[Physics] Divergence of a tensor product

fluid dynamicsmathematical physicsmetric-tensortensor-calculus

I am working on deriving the Navier-Stokes equation in spherical coordinates for a homework assignment, but I've hit a serious math roadblock. My background in tensors is very minimal and a crucial term in the Navier-Stokes equation involves the divergence of a tensor product,
\begin{equation*}
\nabla \cdot \big(\rho \vec{v}\,\otimes\,\vec{v}\big).
\end{equation*}

I saw on Wikipedia that,
\begin{equation*}
\nabla\cdot\big(\vec{B}\,\otimes\,\hat{A}\big) = \hat{A}\big(\nabla\cdot\vec{B}\big) + \big(\vec{B}\cdot\nabla\big)\hat{A}.
\end{equation*}
I am honestly not sure what $\hat{A}$ means, but I assume it's just another notation for $\vec{A}$. If so, this places me in a predicament because I now have to compute the gradient of a vector, $\nabla\vec{A}$, which I don't know how to do and cannot find any online resources describing how to do this in a way I can understand.

It would help me tremendously to have some kind of example of a tensor product and/or divergence of a tensor product that uses simple cartesian coordinates $x$, $y$, and $z$. I am confident that I can produce the equivalent in spherical coordinates, but as of now I am mathematically (not physically) stumped. Please help!

Best Answer

The equation, $$ \nabla\cdot (\rho \textbf v \otimes \textbf v), $$ can be written in index notation as, $$ \partial_i (\rho v_i v_j), $$ where the dot product becomes an inner product, summing over two indices, $$ \textbf a \cdot \textbf b = a_i b_i, $$ and the tensor product yields an object with two indices, making it a matrix, $$ \textbf c \otimes \textbf d = c_i d_j =: M_{ij}. $$ Now we differentiate using the product rule, $$ \partial_i (\rho v_i v_j)=(\partial_i \rho) v_i v_j + \rho (\partial_i v_i) v_j + \rho v_i (\partial_i v_j). $$ Let’s look at the terms separately:

$\bullet (\partial_i \rho) v_i v_j $: assuming $\rho=\rho(\textbf x)$, the expression within the brackets is the vector $(\partial_x\rho, \partial_y\rho, \partial_z\rho)$, which then gets dot multiplied with the vector $\textbf v$. This yields a number, say $c_1$, which gets multiplied to every component of the vector $v_j$. So the result here is a vector. If $\rho$ is constant, this term vanishes.

$\bullet\rho (\partial_i v_i) v_j$: Here we calculate the divergence of $\textbf v$, $$ \partial_i a_i = \nabla \cdot \textbf a = \text{div }\textbf a, $$ and multiply this number with $\rho$, yielding another number, say $c_2$. This gets multiplied onto every component of $v_j$. The resulting thing here is again a vector.

$\bullet\rho v_i (\partial_i v_j)$: Here we construct a matrix with the composition rule, $$ M_{ij} := \partial_i v_j, $$ that is for example $M_{13}=\partial_x v_z$. We then multiply a (row)vector $v_i$ to this matrix, yielding a different vector. Finally, every component of this new vector gets multiplied by $\rho$, so we have a vector again.