The Laplace Equation

Irrotational flow
In irrotational flow:
r r r v = curl v = 0 v = grad

(1)

In other words: is a potential.

u = x v = y w = z

(2)

r You can easily verify that curl v = 0 .

The continuity equation in incompressible fluids (constant density) reads:

r u v w v = + + =0 x x x

(3)

Combining (2) and (3) you get:

2 = 0

(4)

Any function satisfying the Laplace equation is called a harmonic function. Also a linear combination of harmonic functions is also a solution of the Laplace equation.

Streamlines
By definition a streamline is the instantaneous tangent to the velocity field. (Euler approach). A flow path is the path followed by a certain particle (Lagrangian approach). Flow paths and streamlines are identical in steady state (no time dependency of the flow field). Mathematically, a streamline is defined as: r r ds = v (5) or
dx dy dz = = u v w
u dy v dx = 0

(6)

Working in 2-dimensions x and y, we get: (7)

For irritational flow we can replace u and v from equation 2: dy dx = 0 x y

(8)

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If we rewrite equation 8 as:

dx + dy = 0 x y

(9)

Equation (9) is an exact differential, i.e. the total derivative d[(x,y)]=0. Or in other words, as streamline is the location (line) where the values for are constant. Similarly the equipotential line is the location (line) where the total derivative of the potential d[(x,y)]=0. From equation 8 and 9, we see that the following conditions need to be fulfilled: u = x = y v = = y x

(10)

The conditions in equation (10) are called the Cauchy-Riemann conditions. The function is called the streamfunction. is also a harmonic function. Note that the streamfunction is only defined in two dimensions. Note also that streamlines and equipotential lines are perpendicular in each point (x,y).

Discretization of the Laplace equation

For both and we can approximate the first partial differential by (here written for ) by the following finite difference expression:
( x, y ) ( x x, y ) = (left side) x x ( x + x, y ) ( x, y) = (right side) x x

(11.a) (11.b)

An approximation to the second partial differential is obtained by taking the finite difference of the first partial differential, i.e. subtract (11.a) from (11.b) and divide by x:
2 ( x + x, y ) 2 ( x, y ) + ( x x, y ) = x 2 x 2

(12)

Similarly we can approximate the term in y by: 2 ( x, y + y ) 2 ( x, y ) + ( x, y y ) = y 2 y 2 (13)

Adding (12) and (13) together and assuming x=y=l we obtain a formula which can be used for numerical calculations:
( x , y) = ( x + x, y) + ( x x , y ) + ( x, y + y ) + ( x , y y ) 4

(14)

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Or in other words, the Laplace equation is fulfilled if the function value at every location (x,y) is the average of the 4 surroundings values (taking into account the above assumptions that x=y). Schematically this is shown in the numerical stencil of Figure 1.

-1

-1

+4 1

-1

-1

Figure 1

Numerical stencil for the Laplace equation

Solving the Laplace equation

The numerical stencil allows to solve the Laplace equation if we know the values for the function or along the boundary of our problem domain. The Laplace equation is a so called boundary value problem. Once we have defined the boundary values we can solve for the interior of the domain by using equation (14) which is the numerical expression for the stencil given in Figure 1.

Exercices
1) Prove that is also a harmonic function. 2) Is the vector field given by: a2 u r = U (1 2 ) cos r a2 u = U (1 ) sin r2 a solution of the Laplace equation? Note that a and U are constants. Draw this vectorfield. Note the cylindrical co-ordinates! 3) Solve the exercise Example 26.6 given in the textbook following the methodology given by Figure 1.

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4) The Laplace equation can be used to solve the flow under a dam. The potential field then represents all the hydraulic head. All points with the same potential form an equipotential line. On such a line the water would rise to the same level if you insert a vertical pipe in the soil. The field represents the flow field. Since we look at a steady state situation it also represents the flow paths. In other words, a drop of water will follow a streamline if it penetrates into the soil, goes under the dam and reappears again behind the dam. For the situation given below, draw the equipotential lines and the streamlines. Check afterwards (visually) that they are perpendicular.
6 4 2 0 -2 -4 -6 -8 -10 -12 -14 -16 -18 -20

reservoir

DAM

soil impermeable layer

Note: in the example above all boundaries of the domain were assigned a value. In the case of the flow under a dam, we cannot assign boundary values for the whole domain, but we can make use of the fact that streamlines and equipotential lines are perpendicular. For example, the outside of the dam is a streamline (a drop of water just next to the dam in the reservoir, will stay along the dam and appear at the back of the dam). For the equipotential we can then make use of symmetry and use the following stencil:

-4

streamline = symmetry line

The value at the right of the symmetry plane has to be equal to the value on the left of the symmetry plane, or in other words one can take two times the value on the left.

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