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Potential Flow

In this simulation we consider flow that is steady, inviscid (and hence laminar), incompressible and irrotational. We will also ignore effects due to gravity and just look at flow in two dimensions (x,y). This sounds like an over simplification but is surprisingly accurate for air flow over a body away from a thin region near the body, called the boundary layer, where viscous effects are important. It was used extensively for the study of aerodynamics (although more powerful computer-based approaches are now generally used).

This simulation models potential flow. In each case the flow field is a uniform flow plus one of the following

The strengths of each can be varied.

Free-stream:
Source:
Dipole:
Vortex:
x (m):
y (m):
Speed (m/s):