Delusions in Theoretical Hydrodynamics

Abstract

Theoretical hydrodynamics may lead one into serious delusions. This article is focused on three of them. First, using flowing around a sphere as an example it is shown that the known potential solutions of the flow-around problems are not unique and there exist nonpotential solutions. A nonpotential solution has been obtained for flowing around a sphere. A general solution of the problem of flowing around an arbitrary surface has been obtained in the quadrature form. To single out a physically realisable solution among a great number of others, it is necessary to add supplementary conditions to the known boundary ones, in particular, to find a solution with the minimum total energy. The hypothesis explaining the reason for stalled flows by viscosity is erroneous. When considering a flow-around problem one should use stalled and broken solutions of the continuity equation along with the continuous ones. If the minimum total energy is achieved by the continuous solution, it is a continuous flow that will be implemented. If it is achieved by the broken solution, a stalled flow will be realised. Second, the hydrodynamics of a flow is considered exclusively at each point of it. Differential equations are used to describe the flows that are written for a randomly small volume of a flow, i.e. , for a point. The integral characteristics of a flow and its inertial properties are neglected in the consideration, which results in the misunderstanding of the mechanism of the formation of a vortex. The reason for the formation of vortices is related to viscosity, which is a mistake. The formation of vortices is the result of the inhomogeneity of the acceleration field and the inertial properties of a flow. Third, the fictitious values of viscous stresses are used in hydrodynamics. As a matter of fact, viscosity is the momentum diffusion and it should be described by the diffusion equation included into the Euler system of equations for a viscous fluid. The momentum diffusion leads to the necessity of including the volume momentum sources produced by diffusion into the continuity equation and excluding the viscosity forces from the equation of motion. The problem of a viscous fluid flowing around a thin plate has been solved analytically, the velocity profiles satisfying the experiment have been obtained. The superfluidity of helium is not its property. It is the interaction of helium with a streamlined surface that is responsible for the mechanism of superfluidity. At low temperatures when the quantum properties are most pronounced the momentum transfer from the helium atoms to the streamlined wall becomes impossible, since the value of the energy transferred in the collision of a helium atom with that of the wall is smaller than the permitted quantum of energy. This mechanism takes place in the case of a flow in capillaries. Under a hydrodynamic flow-around superfluidity does not manifest due to the occurrence of stalled flows. The hypothesis of the disappearance of the viscous stresses at low temperatures is erroneous. The viscous stresses cannot disappear since they do not exist in nature. The theory of representing superfluidity as a phase transition accompanied by the formation of the combined viscous and nonviscous phases is a mistake.