Fifth International Air Congress: Summaries of Some of the Important Papers read at the Recent Meetings at the Hague

Abstract

Hydrodynamic theory is usually occupied with the problem of motion of a fluid round a body, or a system of bodies, immersed in it: in other words, on seeking to ascertain a motion fulfilling certain conditions at the wall of the field of flow. The problem of motion of a fluid in an infinite field on which external forces are acting has received little attention. The latter problem, however, though difficult on account of the terms of second degree that enter into the hydrodynamic equations, is much more simple than the problem of the walls. Although in the majority of cases which arise a force only acts on a fluid (liquid or gas) through the intermediary of a body of appropriate form, it is sometimes advantageous to consider first the action of a force, or system of forces acting directly on the fluid. It then becomes possible to obtain a general idea of motion while at the same time an advantageous approach to problems of technique, in which the magnitude of the forces play the most important part, is obtained. At the same time the form of the body, through the inter‐mediary of which the force acts on the fluid (e.g., the supporting surface) is not laid down in advance, but is subject to the condition of ensuring an effect compatible with the least possible loss of energy.

Citation

(1930), "Fifth International Air Congress: Summaries of Some of the Important Papers read at the Recent Meetings at the Hague", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 2 No. 11, pp. 281-281. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb029335