Creeping flow fundamental solutions

Now, we have expressed the general streamfunction, (7-149), and the disturbance flow contribution in (7-150) and (7-151), in terms of spherical coordinates. However, we have not yet specified a body shape. Thus the linear decrease of the disturbance flow with distance from the body must clearly represent a property of creeping-flows that has nothing to do with specific coordinate systems. Indeed, this is the case, and the velocity field (7-151) plays a very special and fundamental role in creeping-flow theory. It is commonly known as the Stokeslet velocity field and represents the motion induced in a fluid at Re = 0 by a point force at the origin (expressed here in spherical coordinates).17 We shall see later that the Stokeslet solution plays an important role in many aspects of creeping-flow theory. 

I. The Stokeslet A Fundamental Solution for the Creeping-Flow Equations... 

We begin by considering the solution of the creeping-flow equations for a point force f in an unbounded fluid. This solution is a fundamental solution in the sense that it can be obtained formally from the governing equations... 

We shall see that the stokeslet solution plays a fundamental role in creeping flow theory. We have already seen in Section E of Chap. 7 that it describes the disturbance velocity far away from a body of any shape that exerts a nonzero force on an unbounded fluid. Indeed, when nondimensionalized and expressed in spherical coordinates, it is identical to the velocity field, (7 151). In the next section we use the stokeslet solution to derive a general integral representation for solutions of the creeping-flow equations. 

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