3

I'm a engineering student studying fluid mechanics, and I was wondering if there is an analytical solution (I'm aware of numerical methods) to the following problem:

Suppose we have an incompressible fluid with constant density traveling in a horizontal duct of length $L$ and the cross area is a square width and height of $2B$ (Diagram of Cross Section). The fluid is also at steady state, and there is a constant pressure drop.

The relevant parts Navier-Stokes equation reduces to the following: $$ \frac{\partial^2}{\partial x^2} V_z(x,y) + \frac{\partial^2}{\partial y^2} V_z(x,y) = -\frac{1}{\mu}(-\frac{\partial P}{\partial z})$$ with no-slip boundary conditions: $$V_z(x,B)=0,V_z(x,-B)=0,V_z(B,y)=0,V_z(-B,y)=0$$ Which is equivalent to the Possion equation in two dimensions: $$\nabla^2 \vec v=-c$$ Where $c$ is a non-zero constant and the same boundary conditions apply.

I've read that this problem may be solved through use of a Green's function or maybe integral transforms, but I am unfamiliar with such methods. Does anyone have any suggestions of how to proceed?

ramgorur
  • 395
  • You're looking at the Poisson equation $\nabla^2 u = c$ with homogeneous Dirichlet BCs on a square. We will consider a particular solution to $\nabla^2 v = c$, namely $v(x,y)=\frac{c}{4} (x^2+y^2-2B^2)$. Then $w=u-v$ solves $\nabla^2 w = 0$ with $w=-v$ on the boundary. This is a Dirichlet Laplace equation. – Ian Apr 09 '17 at 01:13
  • (Cont.) Because I specifically tailored the problem so that the BC is zero on the corners, it can be solved by the superposition development given in http://ramanujan.math.trinity.edu/rdaileda/teach/s14/m3357/lectures/lecture_3_18_slides.pdf Without this trick I think the problem is significantly harder (you need to conformally map the square to the disc, or know the harmonic measure of the square, or similar). – Ian Apr 09 '17 at 01:13

1 Answers1

1

You have two options here, neither of which is particularly nice, but whether one is more useful than the other depends on what you have available.


The usual method is to use Fourier series. Working on the square $[0,1] \times [0,1]$ makes the expressions nicer. The boundary conditions say that $v$ is zero on the boundary, so it is appropriate to look for an expansion $$ v(x,y) = \sum_{n,m=1}^{\infty} a_{n,m} \sin{n\pi x}\sin{m\pi y}. $$ Differentiating, it is easy to see that we then have $$ -\nabla^2 v = \sum_{n,m=1}^{\infty} (n^2+m^2)\pi^2 a_{n,m} \sin{n\pi x}\sin{m\pi y}. $$

On the other hand, $$ \int_0^1 \sin{k\pi x}\sin{\ell \pi x} \, dx = \begin{cases} 1/2 & k=\ell \\ 0 & k \neq \ell \end{cases}, $$ so if we multiply the equation by $4\sin{N\pi x}\sin{N\pi y}$ and integrate over the square, we get an expression for $a_{N,M}$: $$ \int_0^1\int_0^1 (4\sin{N\pi x}\sin{N\pi y})(-\nabla^2v) \, dx \, dy = \dotsb = (N^2+M^2)\pi^2 a_{N,M}. $$ But this must be equal to $$ \int_0^1\int_0^1 (4\sin{N\pi x}\sin{N\pi y})(c) \, dx \, dy = \frac{(1-(-1)^N)(1-(-1)^M)}{NM\pi^2}c. $$ Then dividing, we find $$ a_{N,M} = \frac{(1-(-1)^N)(1-(-1)^M)}{NM(N^2+M^2)\pi^4}c $$ and so $$ v(x,y) = \frac{c}{\pi^4}\sum_{n,m=1}^{\infty} \frac{(1-(-1)^n)(1-(-1)^m)}{nm(n^2+m^2)} \sin{n\pi x}\sin{m\pi y} $$ You can then change variables to get from $[0,1] \times [0,1]$ to $[-B,B] \times [-B,B]$. You'll find that $v$ needs to be rescaled so that the derivative is what it should be.

This is perfectly practical, since you only need a few terms for a very accurate estimate: drawing the graph makes this clear.


An alternative approach would be to use the Dirichlet Green's function for a square of side $a$, which is given by $$ G(z;w) = \frac{1}{2\pi} \log{\left|\frac{\operatorname{sn}^2{(z/a,1/\sqrt{2})}-\operatorname{sn}^2{(\bar{w}/a,1/\sqrt{2})}}{\operatorname{sn}^2{(z/a,1/\sqrt{2})}-\operatorname{sn}^2{(w/a,1/\sqrt{2})}}\right|}, $$ where sn is a Jacobi elliptic function (see e.g. here for how this comes about). One then has to integrate this over the square to find the solution to Poisson's equation with a constant; as far as I am aware, there's no closed form for this, so you'd have to do it numerically. Theta functions make computing sn easy, but I'm not convinced it's going to be more efficient for your purposes.

Chappers
  • 67,606
  • I'd say that $(1-(-1)^n)(1-(-1)^m)$ is easier thought of as $4$ with the sum constrained to be over odd values of $n$ and $m$. – Ian Apr 09 '17 at 16:28