On the motion of an elliptic cylinder through a vicous fluid

Abstract

The NAVIER-POISSON equations for the flow of an incompressible viscous fluid are not, as yet, am enable to complete mathematical solution. A number of approximate solutions to them have been obtained in certain special cases, the greater number of these relating to the slow steady motion of a very viscous fluid, i.e., to conditions when the Reynolds’ number is very small. The solution due to STOKES for the flow past a sphere is based on the assumption that the inertia terms in the viscous equations are negligible. A solution for the flow past a cylinder in the presence of walls has been obtained by BAIRSTOW, CAVE and LANG, making the same supposition, also by BERRY and SWAIN for an elliptic cylinder and by FRAZER for a number of conditions, whilst BASSETTS obtained a solution for the flow in the neighbourhood of a sphere moving impulsively from rest.