Topics In Applied Math

Vorticity $\omega$ is a measure of local rotation (in a fluid). It is related to the angular velocity of a solid. Vorticity is generally a vector (valued function). However, it can be viewed as a scalar in 2D because it is always perpendicular to the plane. If fluid velocity $\vec{v}$ (in 2D) has components $u$ and $v$ \begin{equation} \vec{v}(t) = \begin{pmatrix} u(t) \\ v(t) \end{pmatrix} \end{equation} then these vector components are related to a scalar quantity called the \textbf{stream function} $\psi$ as follows \begin{align} u = -\psi_y \\ v = \psi_x \end{align} so that \begin{equation} \vec{v}(t) = \begin{pmatrix} u(t) \\ v(t) \end{pmatrix} = \begin{pmatrix} -\psi_y \\ \psi_x \end{pmatrix} \end{equation} So $\psi$ is a scalar valued function while the components of the fluid velocity vector can be derived from it. \begin{equation} \label{eq:hw4_laplacian_eqn} \nabla^2 \psi = \omega \end{equation} Vorticity-Streamfunction PDE \begin{align} \omega_t + [\psi,\omega] &am