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An active scalar is a transported scalar field that feeds back on the velocity field, for example a density anomaly producing buoyancy. In an adjoint equations for Boussinesq scalar mixing calculation its dynamical coupling must also be transposed; a passive-scalar sensitivity equation generally omits that feedback.

For a smooth incompressible direct trajectory with total velocity field $\mathbf{U}$ and active scalar $\Theta$, the negative-constraint Lagrangian function in constrained optimization convention givesThe transpose term is the formal adjoint of $\delta \mathbf{u}\cdot \nabla \mathbf{U}$; the two couplings transpose scalar transport by advection and buoyancy. For terminal cost $\int \Theta (T{)}^2$, the terminal data are ${\mathbf{u}}^{†}(T)=0$, ${\theta }^{†}(T)=2\Theta (T)$. They are integrated backward along the stored direct trajectory. No-slip boundary conditions and Dirichlet boundary conditions for the adjoint velocity and homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions for the adjoint scalar remove the spatial boundary terms.

Advection transports a quantity with a velocity field. For a scalar field $f$, its local advective rate is $\mathbf{u}\cdot \nabla f$, the spatial contribution to the material derivative. The same term transports the components of a vector field.

An airfoil (British spelling: aerofoil) is the cross-sectional profile of a lifting surface, such as a wing or blade. Its chord is the straight segment from leading edge to trailing edge, with length $c$; its mean camber line runs midway between its upper and lower surfaces, and its thickness measures their separation. Camber is the departure of that mean line from the chord. The angle of attack describes the profile's orientation relative to the incoming flow. These independent choices let a designer alter the distribution of pressure, lift and drag, rather than simply enlarging the surface. ^[ref]

The distinction between an airfoil and a finite wing matters. A two-dimensional section model assumes no variation along span and predicts lift per unit span $L^{\prime }$. A wing of span $b$ has a spanwise distribution $L^{\prime }(z)$ and total lift $L={\int }_{-b/2}^{b/2}{L}^{\prime }(z)dz$. Its tip flow and trailing vortices generate a downward induced velocity, called downwash, which changes the local flow seen by the sections. Thus one cannot generally multiply the isolated two-dimensional $L^{\prime }$ by $b$. The wing aspect ratio $b^2/S$ measures its span relative to its reference area and helps characterize these three-dimensional effects. ^[ref]

For a thin section with small camber slopes and small angle of attack, thin airfoil theory predictswhere both angles are in radians and ${\alpha }_{L=0}$ is the zero-lift angle of attack. The model assumes two-dimensional, steady flow, incompressible flow, inviscid flow, an attached outer flow, and smooth departure at a sharp trailing edge (the Kutta condition). This last condition selects the circulation used by the Kutta–Joukowski theorem; with counterclockwise circulation $\Gamma$ positive and ${\mathbf{U}}_{\infty }=U_{\infty }{\mathbf{e}}_x$, that theorem gives $L^{\prime }=-{\rho }_{\infty }{U}_{\infty }\Gamma$ for positive lift towards $+{\mathbf{e}}_y$. The beauty is that a detailed velocity field collapses to a simple force law, while the geometry enters through ${\alpha }_{L=0}$. ^{[ref] [ref]}

A symmetric airfoil has ${\alpha }_{L=0}=0$ in this model: at $\alpha =4{}^{\circ }=\pi /45$ the predicted lift coefficient is $c_l\simeq 0.439$, and reversing $\alpha$ reverses lift. A stipulated cambered section with ${\alpha }_{L=0}=-2{}^{\circ }$ instead predicts $c_l\simeq 0.219$ at zero angle of attack. These are ideal calculations, not measurements or guarantees for a particular profile. Air parcels on the upper and lower surfaces have no obligation to arrive together at the trailing edge; the pressure and velocity field must satisfy the flow problem. A symmetric lifting section already makes an unequal-path-length explanation inadequate. ^[ref]

Real airfoils have a viscous boundary layer, even when inviscid flow approximates the outer motion. At sufficiently demanding incidence, flow separation can become extensive and the lift coefficient departs from its approximately linear law, reaches a maximum and may fall: this is aerodynamic stall. Lift does not generally vanish at aerodynamic stall. The onset depends on profile, Reynolds number, surface condition and motion history; $2\pi (\alpha -{\alpha }_{L=0})$ predicts neither a universal stall angle nor post-stall behavior. The pressure/balance experiment in lift makes this limit observable by measuring changes in the surface pressure distribution alongside the total force. ^[ref]

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 $p/\rho +u^2/2+\Phi$ 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 $-\nabla \Phi$. ThenEvery term has units of energy per unit mass. For a uniform gravitational field, Newtonian gravitational potential is $\Phi =gz$, 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 $\mathbf{u}$ gives the displayed directional derivative: this is why constancy follows a streamline. ^[ref]

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 $0.20$ and $0.80\mathrm{m}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$. 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]

The $300\mathrm{Pa}$ result is conditional, rather than a prediction of the actual viscous pipe. Mass conservation fixes $Q$ 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]

A moving boundary excites an internal gravity wave through its kinematic boundary condition. For wavenumber $k$ and angular frequency $\omega$, the vertical velocity field satisfies $W^{\prime \prime }+k^2(N^2/{\omega }^2-1)W=0$. The radiation condition selects outward group velocity; when $\omega >N$, the bounded response is an evanescent wave.

Chaotic advection is complicated, sensitive material motion generated by a smooth velocity field, often even when the Eulerian flow is periodic and simple. Transverse intersections of stable manifolds and unstable manifolds create stretching, folding and lobe transport across former separatrices. Incompressible flow preserves parcel area and advected scalar values in the absence of diffusion, so chaotic motion can create fine filaments without independently producing molecular homogenization.

Use circulation to summarize how much a velocity field runs along an oriented closed curve $C$, such as a circle around a fluid vortex. Its definition is the line integralwhere $d\mathbf{l}$ is tangent to $C$ in the chosen direction. Reversing that direction reverses the sign of circulation. Its units are ${\mathrm{m}}^2{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$, because velocity is multiplied by a length. Counterclockwise circulation in the horizontal plane is positive when the chosen unit normal vector is $+{\mathbf{e}}_z$, according to the right-hand rule.

For solid-body rotation $\mathbf{u}=(-\Omega y,\Omega x,0)$, a counterclockwise circle of radius $R$ has constant tangential velocity $\Omega R$. Multiplying by its circumference givesFor the potential line vortex $\mathbf{u}=K{\mathbf{e}}_{\theta }/r$, the same circle instead gives ${\Gamma }_C=(K/R)(2\pi R)=2\pi K$, independent of $R$. Stipulate $\Omega =1{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$, $R=1\mathrm{m}$ and $K=1{\mathrm{m}}^2{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$: both velocity fields have ${\Gamma }_C=2\pi {\mathrm{m}}^2{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}\approx 6.283185{\mathrm{m}}^2{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$, although their vorticities in the fluid are $2{\mathbf{e}}_z{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$ and zero respectively. On a circle of radius $2\mathrm{m}$, their circulations are $8\pi {\mathrm{m}}^2{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$ and $2\pi {\mathrm{m}}^2{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$. The comparison plot in vorticity shows this difference in radius dependence.

The bridge between circulation and vorticity is Stokes theorem:Here the velocity field must be continuously differentiable on a neighborhood of the entire spanning surface $S$ inside the fluid, and its boundary orientation must match the unit normal vector $\mathbf{n}$. For solid-body rotation, the disk is admissible and its surface integral is $2\Omega \pi R^2$. For the potential line vortex, the origin is singular and excluded from the fluid: a disk crossing it is not admissible. On an annulus, Stokes theorem instead gives ${\Gamma }_{R_{\mathrm{out}}}-{\Gamma }_{R_{\mathrm{in}}}=0$, with both circulations here measured counterclockwise; the induced inner boundary direction is clockwise. Nonzero circulation therefore does not imply nonzero local curl in the available fluid. ^[ref]

This is useful because Stokes theorem lets a local vorticity measurement determine a loop's circulation when a suitable surface exists, while Kelvin's circulation theorem tracks circulation along a moving material curve. The beauty is the precise link between a local derivative and a global line integral, with the domain deciding which conclusions are valid.

The continuum approximation describes a material using fields such as mass density, velocity field and stress, rather than following its individual molecules. Its averaging volumes must contain enough microscopic constituents to define bulk properties while remaining small relative to the distances over which those properties change appreciably. It supplies the model underlying much of fluid mechanics and elasticity.

A convection roll is a circulating cell pattern whose ideal velocity and temperature fields are periodic across a chosen horizontal direction and independent of the coordinate along the convection roll axis. In a two-dimensional stream function representation, its velocity field is $(-{\psi }_z,0,{\psi }_x)$. Rayleigh-Bénard convection can select stationary or oscillatory convection rolls; a two-dimensional convection roll may be unstable to three-dimensional disturbances, a different convection roll orientation, or slow amplitude and phase modulations. Existence of a saturated Landau amplitude equation branch does not alone establish its stability.

The curl of $F$ has components

For a continuously differentiable vector field in three-dimensional Euclidean space, the component of its curl along a unit normal vector is the limiting circulation per unit area around a small loop in the perpendicular plane. The loop direction and the normal obey the right-hand rule. Stokes theorem gives the corresponding relation for a finite surface.

For the rigidly rotating velocity field $G=(-\Omega y,\Omega x,0)$, direct differentiation gives $\nabla \times G=(0,0,2\Omega )$. A circle of radius $R$ has tangential speed $\Omega R$ and circumference $2\pi R$, so its circulation is $2\pi \Omega R^2$, twice the angular velocity times the enclosed area. The factor of two distinguishes vorticity from rigid-body angular velocity.

Curved integral curves alone do not demonstrate nonzero curl. The field $H=(x,-y,0)$ has zero curl, yet its trajectories satisfy $x=x_0{e}^t$, $y=y_0{e}^{-t}$ and hence $xy=x_0{y}_0$: away from the axes they are hyperbolas. The curl measures local circulation of the field, not the curvature of an individual trajectory.

Differential rotation means that different parts of a rotating body or fluid have different angular velocities. An axisymmetric rotational velocity field can be written $\mathbf{u}=R\Omega (R,z){\mathbf{e}}_{\varphi }$.

Diffusion is net transport associated with random microscopic motion. A localized patch of a dilute solute can spread through a stationary solvent: individual molecules move in both directions, but more cross from the crowded side of an imaginary surface than from the less crowded side. This imbalance gives a net diffusive flux down the concentration gradient; the molecules do not need to sense which direction has lower concentration. At uniform concentration, microscopic exchanges continue even though the net diffusive flux vanishes. ^[ref]

The distinction from advection is easiest to see in a dye patch. Uniform bulk motion carries its centre downstream; diffusion broadens it relative to that centre. Both can happen together. A moving or spreading patch by itself does not identify the mechanism: a nonuniform velocity field can also stretch a patch. ^[ref]

For a dilute nonreacting solute in a uniform medium at fixed temperature, Fick's first law models the relative diffusive flux as $\mathbf{j}=-D\nabla C$, with scalar diffusion coefficient $D>0$ of units ${\mathrm{m}}^2{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$. Here $C$ is the amount of substance per unit volume, so $\mathbf{j}$ has units $\mathrm{mol}{\mathrm{m}}^{-2}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$. With carrier velocity field $\mathbf{u}$, the total flux is $C\mathbf{u}+\mathbf{j}$. The continuity equation, with no sources or chemical reactions, givesFor constant $D$ and incompressible flow, this reduces to $C_t+\mathbf{u}\cdot \nabla C=D{\nabla }^{2}C$, where ${\nabla }^2$ is the Laplacian. In a stationary carrier it is the diffusion equation. These assumptions matter: variable $D$ must remain inside the divergence, and changing sources require extra terms. ^[ref]

The useful surprise is the common mathematics: thermal conduction smooths temperature through the analogous heat equation, while molecular diffusion smooths composition. This analogy already motivated the original formulation of Fick's laws. ^[ref] However, the thermal diffusivity and the solutal diffusivity need not be equal. A diffusive time scale $t_D\sim L^2/D$ means that crossing ten times the distance requires roughly one hundred times the time. This is why molecular diffusion is especially effective across thin layers, and why chaotic advection can assist mixing by making those layers thinner. Physical diffusion is a transport mechanism, distinct from the broader probabilistic class of Markov diffusion.

For $F=(F_1,F_2,F_3)$ in Cartesian coordinates,

For a continuously differentiable vector field, the divergence is the limiting outward flux per unit volume through a small closed surface. Opposite faces of a small rectangular box almost cancel; the remaining differences in the three components give the sum of partial derivatives above. The divergence theorem extends this local balance to a whole region.

For $F=(x,y,0)$, the divergence is $1+1+0=2$. In a planar unit square, the right edge contributes outward flux $1$ and the top contributes $1$, while the left and bottom contribute zero. The total $2$ equals the integral of the planar divergence over area $1$.

If $F$ is a velocity field, positive divergence means local volume expansion, not automatically creation of mass. The continuity equation gives $D\rho /Dt=-\rho \nabla \cdot F$, where $D/Dt$ is the material derivative. For this field, a uniform initial density evolves as $\rho (t)=\rho (0)e^{-2t}$ while material volumes grow as $e^{2t}$. Their product stays constant.

An equipotential curve is a planar level curve of a scalar potential. Where the gradient is nonzero, its tangent is perpendicular to that gradient. In potential flow, it is therefore perpendicular to the velocity field; this distinguishes equipotential curves from streamlines.

An Eulerian mean flow is obtained by averaging the velocity field at fixed spatial positions, for example over longitude or over an ensemble. It differs from a parcel-following average. In the transformed Eulerian mean, its meridional circulation is corrected by an eddy-induced contribution to form the residual mean circulation.