342 PA RT 2 Inviscid, Incompressible Flow

condition expressed in terms of the strength of the vortex sheet is

γ (TE) = 0 (4.10)

4.5.1 Without Friction Could We Have Lift?

In Section 1.5 we emphasized that the resultant aerodynamic force on a body
immersed in a flow is due to the net integrated effect of the pressure and shear
stress distributions over the body surface. Moreover, in Section 4.1 we noted
that lift on an airfoil is primarily due to the surface pressure distribution, and
that shear stress has virtually no effect on lift. It is easy to see why. Look at the
airfoil shapes in Figures 4.17 and 4.18, for example. Recall that pressure acts
normal to the surface, and for these airfoils the direction of this normal pressure
is essentially in the vertical direction, that is, the lift direction. In contrast, the
shear stress acts tangential to the surface, and for these airfoils the direction of
this tangential shear stress is mainly in the horizontal direction, that is, the drag
direction. Hence, pressure is the dominant player in the generation of lift, and
shear stress has a negligible effect on lift. It is for this reason that the lift on an
airfoil below the stall can be accurately predicted by inviscid theories such as that
discussed in this chapter.
However, if we lived in a perfectly inviscid world, an airfoil could not pro-
duce lift. Indeed, the presence of friction is the very reason why we have lift.
These sound like strange, even contradictory statements to our discussion in the
preceding paragraph. What is going on here? The answer is that in real life, the
way that nature insures that the flow will leave smoothly at the trailing edge, that
is, the mechanism that nature uses to choose the flow shown in Figure 4.18c, is
that the viscous boundary layer remains attached to the surface all the way to the
trailing edge. Nature enforces the Kutta condition by means of friction. If there
were no boundary layer (i.e., no friction), there would be no physical mechanism
in the real world to achieve the Kutta condition.
So we are led to the most ironic situation that lift, which is created by the
surface pressure distribution—an inviscid phenomenon, would not exist in a fric-
tionless (inviscid) world. In this regard, we can say that without friction we could
not have lift. However, we say this in the informed manner as discussed above.

4.6 KELVIN’S CIRCULATION THEOREM

AND THE STARTING VORTEX
In this section, we put the finishing touch to the overall philosophy of airfoil
theory before developing the quantitative aspects of the theory itself in subsequent
sections. This section also ties up a loose end introduced by the Kutta condition
described in the previous section. Specifically, the Kutta condition states that the
circulation around an airfoil is just the right value to ensure that the flow smoothly
leaves the trailing edge. Question: How does nature generate this circulation?
 C H A PT E R 4 Incompressible Flow over Airfoils 343

Figure 4.20 Kelvin’s theorem.

Does it come from nowhere, or is circulation somehow conserved over the whole
flow field? Let us examine these matters more closely.
Consider an arbitrary inviscid, incompressible flow as sketched in Figure 4.20.
Assume that all body forces f are zero. Choose an arbitrary curve C1 and identify
the fluid elements that are on this curve at a given instant
 in time t1 . Also, by
definition the circulation around curve C1 is 1 = − C1 V · ds. Now let these
specific fluid elements move downstream. At some later time, t2 , these same
 elements will form another curve C2 , around which the circulation is 2 =
fluid
− C2 V · ds. For the conditions stated above, we can readily show that 1 = 2 .
In fact, since we are following a set of specific fluid elements, we can state that
circulation around a closed curve formed by a set of contiguous fluid elements
remains constant as the fluid elements move throughout the flow. Recall from
Section 2.9 that the substantial derivative gives the time rate of change following
a given fluid element. Hence, a mathematical statement of the above discussion
is simply

D
=0 (4.11)
Dt

which says that the time rate of change of circulation around a closed curve
consisting of the same fluid elements is zero. Equation (4.11) along with its
supporting discussion is called Kelvin’s circulation theorem.4 Its derivation from

4
Kelvin’s theorem also holds for an inviscid compressible flow in the special case where ρ = ρ(p); that
is, the density is some single-valued function of pressure. Such is the case for isentropic flow, to be
treated in later chapters.
344 PA RT 2 Inviscid, Incompressible Flow

Figure 4.21 The creation of the starting vortex and the resulting
generation of circulation around the airfoil.

first principles is left as Problem 4.3. Also, recall our definition and discussion of
a vortex sheet in Section 4.4. An interesting consequence of Kelvin’s circulation
theorem is proof that a stream surface which is a vortex sheet at some instant in
time remains a vortex sheet for all times.
Kelvin’s theorem helps to explain the generation of circulation around an
airfoil, as follows. Consider an airfoil in a fluid at rest, as shown in Figure 4.21a.
Because V = 0 everywhere, the circulation around curve C1 is zero. Now start
the flow in motion over the airfoil. Initially, the flow will tend to curl around the
trailing edge, as explained in Section 4.5 and illustrated at the left of Figure 4.17.
In so doing, the velocity at the trailing edge theoretically becomes infinite. In real
life, the velocity tends toward a very large finite number. Consequently, during
the very first moments after the flow is started, a thin region of very large velocity
gradients (and therefore high vorticity) is formed at the trailing edge. This high-
vorticity region is fixed to the same fluid elements, and consequently it is flushed
downstream as the fluid elements begin to move downstream from the trailing
edge. As it moves downstream, this thin sheet of intense vorticity is unstable, and it
tends to roll up and form a picture similar to a point vortex. This vortex is called the
starting vortex and is sketched in Figure 4.21b. After the flow around the airfoil has
come to a steady state where the flow leaves the trailing edge smoothly (the Kutta
condition), the high velocity gradients at the trailing edge disappear and vorticity
 C H A PT E R 4 Incompressible Flow over Airfoils 345

is no longer produced at that point. However, the starting vortex has already been
formed during the starting process, and it moves steadily downstream with the
flow forever after. Figure 4.21b shows the flow field sometime after steady flow has
been achieved over the airfoil, with the starting vortex somewhere downstream.
The fluid elements that initially made up curve C1 in Figure 4.21a have moved
downstream and now make up curve C2 , which is the complete circuit abcda
shown in Figure 4.21b. Thus, from Kelvin’s theorem, the circulation 2 around
curve C2 (which encloses both the airfoil and the starting vortex) is the same
as that around curve C1 , namely, zero. 2 = 1 = 0. Now let us subdivide C2
into two loops by making the cut bd, thus forming curves C3 (circuit bcdb) and
C4 (circuit abda). Curve C3 encloses the starting vortex, and curve C4 encloses
the airfoil. The circulation 3 around curve C3 is due to the starting vortex; by
inspecting Figure 4.21b, we see that 3 is in the counterclockwise direction (i.e.,
a negative value). The circulation around curve C4 enclosing the airfoil is 4 .
Since the cut bd is common to both C3 and C4 , the sum of the circulations around
C3 and C4 is simply equal to the circulation around C2 :
3 + 4 = 2
However, we have already established that 2 = 0. Hence,
4 = −3
that is, the circulation around the airfoil is equal and opposite to the circulation
around the starting vortex.
This brings us to the summary as well as the crux of this section. As the flow
over an airfoil is started, the large velocity gradients at the sharp trailing edge result
in the formation of a region of intense vorticity which rolls up downstream of the
trailing edge, forming the starting vortex. This starting vortex has associated with
it a counterclockwise circulation. Therefore, as an equal-and-opposite reaction, a
clockwise circulation around the airfoil is generated. As the starting process con-
tinues, vorticity from the trailing edge is constantly fed into the starting vortex,
making it stronger with a consequent larger counterclockwise circulation. In turn,
the clockwise circulation around the airfoil becomes stronger, making the flow at
the trailing edge more closely approach the Kutta condition, thus weakening the
vorticity shed from the trailing edge. Finally, the starting vortex builds up to just
the right strength such that the equal-and-opposite clockwise circulation around
the airfoil leads to smooth flow from the trailing edge (the Kutta condition is
exactly satisfied). When this happens, the vorticity shed from the trailing edge
becomes zero, the starting vortex no longer grows in strength, and a steady
circulation exists around the airfoil.

EXAM PLE 4.4

For the NACA 2412 airfoil at the conditions given in Example 4.1, calculate the strength
of the steady-state starting vortex.