Viscous Fluids at a Slope (Navier-Stokes)

dynamical systemsfluid dynamicsmathematical physicsphysicsviscosity-solutions

An in-compressible viscous fluid flows down a flat slope of angle θ to the
horizontal under the force of gravity, with g the acceleration due to gravity.
What are the boundary conditions for the fluid at the point of contact with
the slope and at the free surface?

What I know: $u=0$ at $y=0$ and $\frac{du}{dy}=0$ at y=d. Then $\vec {g}=[g sin(a),-gcos(a),0]$

Using orthogonal coordinates with the x-axis pointing down the slope and
the y-axis perpendicular to the slope, find a solution to the Navier-Stokes
equation for a flow of depth d down the slope under the assumptions that
the flow is steady and uniform in the x-direction, including an expression
for the pressure.

This is how i interpreted the question in a figure:

Flow down a Slope in two dimensions

A river descends by 100m over a distance of 100km. Given that the dynamic viscosity of water is approximately $$\mu=10^{−3}kgm^{−1}s^{−1}$$
estimate the predicted speed of the river using your own estimates for any other
parameters involved.

Is it unrealistic? If so give possible reasons for the lack of realism.

What I know: is the Navier-Stokes Equation is… $$\dfrac{d\vec{v}}{d t}+ \vec{v} .\nabla \vec{v} = \vec{F} – \dfrac{1}{\rho} \nabla p + \nu \nabla^2 \vec{v}$$

Now I'm a bit unsure but I think due to the fluid being in-compressible we now have the equation: $$\dfrac{d\vec{v}}{d t}+ \vec{v} .\nabla \vec{v} = \vec{F} – \dfrac{1}{\rho} \nabla p$$

Really stuck from here, on this question don't really know how to approach it as I'm fairly new to fluid dynamics any help would be greatly appreciated.

Best Answer

You are conflating incompressible with inviscid. Here we have flow of an incompressible viscous fluid and the term $\nu \nabla^2 \mathbf{v}$ may not be neglected.

You are asked to find "a solution" under the assumptions that the flow is steady and uniform in the x-direction. This implies fully-developed unidirectional flow where the only non-vanishing component of velocity is $u$ (i.e., the component in the x-direction).

For an incompressible fluid, the equation of continuity gives

$$\nabla \cdot \mathbf{v} = \frac{\partial u}{\partial x} = 0$$

Thus, $u$ is a function only of the y-coordinate and the Navier-Stokes equations reduce to

$$0 = -\frac{1}{\rho}\frac{\partial p}{\partial x} +g \sin \alpha + \nu \frac{d^2u}{dy^2}, \\0 = -\frac{1}{\rho}\frac{\partial p}{\partial y} -g \cos \alpha $$

Since the flow is gravity-driven, we can neglect the x-component of the pressure pressure gradient $\frac{\partial p}{\partial x}$ in the first equation and find $u$ by applying the two boundary conditions to the solution of the second-order differential equation

$$\nu \frac{d^2 u}{dy^2} = -g \sin \alpha$$

The second equation allows for solution of the pressure as a function of the y-coordinate.

See if you can finish now.