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Which came first: the chicken or the egg? velocity or pressure?

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Pressure field seems to be the quick answer to almost any question in aerodynamics (and fluid dynamics), from the cause of the lift "force" on an airfoil and wing tip vortices, to more specific aspects such as fluid separation or the generation of vorticity on a surface. For example, the term "adverse pressure gradient" (it sounds so smart) is often used by those trying to justify the cause of fluid separation behind an aerodynamic body. According to a recent survey conducted in a Linkedin CFD group (see Fig. 5), it is clear that two-thirds (36/53) of the participants believe that there is no direct cause-effect between velocity and pressure fields, since both are coupled, while the remaining one-third (17/53, including me) mark a causal in one or the other direction (velocity causes pressure or pressure causes velocity). With such disagreement, this uncertainty must be considered an open question. Therefore, in this short blog post, I will try to justify, from bot

Let's talk about vortices, patents and business! 💲

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Once the International Searching Authority (ISA) of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has determined that my international patent application "Full-surface detached vorticity method and system for solving fluid dynamics" (WO/2024/136634) , under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), meets all three criteria for patentability ( novelty, inventive step, and industrial applicability ), it will be time to make an open offer to exploit such an invention (in the prosecution phase) through a Patent Licensing Agreement (PLA). Fig. 1 The generation of vorticity on surfaces is a purely invisicid mechanism (Morton, 1984 and Terrington et al., 2022). This time I will not write about the technical aspects of the patent (or how wonderful it is! ), since I did that in a previous post:  More patents, less papers (librepenzzzador.blogspot.com) . Now, I want to focus on my business proposal. Since I have some experience as an entrepreneur in engineering ( www. chuteshiut .co

An "absurd" numerical method that actually works!

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The dynamics of a separated fluid flowing past an object is still a challenging problem in engineering, even in low-speed aerodynamics, where turbulence can be present, making its understanding and solution more difficult. For this reason, some numerical methods have been developed, most of them based on the Eulerian description of the Navier-Stokes equations, by measuring the fluid-flow variables at fixed points defined by a continuous spatial mesh, which in most cases includes several assumptions and empirically based models, in order to approximate (and artificially close ) the governing equations. In the first place, such methods are relatively computationally expensive, since they calculate the variables in the entire surrounding space, even far away from the object, where their measurement is of little value. Fig. 1 Mesh-based CFD simulation of a parabolic parachute canopy by κ-ω SST turbulence model (Pimentel, 2016). For several decades, the Boundary Element Method (BEM; e.g., p

10+2 common misconceptions about aerodynamics

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This list is a summary of misinterpretations that I have noticed during the last years as an aeronautical engineer, which from my perspective (and probably in the opinion of the editors and reviewers who have understood and published my research) do not allow to know the fundamental physics of real aerodynamics (and fluid dynamics). As usual in this blog, I try to be concise by developing my explanation for each of them in a single paragraph. No more blah, blah, blah and let's get to the point. Fig. 1 Continuity exists everywhere. Sky and Water (M.C. Escher, 1938). 1. "Ideal flows perfectly attach to the surfaces". Although it is not yet possible to confirm or deny this from an experimental point of view ( the superfluid fountain is not a flow past an object experiment), the Potential Flow Theory (PFT) assumes that an ideal (i.e. incompressible, irrotational and inviscid; i-i-i) flow will turn around, even with sharp leading edges, to maintain a perfectly attached flow

Aerodynamics is just a philosophy

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In the context of high Reynolds number aerodynamics, what does it mean to have a "laminar boundary layer" (BL)? How long is it on a wing under normal operating conditions? According to Reynolds number calculations, at best it can be no longer than a few centimeters from the leading edge! (see Fig. 1). So can we talk about a laminar BL in both the physical transition and turbulent regimes, including their instabilities and vortices ? What about so-called "laminar airfoils" ? Perhaps most of the aerodynamicists (experimentalists, theorists and computationalists) are abusing on oversimplifying things to make everything fit with their own interpretations? Fig. 1 Surface oil flow visualization of a wing upper surface (AR=3, AoA=0 deg., Re=1E6). Fluid separation region (transition to turbulent BL; ignore the red rectangle) is clearly marked around the top of the wing.  Source: "Variable Camber Compliant Wing-Wind Tunnel Testing", C.R. Marks et al. (2015). Sin

Does vorticity "induces" velocity?

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Eddies, vortices, whirlpools, tornadoes, and hurricanes; all of these fluidic structures have the same thing in common: they all rotate around a point by a vectorial quantity (which may vary with time). This is where the term "vorticity" comes in. Mathematically, vorticity is defined as the curl of the velocity : 𝜔 ( r , t)=∇× 𝑢 ( r , t). Since the velocity field depends on its position ( r ) and time (t), vorticity also does. Then, vorticity within a vortex can be explained as a measure of the rotation of a flow element as it moves along a closed (circular) streamline about an axis, maintaining a circumferential translation. In an ideal (incompressible, irrotational and inviscid) vortex, all flow elements remain without local rotation, where they are still irrotational   ( 𝜔 =0 everywhere, except along the axis). Fig. 1 Spiral vorticity. Unlike solid-body rotation, the tangential velocity decreases with increasing distance from the vortex center. Source: https://64.media.