A dynamic counterpart of Lamb vector in viscous compressible aerodynamics

Abstract

The Lamb vector is known to play a key role in incompressible fluid dynamics and vortex dynamics. In particular, in low-speed steady aerodynamics it is solely responsible for the total force acting on a moving body, known as the vortex force, with the classic two-dimensional (exact) Kutta–Joukowski theorem and three-dimensional (linearized) lifting-line theory as the most famous special applications. In this paper we identify an innovative dynamic counterpart of the Lamb vector in viscous compressible aerodynamics, which we call the compressible Lamb vector. Mathematically, we present a theorem on the dynamic far-field decay law of the vorticity and dilatation fields, and thereby prove that the generalized Lamb vector enjoys exactly the same integral properties as the Lamb vector does in incompressible flow, and hence the vortex-force theory can be generalized to compressible flow with exactly the same general formulation. Moreover, for steady flow of polytropic gas, we show that physically the force exerted on a moving body by the gas consists of a transverse force produced by the original Lamb vector and a new longitudinal force that reflects the effects of compression and irreversible thermodynamics.