Notes Potential Flow Around Cylinder
Notes Potential Flow Around Cylinder
Eli, APM105b
April 24, 2011
1 Derivation of equations
Consider a flow in two dimensions around an infinitely long cylinder of radius a, where the velocity
components are u = (u, v). Assume
The first assumption is commonly made in many cases in fluid dynamics because it can be
shown to be valid for a large range of circumstances. Water, or even air at low velocities, are in-
compressible to a good approximation, justifying the second assumption. We have already derived
the above mass continuity equation in the course.
The first assumption implies, via Stokes theorem, that
u = ∇φ = (φx , φy ).
∇ · u = ∇ · (∇φ) = ∇2 φ = 0
1
because we now have ∇ · u = ux + vy = −ψyx + ψxy = 0. Note also that
u · ∇ψ = (−ψy , ψx ) · (ψx , ψy ) = 0
so that the flow u is perpendicular to the gradient of ψ and therefore is along lines of constant
stream function ψ.
The condition that the vorticity vanishes may now be written as 0 = ζ≡vx − uy = ψxx + ψyy , so
that the stream function also satisfies Laplace’s equation,
∇2 ψ = 0.
2 Boundary conditions
The boundary conditions are a uniform flow (U, 0) upstream at infinity, and no flow into the cylin-
der. The upstream condition implies that away from the cylinder, we expect a uniform flow. For
the potential φ this implies,
φ|r→−∞ = Ux = Ur cos θ. (2)
At the surface of the cylinder, the boundary condition is that the normal component of the velocity
vanishes, which means that
∂φ
=0 at r = a. (3)
∂r
[For the stream function, the upstream condition implies ψ|x→−∞ = −Uy. The no flow into the
cylinder means that the cylinder surface is a streamline, ψ(r = a, θ) = constant.]
3 Solution
Substituting a solution based on separation of variables, φ = R(r)Θ(θ), into the equation (1) we
have
r2 R00 + rR0 Θ00
+ =0
R Θ
so that
r2 R00 + rR0 − κ2 R = 0,
Θ00 + κ2 Θ = 0.
Note that the R equation is equi-dimensional, substituting R = rλ and solving the characteristic
equation
λ(λ − 1) + λ − κ2 = 0,
or
λ2 − κ2 = 0,
2
so that λ = ±κ. We therefore find that the solution is either R = Crκ + Dr−κ for non zero κ, or, if
κ = 0, it is A + Blnr. The solutions to the Θ(θ) equation are simply sines and cosines for non zero
κ and linear in θ otherwise, so that,
so that
C = Da−2κ
and the solution may be written as
Applying again the b.c. at infinity, now we must conclude first that H = 0,
As r → ∞ this becomes
φ(r, θ) → Qrκ (a−2κ ) cos κθ,
so we must have Qa−2κ = U and κ = 1, so that the final solution is
a2
φ(r, θ) = U 1 + 2 r cos θ
r
a2
= U 1+ 2 x
x + y2
(Looks like we didn’t actually need to use the periodicity condition φ(r, θ + 2π) = φ(r, θ).)
Here is a plot of the potential and flow field, obtained using the Matlab program
potential flow around cylinder.m:
3
potential flow around cylinder
10
0
y
−5
−10
−10 −5 0 5 10
x