Arterial pressure wave 2026-10-14
A small pressure disturbance in an elastic artery propagates through the coupled inertia of blood and compliance of the wall. If is the undisturbed area, the mass density and the wave speed, the linearized equations give . A travelling pressure amplitude carries flow amplitude ; the oppositely travelling wave has the opposite flow sign.
Atmospheric pressure Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-14
Atmospheric pressure often provides the reference for a gauge pressure measurement: . The absolute pressure is measured relative to an ideal vacuum, whereas zero gauge pressure means equality to the chosen reference. The actual atmospheric pressure can vary; it must be specified when converting between these descriptions. [ref].
Axisymmetric geostrophic mode Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-14
A stationary mass density disturbance can be balanced by a changed azimuthal velocity in a shearing sheet. The continuity and azimuthal equations give zero radial velocity, while the radial equation balances Coriolis force against pressure and gravity. This mode is separate from the density-wave pair in the softened Toomre dispersion relation and is lost if one divides every equation by frequency.
Axisymmetric incompressible epicyclic wave 2026-10-14
For and , pressure elimination gives and , where . The inviscid frequency is the radial epicyclic frequency times . With , is conserved when viscosity vanishes. In a Keplerian flow it bounds kinetic-energy amplification by four, whereas with zero rotation the same system has the algebraic lift-up effect.
// Target: turbulence.bigb
A horizontal-velocity perturbation depending only on height has zero vertical velocity for nonzero wavenumber under incompressibility. Its pressure amplitude then vanishes in the unstratified vertical momentum equation.
Barotropic closure of a razor-thin disk Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-07
A two-dimensional disk equation with pressure acceleration requires an equation of state for vertically integrated pressure in terms of surface density of a disk . A barotropic fluid closure is , with linear enthalpy perturbation . Merely giving for a volume density does not close the two-dimensional equations unless a vertical conversion is specified. Positive gives ordinary pressure restoration of an inertial-acoustic wave.
Barotropic energy density 2026-10-06
For a barotropic fluid with pressure , choose an energy density satisfying . The continuity equation then gives . For an isothermal equation of state , one choice is . A fixed reference density changes only by a conserved mass term. The same construction holds with surface density and vertically integrated pressure. This closure energy need not equal the microscopic internal energy of a gas maintained at fixed temperature.
Barotropic enthalpy function 2026-10-07
This barotropic pressure potential obeys for a barotropic fluid. It gives the pressure contribution to a steady Bernoulli equation. In isentropic thermodynamics it agrees with specific enthalpy up to a constant; for an externally maintained isothermal ideal gas it is and is not the constant thermodynamic enthalpy at fixed temperature.
Barotropic shearing-wave gravitational amplitude system Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-14
A shearing-wave ansatz in a uniform inviscid isothermal shearing sheet removes background advection when the radial wavevector grows as . The razor-thin disk Poisson kernel reduces the pressure-plus-gravity amplitude to . Continuity couples it to , while the two momentum equations have rotational couplings and . The linearized vortensity amplitude remains constant, because the barotropic pressure and gravitational forces have zero curl and the background vortensity is uniform.
Bernoulli's principle 2026-10-14
The Bernoulli principle relates pressure, kinetic energy per unit volume and Newtonian gravitational potential along a streamline of steady flow with 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.
Precisely, suppose a fluid of constant positive mass density obeys the Euler equations for an inviscid fluid, its velocity field and pressure are steady, and the body force per unit mass is . ThenEvery term has units of energy per unit mass. For a uniform gravitational field, Newtonian gravitational potential is , up to an additive constant. The pressure term represents work by surrounding fluid, so acceleration can exchange pressure work with kinetic energy. Dotting the steady Euler equations with gives the displayed directional derivative: this is why constancy follows a streamline. [ref]
https://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/mem2/FLUIDS-IB/dyn.pdf. Cambridge, Fluid Dynamics IB, Dynamics, section 2.4
Continue the horizontal water constriction example from incompressible flow. Assume negligible viscous losses, steady flow and approximately uniform flow at both measurement sections, so the streamline speeds there equal the mean speeds and . Equal height cancels the Newtonian gravitational potential terms. The ideal pressure drop isThis is the Venturi effect in its ideal limit: the gain in kinetic energy density is supplied by pressure work. Cambridge's treatment uses this relation to connect a measured pressure difference to volumetric flow rate. [ref]
https://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/mem2/FLUIDS-IB/dyn.pdf. Cambridge, Fluid Dynamics IB, Dynamics, section 2.5
The result is conditional, rather than a prediction of the actual viscous pipe. Mass conservation fixes and the ratio of mean speeds even with viscosity, but nonuniform velocity profiles require an integrated energy balance, and wall friction dissipates mechanical energy. A pump would supply additional work. In particular, constant mean speed in a straight pipe does not imply constant pressure: Poiseuille flow needs a continuing pressure gradient to overcome viscosity. [ref]
https://uclnatsci.github.io/2021/Electromagnetism-Fluids-and-Waves/fluids/bernoulli.html. UCL, Bernoulli's equation, assumptions and boundary limitations