4.2.

2 ROTATION AND VORTICITY

MO4.1
Figure 4.3: Detailed diagram of the fluid element at .
Consider now the rotation of the fluid element shown in Figure 4.3. We define the
rotation rate about the -axis as the average rate of change of the angles and
,
(4.1)
From the figure, we can relate to the velocity field,
(4.2)
t = t
z
x

y
( + )
z
1
2
d
x
dt
d
y
dt
d
x
dx dt
v
(4.3)
where the final result uses the small angle approximation for and neglects
(which is quadratic with respect to infinitesimal parameters) since it
will be small compared to (which is only linear). Thus, we have
(4.4)
Similarly, the time rate of change of is,
(4.5)
Combining these results gives,
(4.6)
And, similarly, for rotation about the and axes,
(4.7)
Mathematically, the rotation rate vector can be seen to be half the curl of the
velocity vector,
tand
x
=
dx dt
v
x
dx + dx dt
u
x
d
x
=
dt
v
x
tand
x
u/xdxdt
dx
=
d
x
dt
v
x

y
=
d
y
dt
u
y
= ( )
z
1
2
v
x
u
y
x y
= ( ) = ( )
x
1
2
w
y
v
z

y
1
2
u
z
w
x
= V
1
(4.8)
However, in fluid dynamics, it is more common to work with the curl of the velocity
vector rather than the rotation rate vector. The curl of the velocity vector is known
as the vorticity vector, ,
(4.9)
As we will discuss in detail later, many problems of interest in aeronautics have
zero vorticity through a significant portion of the flow. This leads to the concept of
anirrotational flow:
(4.10)
Otherwise, the flow is known as rotational.
Please watch the following video from the NSF Fluid Mechanics Series. It provides
helpful discussion and includes experimental demonstrations of the concept of
vorticity.
= V
1
2

V
An irrotational flow is one in which the vorticity is zero everywhere.