Fundamental Equations

Abstract

This chapter introduces the topic of fluid transport. The opening section provides a motivational allegory based on the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior in 1975. Although the connection between the sinking of a steam ship and flow of blood in an artery is not obvious, the chapter describes how “apparently different systems, sharing little in scale, scope, or appearance, in fact share the same features, can be described by the same equations, and exhibit the same phenomenology.” The continuity and Navier–Stokes equations are then derived, and are applied to Poiseuille flow in a rigid tube.