Pressure-driven channel flow ($\mu {\Delta }_{\perp }w=-G$)

A steady unidirectional incompressible viscous flow in a rigid channel, driven by $G=-dp/dz$, reduces the axial momentum equation to the displayed Poisson equation, with $w=0$ on the cross-sectional boundary. Circular-pipe flow is the Hagen-Poiseuille flow special case; an arbitrary cross section need not have that parabolic radial profile.

Rectangular duct flow is steady flow of a Newtonian fluid down a straight rectangular pipe under a constant axial pressure gradient $-G$. For stationary walls and unidirectional flow, incompressibility eliminates axial dependence and the Navier-Stokes equation becomes a two-dimensional Poisson equation with zero Dirichlet boundary conditions. Subtracting a plane Poiseuille flow profile leaves a harmonic function that repairs the side-wall values using separation of variables. Uniqueness follows from Green's first identity: the difference of two solutions has zero boundary values and zero integral of the squared gradient, and hence vanishes.

In a symmetric wedge $|\theta |<\alpha$, a constant Poisson forcing admits the particular solution $r^2(\cos 2\theta /\cos 2\alpha -1)/4$, except at resonant angles. Zero-wall harmonic corrections have exponents ${\lambda }_n=(2n+1)\pi /(2\alpha )$. If the smallest exponent is below two, the global boundary data make that homogeneous mode dominate the local quadratic forcing. If it is below one, the velocity gradient can be singular although the velocity vanishes. When an exponent equals two, the appropriate radial solution contains $r^2\log r$, since $\Delta (r^2\log r\cos 2\theta )=4\cos 2\theta$.