[Physics] Unsteady and incompressible flow

fluid dynamics

In scientific literature, we know that the condition for incompressible flow is that the particular derivative of the fluid density $\rho$ is zero:
$$ \frac{D\rho}{Dt}=0$$

and for steady flows the condition is that the partial derivative with respect to time is zero $\left(\dfrac{\partial \rho}{\partial t}=0\right)$.

However, the definition of the particular derivative is:
$$\frac{D \rho}{Dt} = \frac{\partial \rho}{\partial t} + \left(\vec{v} \cdot \vec\nabla\right) \rho $$

The question is: if a flow is incompressible does that mean that the flow is necessarily steady? Can there be an unsteady and incompressible flow?

Best Answer

Yes, there can be. But, what we know is that in an incompressible flow (as you have defined it), the density field is always steady -- which is obvious because we are defining the density to not change.

You've only listed the conservation of mass equation, but remember there are 2 more -- conservation of momentum and conservation of energy. Incompressibility does nothing to remove the time derivatives from these equations. It does, however, decouple the energy equation from the rest of the system and I encourage you to work through the entire derivation and implications of the complete system.

As a final note, and this is being a bit pedantic, but incompressibility really means that:

$$\frac{\partial \rho}{\partial p} \approx 0 $$

and not that the density is constant. It is entirely possible (and common) to solve the "incompressible" equations where density varies due to multi-species flows (think helium and air, or salt water and fresh water mixing) or due to thermal gradients (hot air is less dense than cold). What you have defined is constant density flow, which is more restrictive than incompressible. The terms are commonly used interchangeably, but it still bothers me enough that I felt I should point it out! Low speed combustion and many atmospheric flows rely on this distinction.

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