Aspects of fluid mechanics involving flow of fluids (liquids and gases)
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to fluid dynamics:
In physics, physical chemistry and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids—liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including aerodynamics (the study of air and other gases in motion) and hydrodynamics (the study of liquids in motion). Fluid dynamics has a wide range of applications, including calculating forces and moments on aircraft, determining the mass flow rate of petroleum through pipelines, predicting weather patterns, understanding nebulae in interstellar space and modelling fission weapon detonation.
Below is a structured list of topics in fluid dynamics.
What type of thing is fluid dynamics?
Fluid dynamics can be described as all of the following:
- An academic discipline – one with academic departments, curricula and degrees; national and international societies; and specialized journals.
- A scientific field (a branch of science) – widely recognized category of specialized expertise within science, and typically embodies its own terminology and nomenclature. Such a field will usually be represented by one or more scientific journals, where peer-reviewed research is published.
- A natural science – one that seeks to elucidate the rules that govern the natural world using empirical and scientific methods.
- A physical science – one that studies non-living systems.
- A branch of physics – study of matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force.
- A branch of mechanics – area of mathematics and physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among physical objects.
- A branch of continuum mechanics – subject that models matter without using the information that it is made out of atoms; that is, it models matter from a macroscopic viewpoint rather than from microscopic.
- A subdiscipline of fluid mechanics – branch of physics concerned with the mechanics of fluids (liquids, gases, and plasmas) and the forces on them.
- A biological science – field that studies the role of physical processes in living organisms. For an example of a biological area involving fluid dynamics, see hemodynamics.
History of fluid dynamics
History of fluid dynamics
Persons influential in fluid dynamics
Contributors to the field of fluid dynamics in turn come from a wide array of fields, and in addition to their other titles, each is also a fluid dynamicist. Following is a list of notable fluid dynamicists:
- Snezhana Abarzhi – Applied mathematician and mathematical physicist
- John Abraham – American professor
- H. Norman Abramson – American engineer (1926–2022)
- David Acheson – British mathematician
- Andreas Acrivos – Greek–American physicist (born 1928)
- Noreen Sher Akbar – Pakistani applied mathematician
- Silas D. Alben – American mathematician
- Jean le Rond d'Alembert – French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher and music theorist (1717–1783)
- Hannes Alfvén – Swedish electrical engineer, plasma physicist and Nobel laureate
- John D. Anderson – American curator (born 1937)
- Elephter Andronikashvili – Georgian physicist
- Shelley Anna – American chemical engineer
- Archimedes – Greek mathematician and physicist (c.287–c.212 BC)
- Hassan Aref – Professor of fluid dynamics
- Vladimir Arnold – Russian mathematician (1937–2010)
- Amedeo Avogadro – Italian scientist (1776–1856)
- Ralph Bagnold – British Army officer
- Boris Bakhmeteff – Russian diplomatPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Donát Bánki – Hungarian mechanical engineer and inventorPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Grigory Barenblatt – Russian mathematician (1927–2018)
- Dwight Barkley – researcherPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallbackPages displaying short descriptions with no spaces
- Adhémar Jean Claude Barré de Saint-Venant – French mathematician (1797–1886)
- Alfred Barnard Basset – British mathematician (1854–1930)
- George Batchelor – Australian mathematician and physicist
- Harry Bateman – British-American mathematician
- Francine Battaglia – American computational fluid dynamicist
- Jurjen Battjes – Dutch civil engineer
- Henri-Émile Bazin – French hydraulic engineer
- James Thomas Beale – American mathematician
- Adrian Bejan – Romanian-American professor
- Josette Bellan – Romanian-French-American fluid dynamicist
- Henri Bénard – French physicist (1874–1939)
- Brooke Benjamin – English mathematical physicist and mathematician
- David Benney – New Zealand applied mathematician
- Frank H. Berkshire – British mathematician
- Natalia Berloff – Russian mathematician
- Daniel Bernoulli – Swiss mathematician and physicist (1700–1782)
- Johann Bernoulli – Swiss mathematician (1667–1748)
- Andrea Bertozzi – American mathematician
- W. H. Besant – British mathematician
- Albert Betz – German physicist (1885–1968)
- Eugene C. Bingham – American chemist
- Jean-Baptiste Biot – French physicist
- Robert Byron Bird – American chemical engineer (1924–2020)
- Garrett Birkhoff – American mathematician (1911–1996)
- Paul Richard Heinrich Blasius – German physicist
- Tobias de Boer – Dutch scientist
- Ludwig Boltzmann – Austrian physicist and philosopher (1844–1906)
- Wilfrid Noel Bond – English physicist (1897–1937)
- Joseph Valentin Boussinesq – French mathematician and physicist (1842–1929)
- Robert Boyle – Anglo-Irish scientist (1627–1691)
- Peter Bradshaw (aeronautical engineer) – British engineerPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Francis Bretherton – American mathematician, oceanographer and engineer
- John D. Buckmaster – British aerospace engineerPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Gerald Bull – Canadian artillery engineer and entrepreneur
- Jan Burgers – Dutch physicist (1895–1981)
- Adolf Busemann – German aerospace engineer
- Sébastien Candel – French physicist (born 1946)
- Isabelle Cantat – French physicist
- Silvana Cardoso – Portuguese fluid dynamicist
- Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot – French physicist and engineer (1796–1832)
- George F. Carrier – American mathematician
- Claudia Cenedese – Italian oceanographer
- Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar – Indian-American physicist (1910-1995)
- Hubert Chanson – Australian engineering academic (born 1961)
- Jacques Charles – French inventor, scientist and mathematician (1746–1823)
- Jean-Yves Chemin – French mathematician
- Thomas H. Chilton – American chemical engineer (1899–1972)Pages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Alexandre Chorin – American mathematician
- Demetrios Christodoulou – Greek mathematician and physicist
- Chia-Kun Chu – Chinese-American mathematician (1927–2023)
- Émile Clapeyron – French engineer and physicist
- John Frederick Clarke – British scientist (1927-2013)Pages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Rudolf Clausius – German physicist and mathematician (1822–1888)
- Paul Clavin – French physicistPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Nicolas Clément – French physicist and chemist (1779–1841)
- Julian Cole – American mathematician
- Adrian Constantin – Romanian-Austrian mathematician
- Stanley Corrsin – American physicist and engineer
- Maurice Couette – French physicist
- Richard Courant – German-American mathematician (1888–1972)
- David Crighton – British mathematician and physicist
- Mimi Dai – MathematicianPages displaying short descriptions with no spaces
- Stuart Dalziel – British and New Zealand fluid dynamicist
- Gerhard Damköhler – German chemist (1908–1944)
- Henry Darcy – French engineer (1803–1858)
- Georges Jean Marie Darrieus – French aerospace engineer
- Stephen H. Davis – American mathematician (1939–2021)
- William Reginald Dean – British mathematician and physicistPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Lokenath Debnath – Indian American mathematician (1935–2023)
- Subhasish Dey – Indian academicPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Satish Dhawan – Indian mathematician and engineer (1920–2002)
- Rudolf Diesel – German inventor and mechanical engineer (1858–1913)
- Ronald DiPerna – American mathematician
- Charles R. Doering – American mathematician (1956–2021)
- David Dolidze – Georgian and Soviet mathematician
- Philip Drazin – British mathematician
- Hugh Latimer Dryden – American aeronautical scientist and civil servant (1898–1965)
- Elizabeth B. Dussan V. – American mathematician
- Ernst R. G. Eckert – American aerospace engineerPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Vagn Walfrid Ekman – Swedish oceanographer (1874–1954)
- Simen Ådnøy Ellingsen – Norwegian Professor
- Loránd Eötvös – Hungarian physicist
- Jerald Ericksen – American mathematician (1924–2021)
- R. Cengiz Ertekin – Turkish marine engineer
- Leonhard Euler – Swiss mathematician (1707–1783)
- David Evans (mathematician) – British mathematician
- Amir Faghri – American mechanical engineering professor (born 1951)
- Gino Girolamo Fanno – Italian mechanical engineer
- Eduard Feireisl – Czech mathematician
- Antonio Ferri – Italian scientistPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- John Ffowcs Williams – British engineer-scientist
- Bruce A. Finlayson – American chemical engineerPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Irmgard Flügge-Lotz – German mathematician
- Emanuele Foà – Italian engineer and physicist (1892–1949)
- Hermann Föttinger – German engineer (1877–1945)
- Joseph Fourier – French mathematician and physicist (1768–1830)
- James B. Francis – British-American civil engineer (1815–1892)
- David A. Frank-Kamenetskii – Soviet scientist (1910–1970)
- François Frenkiel – physicistPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallbackPages displaying short descriptions with no spaces
- Uriel Frisch – French mathematical physicist
- Robert Edmund Froude – British engineer and naval architect
- William Froude – British engineer and naval architect
- Mohamed Gad-el-Hak – Professor of Biomedical Engineering
- Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac – French chemist and physicist (1778–1850)
- Israel Gelfand – Soviet mathematician (1913–2009)
- William K. George – American fluid dynamicist
- Morteza Gharib – physicistPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallbackPages displaying short descriptions with no spaces
- Alan Jeffrey Giacomin – Canadian editorPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Josiah Willard Gibbs – American scientist (1839–1903)
- Adrian Gill (meteorologist) – Australian meteorologist
- Pierre-Simon Girard – French mathematician and engineer (1765–1836)
- Hermann Glauert – British aerodynamicist
- James Glimm – American mathematician
- Sergei Godunov – Russian mathematician (1929–2023)
- Sydney Goldstein – British mathematician
- Alexander Gorlov – American scientist and inventorPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Leo Graetz – German physicist
- Franz Grashof – German engineer (1826–1893)
- Albert E. Green – British mathematician
- Harvey P. Greenspan – American mathematician
- Marina Guenza – Italian chemist
- Max Gunzburger – American mathematician
- Wolfgang Haack – German mathematician (1902-1994)Pages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Gotthilf Hagen – German physicist
- Georg Hamel – German mathematician (1877 - 1954)
- Thomas Henry Havelock – English mathematicianPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Wallace D. Hayes – American mechanical and aerospace engineerPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Peter H. Haynes – British mathematician
- Werner Heisenberg – German theoretical physicist (1901–1976)
- Henry Selby Hele-Shaw – British engineerPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Hermann von Helmholtz – German physicist and physiologist (1821–1894)
- John Hinch (mathematician) – British mathematicianPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Julius Oscar Hinze – Dutch scientist (1907–1993)
- Hans G. Hornung – American engineerPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Leslie Howarth – British mathematician
- Pierre Henri Hugoniot – French military engineer (1851-1887)Pages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Herbert Huppert – British geophysicist
- Fazle Hussain – American physicist
- M. Yousuff Hussaini – American academicPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Caius Iacob – Romanian mathematician and politician
- Antony Jameson – British aerospace engineer
- James Jeans – English physicist, astronomer and mathematician (1877–1946)
- George Barker Jeffery – British mathematical physicist (1891–1957)
- Daniel D. Joseph – American mechanical engineer
- James Prescott Joule – English physicist and brewer (1819–1889)
- Viktor Kaplan – Austrian engineer
- Béla Karlovitz – Hungarian-American engineer, inventor
- Theodore von Kármán – Hungarian-American mathematician, aerospace engineer and physicist (1881–1963)
- Lord Kelvin – British physicist, engineer and mathematician (1824–1907)
- Earle Hesse Kennard – Theoretical physicist
- Gustav Kirchhoff – German physicist (1824–1887)
- Alexander Kiselev (mathematician) – American mathematician
- Martin Knudsen – Danish physicist
- Andrey Kolmogorov – Soviet mathematician (1903–1987)
- Ludwig Kort
- Diederik Korteweg – Dutch mathematician (1848–1941)
- Leslie Stephen George Kovasznay – Hungarian-American engineer
- Robert Kraichnan – American theoretical physicist (1928–2008)
- Martin Kutta – German mathematician (1867–1944)
- Olga Ladyzhenskaya – Russian mathematician (1922–2004)
- Paco Lagerstrom – Swedish American mathematician
- Horace Lamb – English mathematician (1849–1934)
- Lev Landau – Soviet theoretical physicist (1908–1968)
- Pierre-Simon Laplace – French polymath (1749–1827)
- Boris Laschka – German fluid dynamics scientist and aeronautical engineer
- Brian Launder – British academic
- Gustaf de Laval – Swedish engineer and inventor (1845–1913)
- Chung K. Law – Engineering researcher
- Peter Lax – Hungarian-born American mathematician
- L. Gary Leal – American chemistPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Leonid Leibenson – Soviet physicist (1879–1951)
- Leonardo da Vinci – Italian Renaissance polymath (1452–1519)
- Tullio Levi-Civita – Italian mathematician (1873–1941)
- Veniamin Levich – Ukrainian physicist (1917-1988)Pages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Bernard Lewis (scientist) – scientist (1899-1993)Pages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Warren K. Lewis – American chemical engineer (1882–1975)
- Paul A. Libby – American scientist (1921–2021)
- Wolfgang Liebe – German aeronautical engineer (1911–2005)
- Hans W. Liepmann – American engineer (1914–2009)
- Evgeny Lifshitz – Soviet physicist (1915–1985)
- Edwin N. Lightfoot – American chemical engineer
- James Lighthill – British applied mathematician (1924–1998)
- Chia-Chiao Lin – Chinese-American applied mathematician (1916-2013)Pages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Amable Liñán – Spanish aeronautical engineer
- Paul Linden – mathematician specialising in fluid dynamicsPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Anke Lindner – German physicist
- Michael S. Longuet-Higgins – British mathematician (1925-2016)Pages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Lu Shijia – Chinese physicist
- Geoffrey S. S. Ludford – American scientist (1921–2021)
- John L. Lumley – American Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering (1930-2015)Pages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Thomas S. Lundgren – American academic
- Ernst Mach – Austrian/Czech physicist, philosopher and university educator (1838–1916)
- Charles L. Mader – American physical chemist
- Andrew Majda – American mathematician (1949–2021)
- Carlo Marangoni – Italian physicist
- Frank E. Marble – American scientist
- Moshe Matalon (engineer) – Israeli-American engineer and mathematician (born 1949)
- Tony Maxworthy – British-American physicist (1933–2013)
- John B. McCormick – American mechanical engineer (1834–1924)
- Trevor McDougall – Oceanographer and leading figure in the thermodynamics of seawaterPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Beverley McKeon – Physicist and aerospace engineer
- Chiang C. Mei – American fluid dynamicistPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Charles Meneveau – researcherPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallbackPages displaying short descriptions with no spaces
- Theodor Meyer – German physicist (1882–1972)
- Anthony Michell – Australian mechanical engineer
- John W. Miles – American research professor of applied mechanics and geophysics
- Laura Miller (mathematical biologist) – American mathematical biologist
- L. M. Milne-Thomson – English applied mathematician
- Richard von Mises – Austrian physicist and mathematician (1883–1953)
- Keith Moffatt – British mathematician and physicist
- Parviz Moin – American engineer
- Andrei Monin – Soviet and Russian physicist, applied mathematician, and oceanographer (1921-2007)Pages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Lewis Ferry Moody – American engineer and professor
- Rose Morton – American mathematician
- Samar Mubarakmand – Pakistani nuclear physicist (born 1942)
- Walter Munk – American oceanographer (1917–2019)
- Morris Muskat – American petroleum engineer
- Roddam Narasimha – Indian scientist (1933–2020)
- Claude-Louis Navier – French engineer and physicist (1785–1836)
- Paul Neményi – Hungarian mathematician and physicist (1895–1952)
- John von Neumann – Hungarian and American mathematician and physicist (1903–1957)
- Isaac Newton – English mathematician and physicist (1642–1727)
- Nhan Phan-Thien – researcherPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallbackPages displaying short descriptions with no spaces
- Wilhelm Nusselt – German engineer (1882–1957)
- Morrough Parker O'Brien – American hydraulic engineering professor (1902–1988)
- John Ockendon – British mathematicianPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Hisashi Okamoto – Japanese mathematician
- Steven Orszag – American mathematician (1943–2011)
- Carl Wilhelm Oseen – Swedish theoretical physicist (1879–1944)
- Simon Ostrach – American aerodynamics scientist (1923-2017)Pages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Mariolina Padula – Italian mathematical physicist
- Stoycho Panchev – Bulgarian meteorologist and fluid dynamicist
- Blaise Pascal – French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher (1623–1662)
- Jean Claude Eugène Péclet – French physicist (1793–1857)
- Tim Pedley – British mathematician and a former G
- Joseph Pedlosky – American physical oceanographer (born 1938)
- Lester Allan Pelton – American mechanical engineer
- Stanford S. Penner – German-American professor of engineering physicsPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Howell Peregrine – British mathematician
- Adriana Pesci – Argentine mathematician and physicist
- Charles S. Peskin – American mathematician
- Norbert Peters (engineer) – German combustion engineer (1942–2015)
- Henri Pitot – French hydraulic engineer (1695–1771)
- Joseph Plateau – Belgian physicist (1801–1883)
- Milton S. Plesset – American physicist (1908–1991)
- Henri Poincaré – French mathematician, physicist and engineer (1854–1912)
- Jean Léonard Marie Poiseuille – French physicist (1797-1869)Pages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Siméon Denis Poisson – French mathematician and physicist (1781–1840)
- Stephen B. Pope – Cornell University professor of mechanical engineering
- Constantine Pozrikidis – American chemical engineer
- Ludwig Prandtl – German physicist (1875–1953)
- Andrea Prosperetti – American scientistPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Joseph Proudman – British mathematician and oceanographer
- Seth Putterman – American physicist
- William Rankine – Scottish mechanical engineer
- John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh – British physicist (1842–1919)
- Theodor Rehbock – German professor of hydraulics, hydraulics engineerPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Markus Reiner – Israeli scientist and engineer
- Osborne Reynolds – Anglo-Irish innovator (1842–1912)
- William Craig Reynolds – American fluid dynamicistPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Dimitri Riabouchinsky – Russian physicist
- Lewis Fry Richardson – English meteorologist and mathematician (1881–1953)
- Robert D. Richtmyer – American mathematician
- Norman Riley (professor) – British mathematician
- Petre Roman – Prime Minister of Romania between 1989 and 1991
- Louis Rosenhead – British mathematician
- Anatol Roshko – Canadian-American physicist and engineer
- Carl-Gustaf Rossby – Swedish-born American meteorologist
- Hunter Rouse – American physicistPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- John Scott Russell – Naval engineer
- Philip Saffman – British mathematician (1931–2008)
- Stephen Salter – South African-born Scottish academic and inventor
- Ralph Allan Sampson – British astronomer
- Hermann Schlichting – German fluid dynamics engineer
- James Serrin – American mathematician
- Tasneem M. Shah – Pakistani scientist and mathematician
- P. N. Shankar – Indian scientist (1944–2019)
- Ascher H. Shapiro – American author and professor of mechanical engineering and fluid mechanics
- Beverley Shenstone – Canadian aerodynamicistPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Thomas Kilgore Sherwood – American chemical engineer
- Albert F. Shields – American engineer
- Max Shiffman – American mathematician
- Wei Shyy – Hong Kong aerospace engineerPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Gregory Sivashinsky
- Apollo M. O. Smith – American aerospace engineer (1911-1997)Pages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Frank T. Smith – English applied mathematician
- Arnold Sommerfeld – German theoretical physicist (1868–1951)
- Andrew Soward – British fluid dynamicist
- Brian Spalding – British academicPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Ephraim M. Sparrow – American academic
- Charles Speziale – American scientist (1948–1999)
- Herbert Squire – British aerospace engineerPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- K. R. Sreenivasan – Indian-American scientist and physicist
- Paul H. Steen – American engineer
- Josef Stefan – Carinthian Slovene physicist, mathematician and poet (1835–1893)
- Keith Stewartson – British mathematician (1925–1983)
- Sir George Stokes, 1st Baronet – Anglo-Irish mathematician and physicist (1819–1903)
- Yvonne Stokes – Australian mathematician
- Howard A. Stone – American engineer (born 1960)
- Vincenc Strouhal – Czech physicist
- John Trevor Stuart – British mathematician
- G. I. Taylor – British physicist and mathematician (1886–1975)
- Roger Temam – French mathematician
- Hendrik Tennekes – Dutch scientist
- Walter Tollmien – German fluid dynamicist
- Albert Alan Townsend – Fluid dynamics physicist
- David Tritton – English physicist (1935–1998)
- Viktor Trkal – Czech physicist and mathematician
- Clifford Truesdell – American mathematician (1919–2000)
- Gretar Tryggvason – American fluid dynamicist (born 1956)
- Ernie Tuck – Australian mathematician
- Laurette Tuckerman – American mathematical physicist
- Stewart Turner – Australian geophysicist (1930–2022)
- Fritz Ursell – British mathematician (1923-2012)Pages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Victor Vâlcovici – Romanian mechanician and mathematicianPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Milton Van Dyke – American fluid dynamicistPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Henri Villat – French mathematician
- Ricardo Vinuesa – Spanish-Swedish fluid dynamicist and machine-learning researcherPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Gustav de Vries – Dutch mathematician (1866–1934)
- John V. Wehausen – American applied mathematician
- Julius Weisbach – German mathematician and engineer
- Karl Weissenberg – Austrian mathematician and physicist
- Richard T. Whitcomb – American aeronautical engineer (1921–2009)
- Frank M. White – American mechanical engineer
- Gerald B. Whitham – American mathematician
- Forman A. Williams – American academic
- John R. Womersley – British mathematician, computer scientist and biophysicist
- Theodore Y. Wu – American engineer (1924–2023)
- Akiva Yaglom – Russian physicist, mathematician, statistician, and meteorologist
- Chia-Shun Yih – American engineerPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Z. Jane Wang – Chinese and American physicist
- Yakov Zeldovich – Soviet physicist, physical chemist and cosmologist (1914–1987)
- Yuwen Zhang – Chinese-American academic
- Nikolay Zhukovsky (scientist) – Russian scientist (1847–1921)
