Segment V6.4: Potential Flow

(Related to Textbook Section 6.7 - Other Aspects of Potential Flow Analysis)

Flow fields for which an incompressible fluid is assumed to be frictionless and the motion to be irrotational are commonly referred to as potential flows.

Paradoxically, potential flows can be simulated by a slowly moving, viscous flow between closely spaced parallel plates. For such a system, dye injected upstream reveals an approximate potential flow pattern around a streamlined airfoil shape. Similarly, the potential flow pattern around a bluff body is shown. Even at the rear of the bluff body the streamlines closely follow the body shape. Generally, however, the flow would separate at the rear of the body, an important phenomenon not accounted for with potential theory.