Here is the radiation-to-gas pressure ratio, not plasma beta. Write the opacity as to distinguish it from the radial epicyclic frequency. The radiation pressure is , so radiative diffusion can be written as
Since is independent of height, . Substitution of hydrostatic equilibrium, , gives
Differentiating and using the viscous heating equation, together with , yields
Thus the effective dynamic viscosity is independent of height. If the surfaces are at , the vertically integrated kinematic viscosity satisfies
Use the previous result and the specified Eddington accretion rate convention,
to obtain the full thickness
The constant-pressure-ratio vertical disk model therefore has thickness proportional to the inward accretion rate. This is a full surface-to-surface thickness, rather than a density disk scale height. Its use as a thin disk requires .
Choose tangential to the solid boundary and locally along the outer inviscid streamlines, and let be the inward normal coordinate. Write and for the corresponding tangential and normal velocity field components, for the outer tangential velocity, and for the kinematic viscosity.
For a layer of streamwise scale and thickness , incompressible flow gives
so and . The normal Navier-Stokes equation then gives to leading order, while the outer Euler equations give
In the tangential Navier-Stokes equation, streamwise viscous diffusion is smaller than normal diffusion by . Retaining the leading inertial and normal-diffusion terms produces the Prandtl boundary-layer equation
It is supplemented by at a stationary wall and on matching to the outer flow.
For a perfect gas, . At the margin of the Toomre stability criterion,
Integrating viscous heating through the disk and applying radiative diffusion gives
Equating these fluxes yields
The kinematic viscosity is , so
Because a Keplerian accretion disk has ,
Set
so . Apart from material constants, the heat flux in part ii is
The derivative of its logarithm vanishes when
which gives the maximizing interface temperature
Substitution into the flux law gives
where
Thus the proportionality coefficient depends on the thermal conductivity, nonlinear thermal-expansion coefficient , kinematic viscosity, thermal diffusivity, gravity, and critical Rayleigh number. This is the maximum-flux law for penetrative convection in an ice-covered lake.
Let be the thickness of the thermal boundary layer immediately below , let be the kinematic viscosity, let be the thermal diffusivity, and let be the critical local Rayleigh number. The density contrast driving the boundary layer follows from the density anomaly of water:
A Local Rayleigh-number closure sets
and therefore
By Fourier's law, the upward heat flux through this layer is
where is the water's thermal conductivity. This expression applies while the quantity inside braces is positive.
Write the density as a hydrostatic reference profile plus a small perturbation , and define buoyancy and buoyancy frequency by
The Boussinesq approximation to the Navier-Stokes equation, together with mass conservation, is
where is the material derivative, is kinematic viscosity, and is mass diffusivity. Linearizing about rest and eliminating pressure and buoyancy gives
For a plane wave proportional to , with , the viscous-diffusive dispersion relation is
In the inviscid limit this becomes
For weak diffusion the two oscillatory roots are
so a freely evolving Fourier mode decays.
A single plane wave is also an exact solution of the nonlinear equations. Every field depends only on its phase , while incompressible flow gives . Therefore annihilates both and , and all nonlinear advection terms vanish.
For a boundary-forced wave with real , nonzero or instead makes the bulk vertical wavenumber complex, attenuating the propagating beam. Because diffusion raises the spatial order of the equations, additional short vertical-wavenumber roots form viscous and scalar boundary layers; they allow a no-slip velocity condition and a scalar no-flux condition to accompany impermeability. These layers and bulk attenuation become essential near critical internal-wave reflection, where the inviscid reflected wavelength collapses.
For a face of signed slope , conservation of frequency and tangential wavenumber gives, on the branch relevant to an incident downward-right ray,
At , the reflected wavenumber diverges and the reflected group velocity becomes tangent to the face. On a supercritical face the denominator changes sign: horizontal propagation reverses and rays from the two faces are directed towards a sawtooth corner. Successive reflections therefore focus energy and shorten the wavelength.
The inviscid ray pattern cannot persist indefinitely. Near-critical focusing amplifies gradients until kinematic viscosity, mass diffusivity, nonlinear wave steepening, and wave breaking matter; a real corner is also rounded on some finite scale. These effects replace the singular ray construction by dissipative boundary layers, mixing, and a finite-width reflected beam.
Prandtl boundary-layer equation Created 2026-09-29 Updated 2026-10-03
For a steady two-dimensional incompressible boundary layer with tangential velocity , normal velocity , outer tangential velocity , and kinematic viscosity ,
The pressure is uniform across the layer, and the outer Euler equation supplies .
Prandtl number 2026-10-06
The Prandtl number is the ratio of kinematic viscosity to thermal diffusivity. It compares the rates at which momentum and temperature variations diffuse. In thermal-diffusion units the Boussinesq equations have momentum inertia multiplied by ; large, rather than small, Prandtl number supplies the usual instantaneous Stokes flow limit.
For a steady zero-mass-flux background and constant viscous transport response exponent, this change removes the first derivative in the radial diffusion operator. If , the kinematic viscosity scales as , so the transformed diffusivity scales as . It is constant at .
With constant kinematic viscosity and zero inner viscous torque in an accretion disk, . For the steady photoevaporating-disk mass flux, the density is inside and the displayed logarithmic profile outside. At equal feeding and wind rates the inner density vanishes, and the outer normalized profile rises from zero with zero slope and tends to one. Its near-edge expansion is .
Surface Ekman layer 2026-10-06
A surface Ekman layer is the stress-driven boundary correction below a rotating fluid’s upper boundary. For upward , , constant kinematic viscosity and imposed complex wind stress , its steady velocity is , . The underlying geostrophic flow is independent of unless an additional boundary velocity condition couples them.
Taylor number 2026-10-06
For a layer rotating at angular speed , of depth and kinematic viscosity , the Taylor number compares the Coriolis force to viscous damping through the squared ratio . Definitions in other geometries may include different geometric factors; this is the plane-layer convention.
When the applied inner torque dominates the advective angular-momentum flux, the constant-kinematic viscosity inner profile resembles a decretion disk. This resemblance does not alone imply outward mass transport.
For a two-dimensional Newtonian fluid ice sheet attached to an unbuttressed ice shelf, ice-sheet flotation gives . The difference between the depth-integrated ice and ocean hydrostatic pressures is , where . Shelf force balance integrates to a constant; absence of a buttressing force makes that constant zero. The shallow-shelf approximation therefore gives the displayed boundary condition, or with kinematic viscosity .
For the constant gas-radiation ratio vertical disc structure, the integrated alpha prescription gives the displayed mean kinematic viscosity and . Uniform dynamic viscosity and nonuniform pressure are compatible because this prescription is an integrated equality. Imposing the corresponding pointwise equality would not preserve the exact vertical solution.
When kinematic viscosity and mass diffusivity are equal to , a monochromatic internal-wave beam with wavenumber and ray angle has leading stream-function amplitude
The cubic dependence on makes slope-focused, short internal waves dissipate especially rapidly.
Viscous diffusion time Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
Momentum diffuses across a distance in the characteristic time , where is the kinematic viscosity.