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The steady Euler equations for an inviscid fluid with no body force are $(\mathbf{u}\cdot \nabla )\mathbf{u}=-\nabla p/\rho$. Use the convective acceleration identityto obtainFor the question's streamfunction convention, $\mathbf{u}=({\psi }_y,-{\psi }_x,0)$, so $\mathbf{u}\times \mathbf{\omega }=-\omega \nabla \psi$. Constant $\omega$ therefore gives the Bernoulli function for planar constant-vorticity flowon the connected fluid region.

For circular streamlines, write $\mathbf{u}=w(r)\hat{\mathbf{\varphi }}$. The cylindrical curl gives $(rw{)}^{\prime }/r=\omega$, so $w=\omega r/2+C_1/r$. The outer wall condition gives $C_1=-2\omega a^2$. Choose the positive azimuthal orientation so that $w(a)=V$, as implicit in the requested sign for $\omega$. ThenReversing the circulation reverses $\omega$ but leaves the speed and pressure difference unchanged. For this uniform-vorticity circular flow in an annulus, one convenient streamfunction is $\psi =V(r^2/2-4a^2\log (r/a))/(3a)+C_2$.

The radial component of the Euler equations for an inviscid fluid is $p_r=\rho w^2/r$. Thus pressure increases outwards, andTherefore

Vector identity. Work in Cartesian coordinates and use the Einstein summation convention. Contraction of the two Levi-Civita symbols givesThus the convective acceleration identity isEach term is a geometrically defined vector field: the directional derivative of a vector along itself, the gradient of a scalar field, and a cross product with the curl. Equality in a Cartesian frame is equality of these vectors, so it holds in every coordinate system. When using a varying coordinate basis, derivatives of the varying basis vectors must be included; differentiating only the component functions would describe a different operation.

Spherical metric. LetDifferentiating gives the coordinate tangent vectorsTheir pairwise dot products vanish, proving that spherical coordinates are orthogonal coordinates. Their lengths are the scale factors of orthogonal coordinates:These formulas use the usual chart $r>0,0<\theta <\pi$; the origin and polar axis are coordinate singularities.

Azimuthal field. Write the speed as $U(r)$ to distinguish it from the velocity field $\mathbf{u}=U(r)e_{\varphi }$. Using the curl in spherical coordinates,Also $\frac{1}{2}\nabla |\mathbf{u}{|}^2=U{U}^{\prime }{e}_r$. Since $e_{\varphi }\times e_r=e_{\theta }$ and $e_{\varphi }\times e_{\theta }=-e_r$,The $U{U}^{\prime }$ terms cancel in the convective acceleration identity, givingThis centripetal acceleration of an azimuthal flow points toward the polar axis. A streamline is a circle of cylindrical radius $r\sin \theta$, so its acceleration is $-U^2{e}_{\rho }/(r\sin \theta )$, with $e_{\rho }=\sin \theta e_r+\cos \theta e_{\theta }$. This independent geometric argument recovers both nonzero components and explains why $U^{\prime }$ cannot appear: the particle travels at fixed $r$.

For $r>0$, the chain rule gives $\partial r/\partial x_i=x_i/r$. Differentiating the radial factor gives $d\varphi /dr=e^{ikr}(ikr-1)/(4\pi r^2)$, so in Cartesian coordinatesThe origin is excluded because the scalar field is singular there.

The Stokes theorem states ${\int }_S(\nabla \times \mathbf{F})\cdot \mathbf{n}dS={\oint }_{\partial S}\mathbf{F}\cdot d\mathbf{\ell }$ for a sufficiently smooth vector field and oriented surface with piecewise smooth boundary. The boundary orientation follows the right-hand rule relative to $\mathbf{n}$.

For the convective acceleration identity, use the Levi-Civita symbol contraction ${ϵ}_{ijk}{ϵ}_{k\ell m}={\delta }_{i\ell }{\delta }_{jm}-{\delta }_{im}{\delta }_{j\ell }$. It givesRearranging proves the required vector identity.

For orthogonal coordinates, define the scale factors of orthogonal coordinates $h_i=|\partial \mathbf{r}/\partial q_i|$ and tangent unit vectors ${\mathbf{e}}_i=h_i^{-1}\partial \mathbf{r}/\partial q_i$. They form an orthonormal basis, and $d\mathbf{r}={\sum }_i{h}_i{\mathbf{e}}_{i}d{q}_i$. Equating $d\psi ={\sum }_i{\partial }_{q_i}\psi d{q}_i$ with $\nabla \psi \cdot d\mathbf{r}$ identifies each component. Thus the gradient in orthogonal coordinates isThis holds on a regular coordinate chart where all scale factors are positive.

Use $w_j={ϵ}_{j\ell m}{\partial }_{\ell }{u}_m$ and contract the Levi-Civita symbols:This proves the convective acceleration identity, with the sign set by the displayed order $\mathbf{w}\times \mathbf{u}$.