Mathematical analysis of Navier-Stokes Equations

Sahib Chawlaa, Vishvendra Singh Tomara

Mechanical Engineering, Delhi Technological University, Delhi-110042

ABSTRACT
We present a Mathematical Analysis of the Navier
Stokes equations (which describe the motion of
fluid substances), including fully implicit
formulations,
operator
splitting
methods
(pressure/velocity correction, projection methods)
etc dealing with internal, isothermal, unsteady
flows of a class of incompressible fluids with both
constant, and shear or pressure dependent viscosity
that includes the Navier-Stokes fluid as a special
subclass. Emphasis is put on showing the close
relationship between (seemingly) different and
competing solution approaches for incompressible
viscous flow. We present alternative solution for
these equations and show the existence of a weak
solution to the Stokes equations and to the steadystate Navier-Stokes equations in the case where we
have zero boundary value and the dimension of the
space is less than or equal to four. Various
Numerical techniques are also employed for
obtaining the solutions of Navier-Stokes Equation.
Using Vector Calculus & various Mathematical
Operators, applications of Navier-Stokes equations
are discussed. Briefly, we also discuss further
results related to further generalizations of the
Navier-Stokes equations.

fluid stress is the sum of a diffusing viscous term

which is proportional to the gradient of velocity,
plus a pressure term. The NavierStokes equations
in their full and simplified forms help with the
design of aircraft and cars, the study of blood flow,
the design of power stations, the analysis of
pollution, and many other things. Coupled with
Maxwell's equations they can be used to model and
study magneto-hydrodynamics [3].
In his immortal Principal, Newton [4] states: The
resistance arising from the want of lubricity in parts
of the fluid is, other things being equal,
proportional to the velocity with which the parts of
the fluid are separated from one another." What is
now popularly referred to as the Navier-Stokes
model implies a linear relationship between the
shear stress and the shear rate.

(Keywords : Navier-Stokes Equations, Fluid, Types of Flows,

Types of Forces, Incompressible, Unsteady Parallel Flows)

1. INTRODUCTION
The numerical simulation of fluid dynamics is one
of the main fields in computational mathematics. It
is today both an alternative and a complement to
experiments in many engineering disciplines as it
helps in predicting the behavior of fluids [1]. The
Navier-Stokes equations are a mathematical model
aimed at describing the motion of an
incompressible viscous fluid, like many common
ones as, for instance, water, glycerine, oil and
under certain circumstances also air. They were
introduced in 1822 by the French engineer Claude
Louis Marie Henri Navier and successively reobtained, by different arguments, by a number of
authors including Augustin-Louis Cauchy in 1823,
Simeon Denis Poisson in 1829, Adhemar Jean
Claude Barre de Saint-Venant in 1837, and, finally,
George Gabriel Stokes in 1845 [2].
These equations are obtained by applying Newton's
second law to fluid motion, by assuming that the

The Navier-Stokes Equation, acting on an

elemental fluid element for three-dimensional in
vector form is given by:
. (1)
and the equation of continuity, also called the
incompressibility constraint is given by:

v=0

.... (2)

In these equations, v is the velocity field, p is the

pressure, is the fluid density, g denotes body
forces (such as gravity, centrifugal etc), is the
kinematic viscosity of the fluid, and t denotes time.
The initial conditions consist of prescribing v,
whereas the boundary conditions can be of several
types: (i) prescribed velocity components, (ii)
vanishing normal derivatives of velocity
components, or (iii) prescribed stress vector
components. The pressure is only determined up to
a constant, but can be uniquely determined by

prescribing the value (as a time series) at one

spatial point. Equations (1)(2) are referred as the
NavierStokes equations [5]. The NavierStokes
equations are nonlinear partial differential
equations in almost every real situation. However
in cases like one-dimensional flow, the equations
can be simplified to linear equations. The
nonlinearity is due to convective acceleration,
which is an acceleration associated with the change
in velocity over position. Hence, any convective
flow, whether turbulent or not, will involve
nonlinearity, an example of convective but laminar
(non-turbulent) flow would be the passage of a
viscous fluid (for example, oil) through a small
converging nozzle [6].

For example, consider vector field =+2.

We can express the ( )symbolically as the
following determinant:

Letting F1 = x, F2 = , and F3 = 2 this can be

expressed using the cross product form as

2. Preliminary: Vector Calculus

Vector calculus is the branch of mathematics that is
involved with differentiation and integration over
vector fields. In this section we present a brief
overview of this area. We begin with a very
important mathematical operator called del (). Del
is defined as the partial derivatives of a vector.
Letting i, k, and j denote the unit vectors for the
coordinate axes in real 3-space, the operator is
defined [7]:

With del () defined, we may now look at four key

differential operators that are based on del.
First we have the gradient. The gradient is defined
as the measurement of the rate and direction of
change in a scalar field. The gradient maps a scalar
field to a vector field. So, for a scalar field f [8]:

)(=)(

From this we obtain: (00) (00) + (0),

that is, C(=)
Third, we have divergence. Divergence models the
magnitude of a source or sink at a given point in a
vector field. Divergence maps a vector field to a
scalar field. For a vector filed F [8]:

=)(
At any point in a vector field, divergence is
positive if there is an outflow, negative if there is
an inflow, and zero if there is no convergence or
divergence [9]. For example, the upper left vector
field, F = xi +yj, where ( )=1+1=2, there is an
outflow, which makes sense as the divergence is
positive. If we now look at the bottom left vector
field, F = yi +xj, where (= )0+0, there is neither
outflow or inflow, which again makes sense due to
the divergence being 0.
As
an
example,
consider
once
again
=+2.

For example, consider the scalar field =2+.We

take the partial derivatives with respect to x, y, and
z.

So, the gradient is: ()= 2+2+.

Next we have curl, which is defined as the
measurement of the tendency to rotate about a
point in a vector field. The curl maps a vector field
to another vector field. For vector F, we define [8]:

=)(

And finally, we have the Laplacian, represented as

. The Laplacian is defined as the composition of
the divergence and gradient operations. This maps
a scalar field onto another scalar field. The
Laplacian of f is defined as [8]:

= 2=
For example, consider field =2 +3

The viscous Stress tensor will be ij,

3. Navier-Stokes Equation in
Cartesian coordinates

And the strain (deformation) rate tensor ij will be,

Navier-Stokes Equation is derived from the

Cauchys Equation, which acts as governing
equation for it. We consider a differential fluid
element, as a material element (instead of taking it
as control volume). Applying Newtons Second
Law

which gives,
. (3)
Let,
Since
,
The total force on the same fluid element can be
expressed as the sum of body force and the surface
force.

. (4)
Hence, these two forces can be described as, Body
Forces include Gravity force, Electromagnetic
force, Centrifugal force, Coriolis force and Surface
forces include Pressure forces, Viscous forces. By
considering the x-component of equation (4), Now

. (5)
We denote the stress tensor
viscous forces)

ij (pressure forces+

Be the stress vectors on the planes perpendicular to

the co-ordinate axis.

Then the stress vector F at any point associated

with a plane of unit normal vector n = (n1, n2, n3)
can be expressed as,

Thus,

If we assume that the only body force is the gravity

force, we have,
We consider the x-component of the net surface
force using the figure below.
Hence equation (5) will become,

We divide by dxdydz and get the equation for the xcomponent:

Using Taylors formula we get,

Hence, this can be written as:

. (For x- Direction)

Similarly for y and z direction, Navier-Stokes

Equation can be written as:

. (Equation c.)
. (For y- Direction)
According to the NEWTONS LAW OF
VISCOSITY the viscous stress components are
related (throw a linear combination) to the (first)
dynamic viscosity and the second viscosity .

. (For z- Direction)
Equations x,y,z, are called Cauchys equations.
When considering the total forces, we can separate
x components of pressure forces and viscous
forces:

In the similar way we can change y-component and

z-component. Thus Cauchys equations

. (Equation a.)
In the similar way we derive the following
equations for y and z direction.

. (Equation b.)

We substitute this values ij in to Cauchys

equations eq A, B, C and get The Navier-Stokes
EQUATIONS for the compressible flow [10-16]:
X component:

Y component:
Y component:

Z component:

Z component:

5. Navier-Stokes Equation for

Unsteady Parallel Flows
4. Navier-Stokes Equation for
incompressible flow
For an incompressible flow, We have

Unsteady Parallel flow can be described as the

sudden motion of a plate, which was at rest earlier.
Taking a special case of viscous fluid near a wall
that is suddenly set in a motion as shown in the
figure given below [15-21].

Hence ij can be written as

Fig: Schematic of a fluid near a wall suddenly set in a

motion.

The unsteady Navier-Stokes Equation reduces to:

u = 2u
t
y2
(where ij is the strain rate tensor for the velocity
field V = (u, v,w) in Cartesian coordinates)
Thus for incompressible, isothermal Newtonian
Fluid, Navier-Stokes Equation can be obtained [1016] by substituting ij in the equations a, b, c.

The boundary conditions are:

At y=0, u=uo and at y=, u=0.
The corresponding initial condition for the fluid
that start from rest is given as
At t=0, u=0.
The similarity variables defined in this case will be:

X component:

= y , u = f(),
(2t) uo
Then

u = u 1
y (2t)

Again differentiating it,

2u = 2u 1
y2 2 4t
u = u y (-1)
y
(2t)

u
(2t)

-f = f 1
2t
4t
or f + 2 f=0.
For Boundary and Surface conditions, discussed
earlier,

f(0)=1, f()=0
f = -2
f
Integrating above, we get

ln f = lnc 2
or f

= ce 2 and using f(0)=1

Using f()=0, we get

Hence,

or,

f = erfc
u = uo erfc = uo erfc( y )
(2t)

Time variations of the velocity profile as predicted

by this equation is as shown ing figure given
below,

Fig: Time variations of velocity profile.

6. Mathematical Modelling of
incompressible Navier-Stokes
Flow
To analyze the behavior of a fluid around an
aerodynamic shape or inside a given domain,
basically the Navier Stokes equations have to be
solved. [22] If we treat the problems under the
hypothesis of incompressibility with and
denoting the computational domain ( RN , N =
2, 3 in practice) and its boundary, respectively, the
flow is governed by the following incompressible
NavierStokes equations:

where u, p, and f represent the velocity, the

pressure and the body force, respectively. The
positive parameter is the reduced viscosity of the
fluid. Boundary conditions need to be added. For
example, in the case of the airfoil, because of
viscosity, we use the following adherence
condition:

u = 0 and B = B
and the condition at infinity is typically imposed by

u = u on
with u given. If is a bounded region, standard
boundary conditions are generalized into:

u = g on
where the function g should satisfy:

with n the outward unit vector normal to . This

equation is consistent with the continuity condition
of the incompressible fluid.

does not exceed 105 , we may consider the flow

remains laminar. Here, we simulate a laminar
boundary layer with a fairly challenging Reynolds
number, Re = 105.

Fig: Computational domain.

The numerical simulation was carried out within a

vertical slice, located between Xent = 0.8 and Xexit =
0.8136, of the whole domain above the flat plate
shown below to circumvent the effects of the
leading and trailing edges.

7. Numerical Analysis of NavierStokes Equations

The flow chart of Jun Caos adaptive Navier
Stokes solver [22] is demonstrated in Fig-A.
We apply this adaptive finite element code to
perform selected test case involving both steady
and unsteady incompressible NavierStokes flows.
Boundary layer
This test case is used to examine the accuracy of
adaptive Navier Stokes solver with the aid of a
posteriori error estimate. Details on flat-plate
boundary layer theories along with the analytical
solution of the well known Blasius equations can
be found in [23, 24]. Here, the Reynolds number is
defined as:

The thickness of the boundary layer, dx, is defined

throughout the plate by the formula:

and the boundary conditions for the two vertical

boundaries are given by:

since U and L have been set to 1 (dimensionless),

respectively. Usually, when the Reynolds number

Fig A: flow chart of Jun Caos adaptive NavierStokes solver

where u and v denotes the horizontal and vertical

components of the velocity, respectively; the
parameter is defined as:

and f, solution of Blasius, is the solution of the

following problem:

The quantity to be compared is the friction

coefficient, Cf . By solving the Blasius equation,
we can get the analytical solution of Cf as follows:
Fig: Adaptive meshes from level 1 to level 7 (from left
to right).

On other hand, based on the numerical Navier

Stokes solution we can calculate Cf following its
original definition:

where represents the unit vector tangent to the

plate. Our initial mesh looks practically uniform in
the boundary layer region, the unit length being
0.0034 for both horizontal and vertical directions,
which is one-fourth of the horizontal dimension of
the extracted computation domain. Guided by a
posteriori error estimate, seven grids have been
generated with numbers of nodes and triangles
grouped in the Table as shown:

Level

NV

NT

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

74
123
127
132
143
412
1461

101
191
198
207
225
734
2772

Figure given below demonstrates details of the

enrichment of nodes at the bottom of the
computational slice for all the series of adaptive
meshes. We notice from the adaptive meshes that
the a posteriori error estimate can locate the most
sensitive boundary layer region from the uniform
node distribution on the bottom of the initial mesh.

The boundary layer area is wholly refined through

four levels from level 2 to level 5. The very
bottom region is latest refined due to the lowest
flow activity (u 0 ) on the layer adjacent to the
plate. On each refined mesh, the Navier Stokes
equations are re-solved; then, based on the new
mesh and the newly obtained solution, the a
posteriori errors are re-estimated to establish an
updated elementwise error distribution.

8. Concluding Remarks
We have in this paper presented a basic
introduction to the well-known equations in context
to fluid mechanics known as NavierStokes
equations. The emphasis has been on the
fundamental governing principles of Mechanics
and Mathematics especially Vector Calculus and
Differential Equations. By exploring the NavierStokes Equation in Cartesian Coordinates, we hope
to better explain the application of this equation in
the space (x R3). By applying some fundamental
reasoning we arrived at the Navier-Stokes Equation
for incompressible Flow. Then we explained the
application of Navier-Stokes Equations for parallel
unsteady flows. Naturally, our main emphasis was
on Mathematical Modelling of Navier-Stokes
Equations. Then we covered Numerical Analysis of
Navier-Stokes Equations. Finally, we reach at the
conclusion that the amalgamation of Mathematics
in the Navier-Stokes Equations, is of vital
importance as it does not only help in solving the
various problems but also in developing various
practically feasible models. Hence, Mathematical
Analysis of Navier-Stokes Equations was done
thoroughly.

Acknowledgements
We wish to thank Prof. R. K. Singh for their
valuable time and helpful advice given to us during
this study.

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