Fluid Mechanics and the Theory of Flight
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loginThis text is based on lecture courses given by the author, over about 40 years, at Newcastle University, to final-year applied mathematics students. It has been written to provide a typical course that introduces the majority of the relevant ideas, concepts and techniques, rather than a wide-ranging and more general text. Thus the topics, with their detailed discussion linked to the many carefully worked examples, do not cover as broad a spectrum as might be found in other, more wide-ranging texts on fluid mechanics; this is a quite deliberate choice here. Thus the development follows that of a conventional introductory module on fluids, comprising a basic introduction to the main ideas of fluid mechanics, culminating in a presentation of complex-variable techniques and classical aerofoil theory. (There are many routes that could be followed, based on a general introduction to the fundamentals of the theory of fluid mechanics. For example, the course could then specialise in viscous flow, or turbulence, or hydrodynamic stability, or gas dynamics and supersonic flow, or water waves, to mention just a few; we opt for the use of the complex potential to model flows, with special application to simple aerofoil theory.) The material, and its style of presentation, have been selected after many years of development and experience, resulting in something that works well in the lecture theatre. Thus, for example, some of the more technical aspects are set aside (but usually discussed in an Appendix).
