Boussinesq approximation (buoyancy)
Navier-Stokes equation
Navier-Stokes equation
, in
fluid mechanics
, a
partial differential equation
that describes the flow of
incompressible
fluids
. The equation is a generalization of the equation devised by Swiss mathematician
Leonhard
Euler
in the 18th century to describe the flow of incompressible and frictionless fluids. In 1821 French
engineer
Claude-Louis Navier
introduced the element of
viscosity
(friction) for the more realistic and vastly more
difficult problem of viscous fluids. Throughout the middle of the 19th century, British physicist and mathematician
Sir
George Gabriel Stokes
improved on this work, though complete solutions were obtained only for the case of simple
two-dimensional flows. The complex vortices and
