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Lecture

Astrophysical Fluids Dynamics

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PHYS-753: Dynamics of astrophysical fluids and plasmas

The dynamics of ordinary matter in the Universe follows the laws of (magneto)hydrodynamics. In this course, the system of equations that describes astrophysical fluids will be discussed on the basis of selected astrophysical examples, from the physics of s ...

Description

This lecture covers the dynamics of astrophysical fluids and plasmas, focusing on compressible and incompressible flows, continuity, Navier-Stokes, and energy equations. It delves into basic thermodynamics, internal energy, and shock waves. Perturbation theory, waves, and instabilities like Jeans instability are also discussed.

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Related concepts (32)

Fluid dynamics

In physics, physical chemistry and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids—liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including aerodynamics (the study of air and other gases in motion) and hydrodynamics (the study of liquids in motion). Fluid dynamics has a wide range of applications, including calculating forces and moments on aircraft, determining the mass flow rate of petroleum through pipelines, predicting weather patterns, understanding nebulae in interstellar space and modelling fission weapon detonation.

Incompressible flow

In fluid mechanics or more generally continuum mechanics, incompressible flow (isochoric flow) refers to a flow in which the material density is constant within a fluid parcel—an infinitesimal volume that moves with the flow velocity. An equivalent statement that implies incompressibility is that the divergence of the flow velocity is zero (see the derivation below, which illustrates why these conditions are equivalent). Incompressible flow does not imply that the fluid itself is incompressible.

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Navier–Stokes equations

The Navier–Stokes equations (nævˈjeː_stəʊks ) are partial differential equations which describe the motion of viscous fluid substances, named after French engineer and physicist Claude-Louis Navier and Irish physicist and mathematician George Gabriel Stokes. They were developed over several decades of progressively building the theories, from 1822 (Navier) to 1842-1850 (Stokes). The Navier–Stokes equations mathematically express momentum balance and conservation of mass for Newtonian fluids.

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Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics