Bernoulli principle 2026-10-06
The Bernoulli principle relates pressure, kinetic energy per unit volume and Newtonian gravitational potential along a streamline of steady inviscid flow. For constant mass density, the Bernoulli equation gives constant along that streamline. Constancy across different streamlines requires further hypotheses, such as irrotational flow.
Take ; a real disturbance with negative wavenumber is recovered by complex conjugation. To obtain the pressure equation for a shear-flow normal mode, apply to the streamwise momentum equation and differentiate the normal momentum equation. The mass conservation equation cancels the viscous divergence and the terms proportional to , leaving . Thus the fluid pressure equation and wall value are
The wall value follows from streamwise momentum with no-slip boundary condition. Normal momentum also gives .
In the lower viscous boundary layer, mass conservation gives if . Since , convection and shear have size when ; matching these with transverse viscous diffusion gives . The pressure gradient balance then gives . Thus the lower scalings are
The neglected streamwise viscous term is smaller by . In these variables the leading equations are
Differentiating the second and using the first yields the Airy reduction .
Put , so . The bounded matching branch of the Airy function gives ; the other independent Airy solution grows along the ray and is excluded. Integrating with the two wall conditions gives
while the wall momentum equation gives the constant fluid pressure
Define the convergent Airy displacement integrals
The Airy function equation and its decaying derivative imply . Consequently, as ,
Both differentiated lower momentum and the constant of integration are satisfied; retaining that constant is essential for the final matching.
For the middle region introduce a perturbation stream function with and . The leading inviscid flow streamwise equation is
For a shear flow, this is the integrated form of the Rayleigh equation for inviscid shear flow. The leading matched solution for fixed is , so and . In the overlap with the lower viscous boundary layer, the first constant correction is
which agrees with the integrated lower solution. For a regular smooth profile, the normal momentum equation gives . Thus fluid pressure variation across a fixed-width middle region is ; in the final distinguished scaling this is smaller than its value, so throughout that region. Since , the middle velocity tends to , which does not decay and requires another region.
The fluid pressure equation becomes when . Therefore the upper scale is , with . The inviscid decaying upper solution is
Matching velocity as gives ; matching fluid pressure to the middle region gives . This is three-layer long-wave shear-flow matching, expressed as a matched asymptotic expansion.
Under with fixed positive , , and . Eliminating the nonzero amplitude gives the Airy wall-layer matching determinant and dispersion relation
Equivalently, with ,
The determinant form does not divide by a possibly vanishing . The wavespeed is ; temporal growth has sign for positive .
There is a genuine conflict in the printed assumptions: fixed- cannot satisfy as . For order-one lower matching amplitudes, constant leading middle fluid pressure requires , equivalently ; this is the reverse inequality and is satisfied by the final distinguished scaling. Thinness also requires . The dispersion relation above is therefore derived under the final distinguished limit, for which the complete consistent window is . Both printed limits cannot be imposed simultaneously.
Use the standard ideal-fluid assumptions of incompressible flow, inviscid flow, gravity , and no surface tension. Irrotational flow gives in each layer, and incompressibility gives Laplace equation
The rigid-wall boundary conditions are at and at . At the moving interface, each fluid has the same normal velocity as the interface:
The dynamic condition is continuity of pressure, at . Bernoulli equation in each fluid reads . Choosing the potential gauges to subtract a common reference pressure, the interface condition becomes
Tangential velocities need not agree across an inviscid interface.