Slip topology of steady flows around a critical point: Taking the linear velocity field as an example

Abstract

The flow of viscous fluids is considered as the aggregation of the motion of fluid particles when the fluid is conceived to be made up by an infinite number of particles. As an alternative of this conventional model, fluid motion could be understood as the slip of fluid layers with a molecular scale over each other, where the slip structures of fluid and their associated small-scale motion are characterized by an axial-vector-valued differential 1-form, called the vortex field. In this paper, in the case of steady flows we define the swirling degree of the velocity field at a point, and further the swirl field of the steady flow, to study the slip topology of fluid or the local streamline pattern around the critical point. The linear velocity field in the right real Schur form is used to carry out detailed analyses around the isolated critical point. Theoretical deduction and numerical test unveil the connection between the swirling degree and the swirl field, greatly make clear the topological property of slip structures of fluid in steady flows, especially in three-dimensional space.