Elementary Fluid Kinematics

Abstract

Kinematics is the branch of fluid mechanics that studies the description of fluid motion without consideration of the forces that bring it out. There exist three formulations to describe the motion of continuum materials: the Lagrangian, the Eulerian and the arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian descriptions. Also, three tools to visualize fluid motion will be presented: streamlines, trajectories and streaklines. These are important in theoretical, experimental and computational fluid dynamics to visualize flow dynamics. Finally, the concept of flux will be explained.