COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS: Conservation Laws and Mathematical Preliminaries
Dr K M Singh, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee NPTEL L4.3
- Doubly contracted product (scalar product)
:
ij ji
c c A B = = A B (4.11)


Products of a Second Order Tensors A and vector u
- Simple tensor product
ijk ij k
C A u = C = Au (4.12)
- Singly contracted product (dot product)
( )
i ij j
A u = A u (4.13)

Gradient operator ( V)
The gradient operator, V (del) is the vector operator defined as
i
i
x y w x
c c c c
V + +
c c c c
i j k i (4.14)
When operated on a scalar function| , it generates a vector whose i
th
component is /
i
x | c c .

Divergence operator ( . V )
The divergence of a vector field is defined as the scalar quantity given by
3 1 2
1 2 3
.
i
i
v v v v
x x x x
c c c c
V = + +
c c c c
v (4.15)
Divergence of a second order tensor yields a vector whose i
th
component is given by
( ) .
ij
i
j
x
t c
V =
c
(4.16)
Thus, divergence operator decreases the order of a tensor by 1, whereas gradient operator
increases the order of a tensor by 1.


4.3 GAUSS DIVERGENCE THEOREM
Let V be a volume bounded by a closed surface A. Let ( ) F x be any scalar, vector or tensor
field. Gauss theorem states that
d d
i
i V A
F
V F A
x
c
=
c
} }
(4.17)
If F is a vector, then Gauss theorem becomes
d d
i
i i
i V A
F
V AF
x
c
=
c
} }
or d d
V A
V V =
} }
F F A (4.18)
which is popularly known as Gauss divergence theorem. Gauss divergence theorem is used to
convert a surface integral to a volume integral (or vice-versa).




4.4 REYNOLDS TRANSPORT THEOREM (RTT)

Conservation laws are defined for a control mass system whereas a control volume based
(Eulerian) description is usually preferred for a fluid medium. Reynolds transport theorem



COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS: Conservation Laws and Mathematical Preliminaries
Dr K M Singh, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee NPTEL L4.4
provides a relation between the time rates of change in two descriptions, and is used to obtain
the integral form of the conservation laws for a fluid medium.

Let | be an intensive property, then corresponding extensive property u for a given
system (or control mass) can be expressed as
CM
d |
O
u = O
}
(4.19)
where
CM
O represents the volume of the system which occupies the control volume at a
given instant of time and is mass density. Reynolds transport theorem states that the time
rate of change of u for the system is equal to the rate of change of | in control volume plus
net flux of | through boundaries of the control volume, i.e.

( )
CM
d
c
S
d
d
dt t
| |
O
u c | |
= O +
|
c
\ .
} }
v v A (4.20)

where
c
v is velocity of the control volume with respect to the fixed inertial reference frame
in which v is defined, and S denotes the boundary surface of the control volume. The second
term on RHS is usually called the convective (or advective) term.

We would employ the preceding notations and theorems to derive the integral as well as the
differential forms of the mass, momentum and energy equations in next few lectures.


REFERENCES

Kundu, P. K. and Cohen, I. M. (2008). Fluid Mechanics, 4
th
Ed., Academic Press.
Panton, R. L. (2005). Incompressible Flow, 3
rd
Ed., Wiley.