Michael Stone, April 2021
de Laval flow
Figure 1: A de Laval nozzle. Flow is from left to right. Red curve is tem-
perature, green is pressure and blue is velocity. M is Mach number. (Figure
from Wikipedia)
Consider the flow of a compressible fluid through a pipe of slowly chang-
ing area A(x). Here slowly varying means that when computing the fluid
momentum we can ignore all but the x components of the velocity. The time
rate of change of the x component of momentum of the fluid between two
surfaces at x1 (t) and x2 (t) that bound a moving volume of the fluid is
x2 (t) x2
d ∂
Z Z
2 2
Ṗ = ρvAdx = ρv A − ρv A + (ρvA)dx.
dt x1 (t)
x2 x1
x1 ∂t
The x component of the total force on the same body of fluid is
Z x2
dA
F = pA|x1 − pA|x2 + p dx,
x1 dx
where the pA|xi terms are force on the body of fluid due the neighbouring fluid
and the integral is the force due to the longitudinal component of pressure
p(x) exerted on the fluid by the wall. (When the pipe is getting wider the
1
unit normal to the wall has a non-zero component in the +x direction.) An
integration by parts allows us to rewrite the total force as
Z x2 Z x2
∂ dA ∂p
F = − (pA) + p dx = −A dx.
x1 ∂x dx x1 ∂x
We can similarly write the momentum change as
Z x2
2 2 ∂
Ṗ = ρv A x2 − ρv A x1 + (ρvA)dx
x1 ∂t
Z x2
∂ρv ∂ 2
= A + (ρv A) dx.
x1 ∂t ∂x
Now Ṗ = F and, as x1 and x2 are arbitrary, we can read off the local
momentum conservation law
∂ρv ∂ ∂p
A + (ρv 2 A) = −A .
∂t ∂x ∂x
We also have mass conservation, so
d x2 (t)
Z x2
∂ρ
Z
0= ρAdx = ρvA|x2 − ρvA|x1 + A dx
dt x1 (t) x1 ∂t
Z x2 (t)
∂ρ ∂
= A + (ρvA) dx.
x1 (t) ∂t ∂x
Again, as x1 and x2 are arbitrary, we deduce that
∂ρ ∂
A + (ρvA) = 0.
∂t ∂x
When we subtract v times the mass conservation equation from the momen-
tum conservation equation the derivatives of A and ρ cancel and we obtain
a pipe version of Euler’s equation
∂v ∂v ∂p
A(x) ρ +v + = 0.
∂t ∂x ∂x
If we write v = ∂x φ(x, t) and observe that
1 ∂p ∂h
− =−
ρ ∂x ∂x
2
where h is the specific enthalpy U + P V per unit mass, we can rewite
∂v ∂v 1 ∂p
+v =−
∂t ∂x ρ ∂x
as
∂ ∂φ 1 2
+ v +h =0
∂x ∂t 2
The statement that
∂φ 1 2
+ v +h
∂t 2
is independent of x is Daniel Bernoulli’s theorem (in a form due to Euler)
for unsteady compressible flow.
For steady flow both ∂t v and ∂t ρ are zero. The mass conservation equation
then becomes ∂x (ρvA) = 0, or equivalently
1 ∂ρ 1 ∂v 1 ∂A
+ + = 0. (⋆)
ρ ∂x v ∂x A ∂x
The square of the local speed of sound is
∂p
c2 =
∂ρ
so the time independent Euler’s equation can be rewritten as
∂v ∂p ∂ρ 1 ∂ρ v ∂v
ρv =− = −c2 ⇒ =− 2 .
∂x ∂x ∂x ρ ∂x c ∂x
As a consequence (⋆) becomes
v 2 1 ∂v
1 ∂A
1− 2 =− .
c v ∂x A ∂x
This is de Laval’s equation that says that for subsonic flow a narrowing pipe
makes the fluid speed up, while for supersonic flow a widening pipe makes
the flow speed up. This why the nozzle of a rocket engine first narrows to
a throat at which the flow reaches Mach 1, and then expands allowing the
exhaust gas to become supersonic.
Channel flow model: Instead of a compressible fluid in a pipe consider
incompressible flow of unit mass-density fluid in a shallow channel of width
3
W (x). The dynamical quantities are the depth h(x, t) and the velocity v(x, t)
which we assume to be independent of y. We have the mass conservation
equation
W ∂t h + ∂x (W v) = 0,
and, taking into account that the pressure increases linearly with depth and
a consideration of the longitudinal pressure gradient from the the walls, we
have the momentum conservation equation
2 1 2
∂t (W hv) + ∂x (W hv ) = −W ∂x gh .
2
These two equations combine to give Euler’s equation
∂t v + v∂x v = −∂x (gh),
which makes sense as it coincides with the usual one-dimensional incompress-
ible flow Euler equation that we expect to hold at all depths in the fluid. We
can multiply this last equation by h to get
1 2
h(∂t v + v∂x v) = −∂x gh
2
and so use channel flow to mimic a compressible flow in which ρ ↔ h and
p ↔ (1/2)gh2, and hence the√square of the local “speed of sound” is c2 =
dp/dρ ↔ gh. Recall that c = gh0 is the speed of shallow water waves in a
channel of undisturbed depth h0 .
