Conservation Equations for Mass and Momentum for Incompressible Flows

Abstract

The conservation equations for fluid flow are based on the principles of conservation of mass, momentum and energy and are known as the Navier-Stokes equations. They can be represented in both differential and integral forms. In this chapter we do not provide detailed derivations of these equations since they can be found in various textbooks such as References 1 to 5. In this book, we assume that the flow is incompressible and the temperature differences between the surface and freestream are small so that the fluid properties such as density ρ and dynamic viscosity μ in the conservation equations are not affected by temperature. This assumption allows us to direct our attention to the conservation equations for mass and momentum and ignore the conservation equation for energy.