Acceleration Field As you should recall from your study of thermodynamics, the fundamental conservation laws (such as conservation of mass and the first law of thermo- dynamics) are expressed for a system of fixed identity (also called a closed system). In cases where analysis of a control volume (also called an open system) is more convenient than system analysis, it is necessary to rewrite these fundamental laws into forms applicable to the control volume. The same principle applies here. In fact, there is a direct analogy between sys- tems versus control volumes in thermodynamics and Lagrangian versus Eulerian descriptions in fluid dynamics. The equations of motion for fluid flow (such as Newton's second law) are written for an object of fixed iden- tity, taken here as a small fluid parcel, which we call a fluid particle or material particle. If we were to follow a particular fluid particle as it moves around in the flow, we would be employing the Lagrangian descrip- tion, and the equations of motion would be directly applicable. For example, we would define the particle’s location in space in terms of a material posi- tion Vector (ponige(s Yoarticte(s Zpanicte())- However, some mathematical manipulation is then necessary to convert the equations of motion into forms applicable to the Eulerian description. Consider, for example, Newton’s second law applied to our fluid particle, Newton's second law: F particle ~ Marcle panicle 45) where F anjcie is the net force acting on the fluid particle, myaricl i8 its mass, diyoricie iS its acceleration (Fig. 4-6). By definition, the acceleration of the fluid particle is the time derivative of the particle’s velocity, A yaticte ticle = However, at any instant in time /, the velocity of the particle is the same as the local value of the velocity field at the location (Xparicte(4)» Yparticie(!)s Acceleration of a fluid particle: 4, (4-6)Zaye) Of the particle, since the uid particle moves with the fluid by def- inition. In other words, yaa) = Mparsi(® Ypate(® Zparitelt)» 1). TO take the time derivative in Eg. 4-6, we must therefore use the chain rule, since the dependent variable (7?) is a function of four independent variables (pariter Yparicler Zpantictes aNd 1), gM dP _ dV pase Yan Ep nr a de aVdt a Apu oot + I dt” Ape at on Weasise OV Apatite dt Bnet In Eq. 4-7, @ is the partial derivative operator and d is the total deriva- tive operator. Consider the second term on the right-hand side of Eq. 47. Since the acceleration is defined as that following a fluid particle (Lagrangian description), the rate of change of the particle’s x-position with respect to time is d¥janji/dt = u (Fig. 4-7), where w is the x-component of the velocity vector defined by Eq. 4-4. Similarly, dyjurite/dt = v and dpuricldt = w, Furthermore, at any instant in time under consideration, the material position vector (parii» Myanicier Zpancte) OF the fluid particle in the Lagrangian frame is equal to the position vector (x, y, 2) in the Eulerian frame. Equation 4-7 thus becomes Fite 85 250 = ao where we have also used the (obvious) fact that dfldi = 1, Finally, at any instant in time ¢, the acceleration field of Eq. 4-3 must equal the aceclera- tion of the fluid particle that happens to occupy the location (x, y, 2) at that time f, since the fluid particle is by definition accelerating with the fluid flow. Henee, we may replace dyagie With G(x, ¥, z, ) in Eqs. 4-7 and 4-8 to transform from the Lagrangian to the Eulerian frame of reference. In vector form, Eg. 4-8 can be written as Acceleration of a fluid particle expressed as a field variable: WY, ee os da A(x, Y, 251) where ¥ is the gradient operator or del operator, a vector operator that is, defined in Cartesian coordinates as +joe #10) Cartesian coordinates ain