incompressible flow
Volume-preserving fluid motion
Incompressible flow is a condition in fluid dynamics where the density of a fluid remains essentially constant as it moves.
This simplifying assumption holds true for most liquids and for gases moving at low speeds, where pressure changes don't significantly compress the fluid.
Engineers and physicists use incompressible flow models to analyze everything from water in pipes to air flowing slowly around buildings, since the mathematics becomes far more tractable when density variations can be ignored.
- boundary layerViscous region near walls
- viscosityFluid's flow resistance
- irrotationalHaving zero curl everywhere
- densityMass-to-volume ratio
- pressureForce upon contact
pressure gradient · streamline · fluid dynamics · laminar flow · turbulent flow · hydrodynamics · velocity · aerodynamics · divergence · pipe · hydraulic · liquid · water · steady · vortex · Bernoulli · channel · continuity
- CFDfluid flow, turbulent flow, laminar flow, boundary conditions, boundary layer
- fluid dynamicsfluid mechanics, fluid flow, turbulence, fluid motion, streamlines
- Simplificationsideal gas, frictionless, point source, rigid body, blackbody
- hydraulicshydraulic cylinder, hydraulic fluid, hydraulic press, pump, laminar flow
- hydrogeologyaquifers, aquifer, permeability, porosity, water table
- hydrostaticsbuoyancy, fluid pressure, water pressure, pressure gradient, water column