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Chapter 1: Mass Conservation and the Continuity Equation

Chapter 1: Mass Conservation and the Continuity Equation

pp. 1-31

Authors

, University of Iowa
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Extract

This chapter serves as an introduction to the concept of conservation and how conservation principles are used in fluid mechanics. The conservation principle is then applied to mass and an equation known as the continuity equation is developed. Various mathematical operations such as the dot product, the divergence, and the divergence theorem are introduced along the way. The continuity equation is discussed and the idea of an incompressible flow is introduced. Some examples using mass conservation are also given.

Keywords

  • continuity equation
  • mass conservation
  • Navier–Stokes
  • fluid dynamics
  • fluid mechanics
  • hydrodynamics
  • aerodynamics

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