Conformal Mapping and Fluid Mechanics

Conformal Mapping and Fluid Mechanics
Monday, December 02, 2013

1:56 PM
Homework 4 due (hard deadline) Wednesday, December 11 at 5 PM.

more problems available
rapid grading window: Friday, December 5 - Wednesday, December 11
Final exam on Thursday, December 12 at 6:30 PM.
Complex variable techniques can be used in clever ways to analyze problems in fluid
mechanics in two-dimensional domains, when the flow is incompressible (subsonic)
( irrotational ( , and steady (no time-dependence) where
is the fluid velocity.
Two-dimensional fluid mechanic problems are relevant when the fluid is thin in the
third dimension (in which case the fluid velocity is often negligible in that direction)
or otherwise uniform along the third dimension.
Can't get nontrivial flows in bounded, simply connected
domains.
Also the velocity field has the property that on any rigid boundary of the
domain D in which the fluid lies, we must have:
The key problem in such fluid mechanic problems is to describe the flow velocity
field given the shape of the domain and possibly some "far-field" boundary
conditions if the domain is unbounded in some direction.
A few comments:
If the domain D is simply connected then the irrotational (curl-free) condition implies the
existence of what's known as a velocity potential: .
The incompressibility condition implies the existence of a stream function
Notice that the equations for the fluid flow can be expressed in terms of the velocity
potential and stream function as:
New Section 2 Page 1

Let's map these concepts into complex analysis, and see what it can do for us in helping to solve for
these ideal two-dimensional fluid flows.
Define the complex velocity potential where .
This is just the Cauchy-Riemann equations, meaning that the complex velocity
potential for our ideal fluid flow is an analytic function.
The derivative of the complex velocity potential:
We see that the complex velocity potential must be an analytic function respecting the
boundary conditions, and once we have it, we can easily obtain the flow field. Let's see
how we can use this fact to solve some basic fluid mechanics problems.
how we can use this fact to solve some basic fluid mechanics problems.
Example A: Uniform free space flow:

What is a consistent flow pattern past a corner according to the ideal
fluid conditions?
Why does this work? This is a simple illustration of the principle of

conformal mapping. One uses analytic functions to map a fluids
problem (or more generally a Laplace equation problem) from a given
domain to a domain on which the problem is solved.
Why does this pullback of a solution through an analytic mapping solve

the given problem:
The pullback function is analytic on the prescribed domain because
it's a composition of analytic functions.
Boundary conditions are OK because analytic mappings are
conformal, meaning they preserve relationships of angles.
Conformal mapping works more broadly on problems involving
Laplace's equation, because it is invariant under conformal
mapping.
Example D: Flow around cylinder

Let's see why this mapping works. Easier to see by inversion:
This gives us two roots, whose product is . Therefore either both

roots are on the circle of radius a about the origin, or one is inside the
circle and one is outside.
Let's see where the boundary itself maps. Notice that if z is real, then
its image under the mapping is real (i.e., on the boundary). As for the
upper semicircle, we can parameterize it by
So we see that the boundary in the given domain maps into the real
axis (the boundary of the simpler domain in w plane), and one can
check directly that this mapping is 1-1.
The only thing that's left to do is to check that the mapping actually
takes the interior of the given domain to the interior of the target
domain. To do this, note that the given domain can be defined:

And one can show that the mapping is surjective (onto) because every
other domain in the wall in the given domain can be accounted for via
the above observation of 2-1 mapping:
Now just need to check that the far field conditions (velocity = U for
large ). Let's do this after the fact.
Therefore we compose the solution on the simple flat wall domain with
our analytic mapping to get:
Check far-field conditions:

Check far-field conditions:
So we have successfully solved this flow around a cylinder attached to a

wall.
Closely related example: Flow past a free cylinder:
How do we guess conformal mappings? Experience!

To map polygons into simpler shapes, use Schwarz-Christoffel formula.
To handle ellipses and hyperbolas, think of using the mapping
To map parabolas into lines, consider the mapping
The use of complex analysis on fluid problems can go much deeper than this conformal mapping. See for

The use of complex analysis on fluid problems can go much deeper than this conformal mapping. See for
example the article D. Crowdy and M. Siegel, "Exact Solutions for the Evolution of a Bubble in Stokes
Flow: A Cauchy Transform Approach," SIAM J. Appl. Math. 65 (3), 941-963 in the reading list.
Also, consider a problem of a free jet flowing out of a slit in a wall.
This has a challenging free boundary aspect to it; don't know the boundary of the jet; have to
solve for it. How? Construct a complex velocity potential, and then use a sort of hodograph
method. This is a technique in partial differential equations where you exchange the role of
independent and dependent variables. Look at the problem not in the physical (x,y) plane, but
in the image of this plane under the mapping by the complex velocity potential. Boundary
conditions are more easily expressed in terms of rectangles in this complex velocity potential
plane because stream function is constant along the boundary!

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Monday, December 02, 2013

Homework 4 due (hard deadline) Wednesday, December 11 at 5 PM.

Final exam on Thursday, December 12 at 6:30 PM.

New Section 2 Page 1

Define the complex velocity potential where .

The derivative of the complex velocity potential:

Example A: Uniform free space flow:

New Section 2 Page 3

Why does this work? This is a simple illustration of the principle of

Why does this pullback of a solution through an analytic mapping solve

Example D: Flow around cylinder

New Section 2 Page 4

This gives us two roots, whose product is . Therefore either both

New Section 2 Page 5

Check far-field conditions:

New Section 2 Page 6

So we have successfully solved this flow around a cylinder attached to a

Closely related example: Flow past a free cylinder:

How do we guess conformal mappings? Experience!

New Section 2 Page 7

To handle ellipses and hyperbolas, think of using the mapping

To map parabolas into lines, consider the mapping

New Section 2 Page 8

Also, consider a problem of a free jet flowing out of a slit in a wall.

New Section 2 Page 9

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