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An incompressible flow preserves the volume of each moving fluid element. Its local condition is zero velocity divergence, $\nabla \cdot \mathbf{u}=0$. Combined with mass conservation, it says that each parcel's mass density stays unchanged as it moves. This does not require every parcel to have the same mass density: an initially nonuniform distribution can be transported without compression. Nor does incompressibility require a constant velocity or constant pressure.

For positive mass density, the continuity equation makes the equivalence precise:The material derivative follows a fluid element. Thus $D\rho /Dt=0$ if and only if the velocity field is a divergence-free vector field. The distinction between following a parcel and observing a fixed position prevents confusing incompressibility with an unchanging density field. ^[ref]

For a rigid pipe with impermeable walls, no leaks and steady flow, mass conservation at constant mass density implies a constant volumetric flow rate:Here $\mathbf{n}$ points downstream, $A$ is the section's area and $\overline{U}$ is the mean normal velocity, not necessarily the centreline speed. No assumption of inviscid flow or a uniform velocity profile is needed. If unequal amounts entered and left a fixed segment, its mass would accumulate, contradicting steady flow.

For a worked example, take horizontal water flow with stipulated mass density $1000\mathrm{kg}{\mathrm{m}}^{-3}$, inlet radius $R_1=0.010\mathrm{m}$, outlet radius $R_2=0.005\mathrm{m}$ and inlet mean velocity ${\overline{U}}_1=0.20\mathrm{m}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$. The circular areas giveThe radius halves, the area falls to one quarter, and the mean velocity quadruples. The mass flow rate is $\rho Q=0.02\pi \mathrm{kg}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$. The same amount of water passes both sections each second; narrowing changes its speed rather than compressing it. The Reynolds number and Bernoulli's principle discussions use this same example to examine viscous effects and the additional assumptions needed to calculate pressure.

The characteristic vector field $b=({\nabla }_{v}H,-{\nabla }_{x}H)$ is a divergence-free vector field:The Jacobian determinant $J_t=\det D{\Phi }_t$ obeys ${\dot{J}}_t=(\nabla \cdot b)({\Phi }_t)J_t=0$, with $J_0=1$. Thus the flow preserves phase-space volume, the Liouville theorem in Hamiltonian mechanics. Changing variables $(x,v)={\Phi }_t(\xi ,\eta )$ and using (i) givesThis applies on intervals where the flow is a diffeomorphism of the phase space and the integrals are defined; for finite conservation statements require integrability. For instance compactly supported initial data and $F(0)=0$ give the usual setting. An arbitrary smooth $F$ need not make these integrals finite on infinite-volume space, and merely smooth $H$ does not exclude escape of characteristics to infinity. Equivalently $F(f{)}_t+{\nabla }_z\cdot [bF(f)]=0$, with no flux through infinity, proves the same Casimir invariant of a transport equation conservation.

The free-space Green function of the Laplacian for the Poisson equation gives the electric potentialFor $r=|\mathbf{x}|\gg R$, its electric multipole expansion begins withDefine the total electric charge and electric dipole moment byThen

The analogous solution for the magnetic vector potential isIts apparent $r^{-1}$ coefficient is ${\mu }_0(4\pi {)}^{-1}\int \mathbf{J}{d}^3{x}^{\prime }$. For each component, the supplied identity and the divergence-free vector field condition giveThe divergence theorem turns this into a surface integral outside the compact support of the current density, where $\mathbf{J}=0$. Hence $\int \mathbf{J}{d}^3{x}^{\prime }=0$, so the $1/r$ term vanishes.

Because $v$ is a divergence-free vector field, the product rule givesThe integral of a divergence over the periodic domain vanishes. Hence integration by parts yieldsThis is the skew-symmetry of incompressible transport.

For a periodic or boundary-tangent divergence-free vector field $u$, integration by parts givesConsequently $\int (u\cdot \nabla f)f=0$, the cancellation underlying many fluid energy estimates.