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In fluid mechanics, external flow is a flow that boundary layers develop freely, without constraints imposed by adjacent surfaces.[1][2] Accordingly, there will always exist a region of the flow outside the boundary layer in which velocity, temperature, and/or concentration gradients are negligible. It can be defined as the flow of a fluid around a body that is completely submerged in it. Examples include fluid motion over a flat plate (inclined or parallel to the free stream velocity) and flow over curved surfaces such as a sphere, cylinder, airfoil, or turbine blade, air flowing around an airplane, and water flowing around submarines. In a 2008 paper, external flow was said to be "arguably is the most common and best studied case in soft matter systems.[3]
The term can also be used simply to describe flow in any body of fluid external to the system under consideration.[4][5]
In external co-flow, fluid in the external region occurs in the same direction as flow within the system of interest; this contrasts with external counterflow.[6]
References
- ^ https://aip.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.868126
- ^ https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0702650
- ^ https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.178302
- ^ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167610506000857
- ^ https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/GT/proceedings/GT1994/78835/V001T01A041/255325
- ^ https://aip.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.868126
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