Cosmic

Gas
Dynamics
Prof. Izmodenov
Lomomnsov Moscow State University
Moscow,Russia

Praperaed By: Patel Mehulkumar L

 C 1I :lp1.(')' I

Basic Fluid Equations

Fluid dYllallJ ics is 1,] 1<' ru ul.iuu u m dl 'snip l i" l1 01' III(' flo w 01' ; 1 lal'/-',I' 1I11 l1l1 lf'r 01'
p ar {'id( ~s ,
Such a d ( ~ scripli o ll is wid ('],\' a pp l ical,I (' ill ;ls l l'op llys ic;ll ]l l'ol>k lJIs .
anr l flu id dy lla i llic; d P ]'l l(' { 'SS I ~S pl ay n l« :v roh ' i II Ilia 11\ ' ; \1'(,< IS "I' ;ls1rophysi cs .
IJI t.hi» h o ok 11](' JI11 id undor co us i(kr a l ioJJ wil l l',e ll('I';ll ly 1H' a I',as, th ough
t.J w equations of Iiuid clyu .uuics cau a lso IH ' ap p l i f ~ d 10 (1r:sni],ill l', 1.11<' motion
of a «ollocl.ion of s t a rs , 01' eV('JJ ga lax ies . pro vicl.«! t.luu 11111' is iU{.I ·]'('s !.ed ill
t.h« co llpdi vp ho huviour Oil s u flicie ld ly I:I I'/-',e sca les.
T h e ten u fl uid ill g<:JJera J n: l'ers {." g.; ISI 'S a lld liq ni.]«. FJllids n]'(' Ilis
j,jul',l1ished fro m so lid s ill t.hat . so lid s have' ri gidi ty. llol.l! ,~ o l i d s alld llu ids
d oIorru w he n a s tress is »pp liod t o them : hu t. unlil« - a so lid . a sim p le fluid
has no lelJ<!eucy t o ret 11 I'U t o it s o rig in n) stnte whr-» the ilpplier] s1n'ss is
roiuovod .
T he continniun descripti on is fuud mueut.al !.o th e Ji u id approach to r1p-
scribing t.ho dynamics of a coll ection o f p.nti clcs . 'I' ho domai n of vali d itv of
t he con t.iuunm d esITip1.ioJ] is d l'1,f'n JJiJ H'd l,y cOlll p;n'illg 111<' "ollisioll al nu -au
Jiu ' paUl I o f 1.1](' pa r1.if·]r,s w it h 1:he m a croscopic ]('Jlg !.!t SC; I I" l. 0 1' ij d (']'es t
in t.hc pruhlcui , If I « L t.hon it is rensoJl ah lf' t o in t.rod ucx - 1,11(' cOJlcppl of
a fluid volume element. wh oso lin ear siz e i,s much large 1' th an 11m! mu ch
sm all er th an L . Th e number of parti cles inside a Ilu id clem en t is ]a1'g(·.
a nd we call asso cia te wit.li the Iln id elouieut a hul k velocit y 11. Ind ividu a l
p a r ti cl e veloc ities have a random co mpo ne nt in add ition (.o 11 but" 1)1'('a11SI '
th« moan frce pnt .h is smal l. t he r.uu k un motion d( H's ]JO( illllllPdiaf el y t.al«:
th p p articl e 1'<11' from its ncig hbonri ng part icles l H'(',1l1,SC' th e p ;lrlil'1l ' 11 :nC'1s
o n ly a clis tnuco of o rdr- r I ]JI'fo]'(' 11lI(k rg oiu/-', a colli si OJJ a nd ch;ul ,l~ iug il s
di rect ion . \Ve «an a lso assrwiaj·f' wit h t I)(' flu id d (·]J)(,JJj. ot.hr-r 111 ;HTOSI'0l'i l'
proper ti es such as a d ensity fI (to tal mass of OJ(' particles insi d e 1:1](' olcmont.
di v id ed 1Iy it s VOIlllJJC ). O ver a shor t t ime inte-rval lro in tim e I to time I +iSt
 A siroplujsicu! Fluid Dynll1Hics Basic Flui d Equations

we may define the fluid eleme nt to transfo rm by transla t ing ea ch point of the fl uid , over a shor t. p eri od of ti m e ot, in (.]I e limi t ilS ill 1ends to zer o.
t he element by a n amount u (r-, t )M, wh ere u tr, t ) is t he local mean velocity Sin ce (con ed to Iirs t order in M) the fluid elcme ut will have moved from
at the position r of t h e elem ent. By virtu e of th e above considerat ions, the r at time I t o r + u M al; tim e t. + r5t, tI)() material derivative is
fluid clement will still con t ain essenti ally th e same number of part icles at Df im (f(1' -+- 11, r5t ,t +<5I) -- .[ (1',1,) )
/. + 15t as it did at Lim e i; an d mo reover they will b e almost a ll t he same I1m
DI St,- .o M
pa rt icles asI JCli)]'( ~ . Heucc Ow iuacro sco p !« properties of tJw fluid clem ent
will evolve only slowly, am i by a diffu si ve process.
For furt her discu ssion of the cont inu um descripti on a nd t he fluid a p-
proach , see e.g . Batchelor (19G7) aud Shu (1992) . 1. 2 T he Cont.in u ity Equation
If t he mean free path of t he particles is not. m uch smaller t.han the m acro-
scopic scale of intere st, t hen the approp riate description of t he collective Consider a volume V , wh ich is fixed ill space, enclosed by a surface S' on
properties of th e particles is kinetic: t heo ry. T he equat ions of fluid dynamics which n is th o ou tward-poiut.iug )J()l'IlJ al vecto r (Fi g. ! . J). The to t.al m ass
can indeed lw derived from t.he mic roscopi c basis of kinetic theory. .For a of fluid in \I is .f~! pdV , whe n : p(1', t) is th o de nsity of the fluid. The ti me
presentation of thi s approach , ::;ee Shu (1992). He re we shall ins t ead as su me derivat ive of the mass ill V is t he m as s flux int o V acro ss its su rface 8 , i.e.
t he conti nu um descr iption from the outset an d see how simp le considera-
tions of the motion of the fluid , a nd the forces acting on it , lead to the fluid -Id / .' P (111
(t.. F
= - j'(pu ) . n <IS .
S
(1.2)
dyna mica l equations .
Since V is a volume fixed in sp ace, t he time deri vat ive on the left of Eq . (1.2)
can b e t aken inside the integral and becom es a deri vati ve a t. fixed positi on
1.1 T h e Material D e riva t ive in space. The surface ter m on t he right-h and side of t he equati on ca n b e
IT-expressed as a volum e integr al usin g t he di vergen ce t heor em . Hen ce we
T he fluid properties , such as its density p a nd veloc ity u., will in general he
obt ain
functions of p ositi on r and of t ime I . We sh all always use DI Dt to denote
t he rate of change of some qu ant ity with resp ect to tim e at a fixed position
1 8r P dV = -
v Dt .v
j'
\7 . (p11,) dV .
in space. In describing fluids it is also very useful to define t he material
derinaii oe, wh ich will b e denoted D I Dt: t his is th e rate of ch a nge of some Sin ce this ho lds for any ar bit rary volum e \7 in the fluid , it follows t ha t
qua ntity with respect to ti me but travelling a long wit h t he fluid . 8p
Let tir ,/.) be a ny quanti ty, for ex ample, temperature of t he flu id . It Dt + V · (p11,) = o. (1.3)
may h appen t hat the temperature of all indi vidual p arcels of fluid is not
This is t he con tinui ty equation (or m ass conse rvation equat ion). Com bining
chang ing with time, so t he material derivat ive D f l D t is zero; but if some
Eqs. (1.1) a nd (1.3) t he cont inuity equat ion can also be ex pressed as
fluid is hotter t ha n other fluid t he n t he tem perat ure at a fixed p oint in
space m ay st ill ch a nge wit h time as flui d of different temperature passes Dp
Dt + pV . u = O. (1.4)
t he po int at wh ich the t emper ature is m easur ed . In fact , in that ca se ,
Df! fJt = - 11,' V f where u ir , t ) is t h e velocity of the flui d. More generally,
the material deri vative is relat ed to the rate of change at a fixed p oin t in
1.3 T h e Moment um Equation
space as

Df = 8.f + u . \7 f . (1.1) One ca n simi la rly deri ve a m om entum equation, or eq uation of moti on , for
Dt fJt t he fluid by co nsider ing t he rate of change of t he t otal momentum of the
Eq uation (1.1) ca n b e deri ved by cons ider ing t he ch ange in f when following tluid in sid e a volu me V . It t urns out to b e easi est t o conside r a volume
4 A s l.TOl' hysi cal F lui d D yn nU/.u ;s

]\lasS of a fluid element a nd is invari ant followi n g tho ruoti on so it s 11l;11 t'ri nl
d cr j vnt.i v( ~ is zero. 'Thus
d /. / . /h , ( I.( i )
-- fl U d lI ;co [' -- - d I'
d! , \ ' ,\ l rt
nn rl 11( 'II Cf\ apP h'in g; t.hr: di \'C'l".l',c'IW( ' t.!W()]'('lll jo tl« : s1lr fac I' iIIL q l:r:d ill
v E q, (1 .5 ) , w r: ol n.ain
. f)7J / .
p - - dV = ( -VII -I ['f )dV.
,/ I i ] ) ( , v
Since t his hold s for :I1lY a r bitary m ntcri nl volu me II , it. follows 1.1];11.

(1. 7 )

F ig.1.J A n a rbit rnrv vol ume of Ilnid \I , wit h s llrface,.') au d ou t.ward-point.in g n orui nl n .
'm oving wit h the [iuid , so th at no fluid is flowin g ac ro ss it s su rface into
out of F . T he momentum of th e fluid ill F is I, .
p7J d F , a nd 1.Iw rate
change of t his momentum if; eq ual 1.0 t.he net Iorc« ac ti ng on ti le flui d
volnnw V. These .a re of t wo kinds. F irst th er e ar c h od y forces , s uch
gra v ity, wh ich a ct o n the particles insi d e F : their net, effec t is a force
where f is the b ody force p er unit mass , (N ote that for ce p er uni t mass
h as d imension s of ac ce ler ation .) For ex am p le, f could h e the gravit at iona l
a cce ler ation g , The secon d kino of for ces a cting a rc s ur fa ce forces - forc es
exerted on the su r fac e S o f F by the su rro u nd ing fluid . In a n ituns cul fluid ,
suc h as we shall mo stl y he cons ide r ing. th e s urface force a ct s norm all y t o
t he s urfa ce an d it s net effec t is
T his is i.lw m om entu m ('cj1 w t io ll for a ll i\lviscid lIuid.
In a gClwra l viscous fluid (it docsn 't IlcC'd to I lf ' as c'x t.]'CllW all oxmnpl«
or
as tr eaclel) t.he ith C'.()]llj HJl1 en t o f 1.Iw fo]'( '( ~ ex ( 'l' t.c ~d Oil ~·mr fa('" S' II.\' 111C'
of
surrou nd ing fluid is no t. just f <; - 1) 'lJ i d8 ]mi. is .fs (Tij 'IJj d 8. whore (Tij is
ill
t.ho 8 1.1'1.:88 I.I.:n8 0 1'. [N o t.o her e thai. the s u m m nl.iou (,Oll VC ~ll t.io ll is w )('( L so
as
tlmt, if a ll index is re]lC'aU~d it sho uld lw su m me d ove r. A lIo11-]'C']lc'ntC'd
in d ex d eno tes a COlll]ion ent of a vec t.or or te-nso r. SC·t' A ppC'1 \C1ix A . A Iso
note that , t h roug hou t. th is book we shall use r or :r. t,o dl' no j.r· vl'c:tor position :
l)11t for it s ith com p on en t for m wr: al ways wri te :1:i . ) For g;asl's and sin rplo
liquids it is foun d th at
(J .8)
whe r e p, is t he so-cal led dyna mica l viscos ity: sec ('. .g. E n tr-lrolor (l 9(j7) .
Landau & Lifshitz (J95D). Also Il i i is the Kron eck er i1e11a: sel' Ap]l(:nd ix A,
Now

j' - pndS ,
,S j'
,,<;
(J i j H j
.
ciS =
/. D '1 >

• F u :J.' j
(J ij
1
d \'

p being t he pressure. Ther e is no flux of m omentum across the su r face (d ive rg enc e t heorem ), a nd so if 1'. is a co ns tant it follows t haI. t ho eq u ation
ca r ried by flui d p ar cels m oving , since by d efin iti on none crosses the su rface of mo tion for a viscous flu id is
of a m aterial volu me . E q uating force t o chan ge of momentum we obtain
o« ( ,) 1 ( \
Pm = - -Vp -+ pf + II V - l1 + ~ V V' 1/,)) . ( U I)
e! rpudV = .Isr
CI t i F
- pn d S + / . pf dF .
'F
(1.5 )
With viscosit y included , E q. (J .9) is cal led tl io Navicr-Stokos equation. Its
Sinc e V is a llmt.el'ial vo lu me, whe n t he t ime d eri va t ive is t a ken insid e inviscid form , Eq . (1.7) . is cal led tJIC Euler eq uation. T hroug ho ut most. of
t he in t eg ral it becomes a m ateri al deri vative; but t he prod uct pdF is the this b ook we sh all neglect visc osi t y : the justification of this app rox im at ion
 (i A s tro pliusi cal Fluid Dynamics
Basic Flui d Equations 7

ill as trophysica l contexts will be seen in Section 2.8. However , viscosity

(b bein g th e Dirac delt a fun ction in ;~ - D space), Eq. (] .1:-1 ) cau I)(~ rew ritten
plays a key rol e ill some ap plica t ions , not ably in astrophys ica l accretion
as a part ial differential equation, Poisson's cquaiiou:
disks which we discus s in Chap ter 9.

(1.15)
1A Newtonian Gravity

1.5 The Mech a n ic a l a n d Thermal E nergy E q uat io ns

A muss '11/ at. position 1" exerts OI l an y other mass In a t posit ion I ' au
at.tructi vo force proportional to th e pr od uct of the two masses and inversely
If one takos Newton's third law, F = uui = In (tl v /rl/. ) and multiplies hy
proportional to th e square of UIC dist an ce betwee n them , directed towards
velocity '0 , OJl( ~ ol.taius tltill. rat e of work of the forces, F u , is equal to tho
iu us s 111,':
rate of chau gc of kine ti c energy , tl ( ~ '11 I.'IJ'2) /d/.. Simil arl y, taking th e do t
Om rtf' (1' - r' ) Grn 'In' (1' - '1" ) product of th e equation or i uot.iou for a fluid , (J .7), wit h t ho fluid velocity
F = '/ng (1') == (L/ O)
II' -- 1" 12
[r- _.- '1"1 - 11' _. 1" 13 'U yields

Note that (1' - - 1")/11'

forc e , Now
- 1" 1 is th e unit vect or alo ng the line of action of tho D
Dt.
(1'2 2) -
'u -
1
-- u · \7])
(i
-+- 'U ' f . (1.16)

- (1' - 1.1) Equation (1. 16) says that th e rate of change of th e kine tic energy of a uni t
(1. 11)
IT- 1" 13 mas s of fluid is equal to the rate at which work is do ne on t he fluid by
pressure aw l body forces. This is somet imes called th e mechan ical energy
(t he derivatives are wit h res pect to T': they treat r ' as a cons tant vector) , equation .
so the grav ita tional a cceleration g (I' ) can be written as th e grad ient of a An equ ation for t he total energy --- kinet ic a nd intern al t hermal energy
po tential function 'I/{ r ):
_._- can be derived in the same man ner as was t he mom entum equ ation in
Secti on 1.3. Let the internal energy p er un it mass of fluid be U. Then
- Gm '
9 = - \7'(/" where '1/' = (1.12) th e rate of change of kin etic plus internal ene rgy of a material volu me (i.e.
IT' - 1" 1
one moving with the fluid ) must be equ al to the rate of work dono on the
Similarly, the gra vita t ional field due to a fluid can be written as a po- fluid by surfac e and body forces , plus the rate at which heat is adde d to
te u tial, namely the SU Ill of the pot entials du e to all the fluid elem ents . The the fluid . Heat can be added in two ways: one is by it s being generated at
mass of a Huid eleme nt of volume dV' at posit ion 1" is p('r ' )dV', so the a ra te E per unit mass wit hin t he fluid volume (e.g. by nuclear reactions) ,
tota l gravitational pot ential is while the second is by the heat flux F across the sur face S (e.g. rad iati ve
heat flux). Thus

(1.13 )
-
dz
dj' (12
V
- '/L 2 -+- U ) pdV (1.17)
where the int egrati on is over the whole volume of the fluid . T he gr avit a-
tional acce leration is - \74'.
Using the result
=
isr 'U ' (-pn) dS -+- .r;7'U· f p d V -+- 1;7fpd V - .f~ F . nelS' .

In t he same way as for th e mom entum equa t ion, one rewrites all the surface
'J ( 1 ) - 41Tb(1' - 1" ) (1.14) int egrals in thi s equat ion as volume integr als, using the diverg ence th eorem.
\7- IT' - 1" 1 The re sulting equation holds for an arbitrary volum e V a nd so one dedu ces
 A st rophy si cal F lu id J)'i/narni r." B o.si» Fluid Equ ation s
8

that wlWl"e 11 is a fixed volu m e onclos ing th o wh o le flui d : c.g. C o x ( I !lk ll ). III
deri vin g t.ho ahovo cql1atiml it is helpful first t,o l:s1.nhli sh (1"(1111 I'q. ( 1. 1:l)
D
P ( Dt (12 ") + .J)U)
11
,-
Dt = - V . (p H) + pu. r] + pe - V ·F . (J .] 8) (.hat Iv(i)fI! (}f) I!,dV = .f~ · (P(N, ! ()t)d V where 11 is l.h« WII O]I' Il'giou IJ{"I'llpi f'r]
by t.lic fluid .
One ca n deri ve a ll equa tio n for the thermal ene rgy alone by di vidin g . T ho int.cgrnls of di v{']"!'/'lic e te n us ill Eq . (J .2 1) ('an 0 [" C(lm s('
VO] U Il H'
E q . (1. ]8) by the density a nd then s u btracti ng t h e kin eti c ener gy equation 1)(' j'( ~-( ~XPl"css( ~d 11.'';
surfar«- in t.q~r als . If t.l i o flu x in :-.; q ua n ' ] )]";\('kd .:-.; ill 1.1 ]('
(1. lG) to obtain sccon d t erm on tho ]d'i of Eq. (J .2 1) vanish e-s at the sur[";)l'( ' (If F. which
DU DfI -+ 1 migh t. for ex,w Jph: ]"('»]"(':-'; CIl1. l.hr- interior 0 [" a star. 1.]Il '1I t.h« 1.o1.n] ( ']\(, I"g ., ' ill
-]1 ._- I - - V ·P . (L I D) \i ('an ollly ch all g(' tJl1'IllIgll iuu-rual he.u :-';(llIrcc:-.;jsiJl]':-'; (I ) or ]wnJ flu x ( F )
DI fI'2 Di p
a(TOS:-'; th c surface.
T he d iverg en ce of 11. h as h oon rep lac ed by -- fl '" J Dp! D/. using th e «on t.inuity
equat ion (1.4).
No t ing th at the volume p er unit mass is just t he reci procal of tho den - 1.6 A Little J\tIore Thermodynamics
sity, i.e . 11 = p--- l , we reco gnise t he therm a l ener gy eq ua t ion ( J .19) a :-.; a
statemen t of th o first law of th ermodynamics : T IH' :-.; eu llld law of U\('rlUOd.I'IJallli cs :-.; l a (.(':-.; t.ltat .

ellJ = (- ]I)elV + 5Q , (1.2()) M:2 = 'I' <I S' , ( 1.22 )

t h at is, the ch ange in the) int er nal energy is equal (.0 the work (- p )d V don o whore S is a thormodvn aiui c s(.al,e va ri ab le, t.h« 8]iN4il: cn l'l'OJiY (i .1 '. 1.hc
(on t he fluid ) plus t ho heat added . Note th at \I , U , ]I a re pro perties of ent ropy p er u nit m as s). Comb in ing th is with Ow firs tla w, E q. ( 1.20), vio kls
t he fluid (in fad t hey ar c t hermod yn amic st ate vari ables ) am] we denote
changes in them wit h 1;]18 symbol "d" . In contrast, there is no su ch pl'Op-
dU = Td S - plW .

erty as t he heat content a nd so we can not speak of t he ch a nge of he a t. From this va rious relati on s h ot.woon 1hormod vn am ic dorivati vcs can h I' d (~­
cont ent . Instead , we ca n only spea k of t he heat ad ded, a nd we t herefor e .lucod. For example, it follows immodiatcly fro m E q , (1.2:{) 1lJ:11
use a different. no tation , i.e. 5Q .
Equ a tions (1. 16)- (1. 19) can be gene ralise d t o include a visco us xtrcss
t er m . In th at cas e, _ p- l u . V]i in E q . (1.16) and 11 . (- ]in) in equati on
T = ( ~~~) v and - 11 = C~~: )
5' :
( 1.24)

(1. ]8) a re repl aced by p- l 7/.iU(Ji:i ! D:rj and lI ;(Ji.i n .; resp ecti vely, where rTij is
but a prop er ty of p ar t ial differenti ation is th at [j'2 .f! (hUll D'2.f ! DyD:):,
t h e st ress tensor as ill Eq. (1.8). T he conseque nc e for the t herm a l en er gy
so we find th a t
eq ua t ion (1.19) is that. kinetic en ergy is conv erted to he at by viscosi t y, so
t h a t one obta ins an a dd it ional hea ting ter m sim ila r to f . This is discussed DT ) ( a]l ) ( 1.2:;)
in more detail in Chapt er 9.
( all s = - as ,, '
W ith some effort, one ca n us e t he above eq uations to de rive an integral Another usoful mauipula ti on th a t is a general property of part.i n 1.lorivat .ivr-»
equation (som etimes a lso referred t o as the total ene rgy equation) for t.lio is 1.l1il1.
ra te of ch an ge of t he t otal en er gy (kinet ic plus intern al plus gr av it ationa l
p oten tial energy) for t he whole fluid volume: of ! uy ) ~ =: _ ((~J;)
(Of ! a:c)y uy .r
. ( i.2G)

~ i(F ( ~11,
dt 2
'2 + U + ~2 7/') pdV + iF
( v· [(~n'2 + U + !.!. + '1/') Pu] av
2 P This follows by rearran gin g d f = (Df ! ch:)y d x + (Df ! uy)", d y to make (h:
t he subj ect of t he formula, and identi fying t.he resulting codtlcjen1. of el y as
= [" i p« - V' . F )dl! , (1.21) th e deri vati ve (D:l:! ay).r . Variou s t he rn )(J(ly n Hm ie rol at ion s th at ar e useful
iF
 f.
~

..~
10 Astrop luisical Flu id D yn am ics
Basi c Fl uid E ou ai icnis 11

ill s tellar ph ysics a nd ast ro phys ica l fluid dyn amics ca n b e found in e.g.
1. 7 P er fect Gases
J\"ippcnhalm & 'vVeiger t (l9f)()) .
We defille th e udiabuiic expone n ts 1 1, 1 2, 7 J by A perfect gas is ow : for wh ich

~Y1. _ (DIIlP)
- 7- ,
~('!. - ]
D hI T )
( Dhl]J 1:1 -- ] Uln T )
Jill R'J' (1.2!J)
.d lll (J S. /2 = 8' ( DIll P .'; .
(R bein g ::;O l1l C constant ), and
(1.2 7)
U U( T) . (J.:m)
Not« that all thoso partial derivatives ar c at constant specifi c (mj,m py : 'adi-
alJiltic' he n : me a ns without exchan ge of he at, so MJ = () = d S , i.e, 5' is It follows from Eq . (1.29) t h a t.
COll Seall/" 'J'h o quanti ty ((2 -- l ) /~f'2 == (lJl n T /D hlp)", is oft en referred to dp dV dT
as '\7".1 ' + II
( 1.:31)
We define (;1" the sp ecific he at at co ns tant pressure, to I)(~ L1w am ount of
heat required to make' a unit in crease ill t mnper atllre, without th e p re ss urr:
Now for all adi ab atic chaugo or S1l( ;]1 a gas ,
changing: tlm s, from E q . (1.22) , (; 1' = T (US/DT )p. Sim ila rly we define ell, I d U d'J' av
t ho specific hea t at constant volume, to be t he amount of beat required t o
o= dB = T (dU + pdV ) = dT T -+ R 17- . (1.;)2)
in ak o a unit increase in temperature at cons t ant V. 'The f()]]owing three From Eq. (1 .:)2) awl th e dofiuif .ion of ~h it follo ws that
useful res n lts re late I.lw aruoun! of heat. added t o the clJanges in p airs of
t lwfl llo(lyna m ic va ri ablns: n
I :J = 1 + dU/dT . (1.3:3)

fJ C) Elim inating dT between Eqs . (1.31) an d (1.32) gives that '/'] is given by t he
same expression (1.3:3), a nd likewise for 12 (eliminat ing dV ). Thus for a
perfect gaH, the three adiabatic: exponents arc equal.
(1.28) Hencefor ward in this b ook , since for a p erfect gas a ll t hree adiaba ti c
exponent s are equal , we shall usc 1 t o denote all of them when no confusi on
can ar ise .
In fact , for a uionatomic gas (in whic h the m olecules a re simp ly point
For ex ample, the first equa tion can be der ived by noting Inasses) on e ca n show th at 1 is equal to 5/3, as follows . For a monatomic
gas, the internal ene rgy is just the t ranslational kinetic energy of all the
molecules. Assuming the gas to be isot ro pic (all directions equivalent ) a nd
fJ(J - Td S T OS) dp +
( -D T (DS)
-::>. . dV all t he m olecul es identical , t he t otal internal energ y of the gas in volume V
]J v oV l'
is
T ( op) - 1 rdP + T(DS/cW)l' d V]
DS v (oS/op) Ii (1.34)

where m is the m ass of a mol ecu le, N is the nu mb er of m olecules in V , and

and using Eq. (1.25) on t he factor outs ide th e squa re brackets and Eq. (1.26)
to m anipulate the last t erm, together with t he defini ti on s of 1 1 a nd 13. Note
(for exa mple) v;
is th e me an squa red velocity in t he direction . Supp ose x
t he volume V is enclosed by a rigid rect angul ar b ox of len gth I in t he x-
t hat In V = - In p . The other two above expressions for fJC) arc de r ived
direction (a nd of cross-sec t ional a rea A = V/ I ). The for ce on t he en d of
sim ila rly,
th e b ox is pA. Cons ide r a sing le mo lecul e. It has some z- velocity V x ' In
 12
A s troph ysi cal F luid Dyn nmics
B asic Fluid E qn ntim :»

ti me t:lt == 21 j v,,. it bOIIll(,('S off t hat end of tho box OJJce. III brJlln r~i!l g: its
U sing 1.1)(: r1 i v r ' I'),!, ( ~ n r: ( ' t.lu-orern and ill(' i.lou t.i t.v ,\7 , t : iI:I' ; /( ):r ,
:r:- lllOl I W l l t lll Jl ch angr-s Ily an muount 2111 1':,. (ass llllJing all cl astic «ollision ).
pressu]'c term ill Eq . ( I .:l! }) ('all 1)(' rr-wtit .t.c-u ;IS
Thus , s ince lorco (= p ressmr: x area) is equal 1.0 t he r ate of challgr~ of
m U]JWIl(,1II 11, s \Illll lling 0 \'('1' all molecules gi vr ~s
. r . V7)( W = - 1',711" n el S I ;{ / ' J!C 1I ' . ( 1.·11)
L ./ v '!'s '\
J)/I =
L -t:ll- 2 1/1.1':1
=
11/, :2
- 11
1 C/:
JV 'III,--;-
_ _ '/) 2
I :r ' (J .:lG) \:\7C' supp ose tll at 1.1 )(: prossn r« van is h es at 1.11(' houud arv of 1]](' Ilui .l volu me-
(i,his «a u 1)(' a !-'.()oel ap]']'l)xillla l,joll lor ;I st.u. for I lX:IJllp1 (' ) so 1,h:II, fl \l'
Nu n ;,'; and 1i0 . from E (jli. (J .2!J) , ( I.a:n and ( I .:H ),
f: nrf:lul tr-rrn is ;1,( ' ]'( '.
:\ G FiJiall y,
U :=.: 2R T and ')' =: :l ( U ri)

If a gali iii l)J)(!ergo iJJg ioni zat.iou , dU j rlT if: grC'a1r ~r

th an it wou ld ot lwrwif:C'
bC' , becallf:C C'1lr'rgy gor~f: into io nizing the gm-; ; so Iron: I'.g. E q , (I,:l:3 ) 1Jw
-"
/.
' \,
1"
'17 , /
v ( , (I(
'
111 .-- ('
" -' ,'
/. j'
, I' , 1' .
T: '17
v I ",..__'I) /1(1' ,) (II .; (11.1'
(/1
_.' (1'/)

'" 1' ,

arliabaii e I'Xj!ollent s .uo red uced ill value. - "(/

"'. (1' '-1C-
' / ',------------" ") (1(1
., )el\; (1( 7 ,I )el lI '
' ,/ 1.' , 1" 11' 1" I'~

- - -~ (/ / ', I'' , ( .~,-~ -c1(.- --..2.,I") 1 1'" (r'

_;_I '\"""1')" " ') (1(1') 111' ji(r
, 1
)(11
'1

1.8 The Virial Theorem :2 ' , 1' , ' " 11' - ri ll I" 1"

T ile velocity 11, is th e rat.e of (:!lange of position [()llowill g f,llc flui d :

1 C; / ,'
-- -"
2
I' 11' --
. v . 1"
I --(! (1,) d,
, - -----
1"
'\ ' (! ( l ' ' )I 1\'"
I
])1'
( 1.12)
U = - .
Dt CU 7)
(th o lat er steps exploit th e syn n ne try IH'twcCJI l' al II I 1") where
Hen ce Eq. (1.7), w it h f n~p]acrxl by gravi tati onal acceleratio n and llsing
Eq, (1.12), can be rewr itten I}J == ~
2, "
I' 1/' (I(T )elV ( I. I:n

(1.:J8) is the total grav it at.ion a l energy . P utting all thi s togd ,]](']' viold s

Taking the dot product. with r am] integrating over tho whole volum o of
th e fluid gives
-1 -d 2 I') -_ ?T
2 dt -
- + •'3 I' 7 IV + IJI
.v
1( • (1.-1-1)

' ])21' / . / . where I == '/;1/W2rlF . E q uation (1 . 4' 11). IS ' 1J ' Je sea Ia]' t0 nil of th e uiriol
,
T: > - -peW
2 = - . r . vp dV - T' . v 1/' peW . (1.39) theorem.
./ F Dt , 1 , "
One can also deri ve a tI'JlSO], viri al t!](' o r I' JII. liv iaking ill!' i t h ('lllllj )(I ] WI J1
T he left-hand side of Eq, (1. :J9) call be rewr it t en as of E q , (1.:38) and mult.iplyiug by t.h« jib coiu p on out of 1' :

elt . F Dt
Dr
-d / r' -pdV - --
,F])t
/ (Dr) 2
()( 11·
T
=
2
-21 ----:z
d / . 11' 12 prlV --2T
dt ' \ '
, (lAO) (J .iJ [))

wh ere T == ~ Iv
P 11,2 elF is t he total kinetic cncrgy of th e flu id. (No te t hat 11 ca n t he n b e shown that
here and in simi lar exp ressions we write 1)2 when wh at is meant is In12 , i.e.
1 d 2 Ii j
· 7J I' ]lrlJ! +
1/, . U - - t ho quantity is a sc al ar. )
- 7:J + s..
-n: IIl i .l, . ( 1.,Hi)
:2 dt :! . l'
 14 A s t lVp h y si cal F lu i d D ynami cs
Busic Fl uid Equation» 15

where

. p :c;:cj d If ,
·/ 17
B ----.. · ~v, ( r err)
'r., 1 / .
,ceo ','; . PU;Ui <1 l! ,
L., l' (J.47)
1 , / . / . (:1:; - (:Cj - .J./ ) . .
= -' ~- C -- - ; :j_L p(r} W p(1")<117'.
2 . v. \/' Ir' - r I A . ~

Note tl mt if E q . (l Au) is c()lIt.racted over i a nd j (i.e. multiplied by Ii; i a nd u (r)

sun uuod over i a w l .i) th en t he :-;(;ala1' vir ial theor em ( ] .114) is recovered .
Dori var ious of L!w virial thoorciu ill d iJf(:rmlt forms call be found ill
C llilJldrasddwJ' ( l UW ) aw l Tas soul (l!J7I)). F ig. 1.2 '1'1 1/, m ot.ir» o f J",iglt i>o llrillg p"i llt.~ A (at. p osition r ) and B (al. p ost ion r ·j aT'),
wltid . lea d s 1.0 t.h« «vol ut.iou of ,.1 ", lJ1a1.e rial Jill" .,j"lJ1ell t (}.,. with t.iru «.

1. 9 Vortici t y

Au important. deri ved quant ity Ior a ilnid How is the vorticity The flu id velocity at A is ·LI C,.) a nd al. 13 it is '11, ('1' + or); therefore af ter a
short, tiuic 51. t ho separation of 13 from A has ch anged to
(J,4i))
For il Il uid ro ta t illg rigidly with ang ular veloc ity 0 , for ex am p le, 11. = O X 'I'
a wl correct. to O ( lit.). T he las t. term call b e simp lified by ex pandi ng 11, (1' + 61')
in a Taylor series ab out r and keeping on ly tenus up to li1'. Trea ting Sr
w = 20 , (1.49 ) ]l OW as a func ti on of t ime, a n equa t ion for t he rate of cha nge of lir' wit h

time can b e ca n be ob t ai ned from her e by dividin g the difference b et ween

us ing a stalld ard vect or identi ty (cf. Appendix A). Gen erally, in a fluid
flow 11. the vorticit y at any location is eq ual to t wice the local ro t at ioll ra te
the new sep aration and the old one by Of; and taking th e lim it as -> 0: ot
of a fluid line elem ent at that location, as is proved below. This do es 110 1, DOr' .
- - = Or, · V 'U (1.fiO)
mean however t.hat st rea m lilies have to be c ur ved for t he fl u id to p ossess DI
llOIl-:6ero vort.ici ty, For examp le, cons ide r t he shea r How 1l = Cue; wher e C where, since we a re following the sepa ra tion b et ween m at eri al p oin ts , we
is a 1I011-:6Cro consta nt : t.liis is a ullidirecti on al shear How in the a- direction wri te t he deriva ti ve as a material derivat ive. This equat ion ther efore de-
wit h m agnit.ude p ro por t.ion n] to y . Here as elsewhe re we use e e e to scrib es the evoluti on of a m a terial elem ent 01'. The right-ha nd side ca n
x, y , z
den ote unit vectors in th e X -, y- a nd z-direc t ions, It. is a st raightforward be exp ressed ill index not ation as (<5r') j ehtdoxj . T he te nsor \7u , like a ny
exe rc ise to show t hat the vor ticity of such a How is w = - Ce z , whi ch is other second-r a nk tensor , ca n b e split into a sy m iuetric par t and an ant i-
non -zero al though the streamlines (lines everywh ere par allel to t he flow) syu un otric part:
arc st raight lines.
To see t he rel ationsh ip bet ween vorticity a nd local rotation of t he fluid , OUi =_ -1 ( -,-
OUi + -Dai )
+ -21 ( -ch
OUi
, - - -,U0 U)
-) (1.51)
we : :; lwll uow a nalyse the relati ve motion of a fluid in the vicinity of a point. OXj 2 u:c; o:r ; j 1:;
Let A be a poi nt movin g with the fluid , whi ch a t a n ini tial time i is at The second t erm on t he right of E q . (1.51) is a nti-sym met ric: usin g the def-
p ositi on 1' ; a n d let. B b e ano th er p oin t whi ch a t t ime t is a t nearby positi on iuit ion (1.48) of vor t icity, it ca n b e written as ~~Eij k Wk (d. Ap p en dix A) .
r + 0'1' (F ig. 1.2). At t im e t t he refore the p ositio n of B re lat ive t o A is Sr, Hence, subs ti t uting int o Eq . (1.50) it m akes a contribution t o t he right-
 I3lLsic Fluid R'I uo ti"" ,, 17
16 A stro plujsi col Fluid Dinuimi cs

slIr faccs of co nst.aut density and of cons t.a nt ])J'f'SSl1r(' "oillCid(' . l1 11 d it is

hand sid e which is oq ual t o - ~ Jr x w == ~ w x Sr. T h us, com paring this
possible 1,0 write oithor variahlr- a s a fuu rt .ion sllkl.\, "f 1.111' " fl ll'r v.ui nl r]«.
wi th the velocity due to a so lid-bo dy rot.at.ion , wo d educe t hat the antis viu -
c ,g. p = p (y ). Cou vorsol y, if .lonsitv .u u] pn ~sslll'I ' a ]'(' just l'lllJ('liilllS (I I I( ' Id'
metric part of \7tt. co nti b utos to tho motion of point 13 relative 1:0 point 1\
t.J j(' ot.J wr, thcn tho fluid is barotropic. If l.! ll' fluid is h:tl"ot.m pi" .u ul a llY
a motion wh ich is a rotation wit h angul ar veloc it y ~ w . Equival ently, 1lw
hody Iorco f that is pres ent. is COll sI'l'vaj,ivI' (i.e, V xf (l, ill' ('quiv;I1('lItly
CC'

vor t ici ty is give n by Eq . (1.49) where n is interpreted a s the local rotati on

.f U IIl be written as th « gradicll1. of a sca l.u pll1.l'llti a l ). Sll ill pn rt.ir.ul.u' \,l ll'j'('
rate.
ar c lI O vi scous forces , th en t.ho last. t wo terms ill Eq. (I .fiG) vanish and 11]('
The symmetric p art of du, I D:l:j , i.o. th e first. term on th e ri ght of
vOl'Licity oqu nt.iou (J .f-,ri) is of ti ll) sa il II , form a s till' e<j naLio ll ( I.fi ll) for IIll'
Eq . (1.51), is called the rate of strain te nsor Cij :
evo]nJ,ioll of a lIl:l1r'ria] line olom ont. V/e d( ~dnr:r ' 111:11. ill t.lii« (':IS,' vorte x
, _
<',.1 --
1
;-
(DU
-, -
j -I- ()'/J,:J', )
-, - (L!j 2)
lilies iuo vo wit h I.lw Ilu id . (/\ vo rtr -x lin « is n li nr: ov r-rvw h orr: pl1 r:dkl 1.0 1.11( '
2 ch::i d;r i vor1.icity. ) YVI ' C:III ddill e a '1101 1 1':1' 1'111)(' 1.(J 1)(" ]oosldy sjH':l,killg. a I1I1JJd]e
of vorl.cx lines or IliOn ) pre'cisc'ly a tu l«: w1IOSf' sllr f:wr' is no wh cr« ('f'o ss(·d
It s traer) ekk is equal t o \7. 'lJ, and t.he isostropic part of Cij, namely j Ck/;,r)ij,
by vorI.ox lilies and whos(' Sl1I'fa('(' is it.sl,]f I:OlllpOSl'd of vor te x lines. III 1.1]('
rep r esents an ex pa ns ion or com p ression of the fluid in th e re gion of point.
p]'( 'sellt, cnse , then , tl w wal ls of a vo rtex I n l)( ~ Iorru n nl:!I,('r ia l Sll l' ['a ('(~ m o ving
A. Th e remai nder of c i:i , n am ely e i,j - *e kk0 i.i' has ze ro trac e and ]'()prelsents
a loc al shear of the fluid ,
with the Iluicl. YVe definc t.li« s L ]'( ~ n gt h of a vortex 1,111)(, to Ill' Is'
w· ndS,
wlwre oS' is a ny cross-section an)a c111, a(TOSS 1lJ(' 1.111)(' a ll,] n is a vector
An evo lution eq uati on for vo rtici ty ca n I lC deri ved by t aking the curl of
lIoru IaI to that arr :a. Sin('(' lIO vortex liw 's <TOSS 1.l 1<' wa lls ',(';1 l '01'1.('x t u1H '.
t he m omentum oquation. In iti all y we shall consider the inv iscid case . First
aw l vorti city is di ver gc'u CI '-free. it follo ws from 1.111' di ver gc!w(' 1.1 J('Ol'l'lI I t.h.u .
we rewr ite t he 11' \71), term in E q , (1.7) us ing a vector id en tity t o ob tain
11](' strengt h of n vor te x tube is a we ll-d cfi]J('d qu a.nt.it.v. i.o. ilis iJldl 'lH )ndl ~J1t

-Datt.t = l/, XW - \7 (1 2)
-1),
2
]
~ \7]J
p
-I- f . (1.53)
of wh ich cross-sec ti on a rea. we ch oose OJ ] which t.o eva lua te it.
Generall y in a flu id we can d efine t he circuuuuni ahout. a. d osed cu rve
C containe d wit hin t he fluid to b e
Taking the curl of this eq ua t ion gives
aw
Dt =
1
\7 x ('lJ, x w ) -I- p2 \7 Px \7p -I- \7 x f
r = i
.C
u ' rlr . (1.:>7)

If we cho os e C t o he a m aterial curve , moving wi t.h the Iluid. I h('11

since t he curl of a gr ad ient vector is zer o . Th e \7 x ('lJ, x w ) can be ex pande d

iI,! ,
using identit y (A A) from Appendix A . Noting that \7 . w van ishes by its
d efinition (1.48 ), Eq. (1.54) becom es
-df =
dl .
f') -
])11,
c Dt
. dr -I- i'
.c
11, • -D dr .
Di.
(U j8)

aw -I- u·\7w 1 The last term can b e re wri tten a s the integral a round C of \7 ( f;.U using
2)
= w·\7u - (\7 ·u)w -I- z \7px \7p -I- V xf · (1.55)
at p Eq. (1.50) , a nd for an inviscid flui d We' can replac e Dul Di in th; first term
Finall y, using the con t inuity equation (1.3) to elim in a t e \7 . 'lJ" we obtai n on t.he ri ght of E q. (1.58) using t he m omfm1.mll eqn at ion (1.7). \\Ie consid er
only :~- D fiui d do mains for w hic h curve C can he sp <II llH'd hy a snr fal'(' S
P _=
D (w)
Dt ata (w)
p P
-I- 11·\7 (w) = p
(w) ,Vu -I- p3
1 \7p xVp -I- 1 \7 xf·
p wh olly co]]t ained in the fluid d omain; so St ok es's t.lJPorC]l] ca ll he applied,
Henc e Eq . (1.58) b ecolJlcs
(1.5G)
E quat ion (1.5G) is ca lle d th e vort.icit y equat.ion. It d escribes h ow vort icity
evolves in a flu id.
-df
d
1-' =
.
j's (z1 \7p x \7p
fJ
-I- \7 xf ) . ndS . (1.59)
; ..
A flu id for which V p x \lp = 0 ever ywher e is called barot.mp ic: sinc e
We ca n immediately deduce from this th at for a ba rotropic flu id wit h on ly
the vector gr adients of d ensity a nd p ressure arc ever y wher e parallel , the
 18 Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics

couscrv.u.] vo body forces I; the circulation around a material curve is in-

variant with time. 'I'liis is a statement of Kelvin's circulatian tlicori-m.
Moreover the strength of a vortex tube: can b<:: expressed, using Stokes's
Lhooreiu, as a flow around a matciia] curve embedded in the walls of tIw
tube awl encircling the tube's axis. Hellce the strength of a vortex tube in
such a flow is invariant also: if the ilnid motion is such as to cause the vortex
tube to become W1ITOwm' (knowll as vortex stretching), the ruagnitude of
W llJust increase so Lhat I w . n dS over the cross-section of the tube is
constant.
A fluid for which Vf/XVp cJ 0 is called baroclinic. This means that
surfaces of constant density are inclined to the surfaces of constaut pressure.
 C ha pter 2

Sirrrple Models of Astrophysical

Fluids and Their Motions

In t.he first chapter we est.a]ilish ed the mo mon turu equat ion (1.7), th e (;011-
ti nuil,y cq na Lioll (J A) , POiSSOll'S eq uat.iou (1. J fJ) aIHI t.lio energy eq uation
(1.19). Assuming t hat th e onl y hod y forces arc (h w t o self-gravity, so t hat
f = ~ \74' ill E q, (1.7), th es« eq uati ons are:
Du
p- = - \7 p" p\7 I/' , (2. 1)
tn
Dp
+ p d ivu 0, (2.2)
DL

\7 '2 'lf' 47fG p, (2.::\)

DU p Dp
-
J
(2.4)
- - = E - \7 · F .
Dt p2 Dt p

Note that these cont ain seve n dependent variables, namely p, t he t hree
components of u , p , Vi an d U . The three com po nents of Eq . (2.1) , to-
get her wit h E qs . (2.2) -(2.4) , pro vid e six eq uat ions, a nd a seve nth is th e
equat ion of state (e.g. t hat for a perfect gas) which provides a re lation
betwee n an y t h ree thermo dynamic state var ia bles , so t hat (for example)
t he internal energy U and temperature T ca n b e wr itten in terms of p an d
p. (It is assu med t ha t, E and F are know n functions of t he other variables.)
T hus one migh t hope in principle t o solve t hese equations , given suitable
boundary conditions . In practice this set of equat ions is intract able to ex-
act solut ion , and one mu st res ort to nu merical solutions. Even these can b e
extremely problem atic so t hat, for ex ample, understand ing t ur bulent flows
is st ill a very challeng ing research area. Moreover , an analytic solution to
It somewhat ideali zed pro blem may teach one mu ch more than a nu merical

19
20 A stroplnjsicu i Pl1Lid D yn am ics
Si m ple AIodels 21

so lution, O lJ(~ useful idoa lizati on is wh ere we assume t hat th o fluid velocity Int egrating on ce gives
aw] all tiin c derivatives are zero. T hese are cal led equilibrium solut ions
and des cri be a stea dy sta te . Alt ho ugh a t rue steady state iuay be rare in Grn (T) (2.8)
reali ty, tli« t ime-sc a le over whi ch all as trop hys ical sys tem evo lves may be
very lon g, so that at an y particular t ime th o st ate of many ast rop hysical where
fluid bodies sucl: as st an; may he well re p resented by all equi libri um mod el.
E V( )JJ when t.li« d ynamical b elravi our of t he body is im p or tant, it call oft.eu (2.9)
IH : descri bed iu t erms of sm a ll depart ur es Iro m a n eq uilibri u m st a te . Hence
in thi s c:lJ ilptcr W(~ st.a rt Ly looking at some equ ilibri u m mod els aw l then (Note that rn( r) is t he mass inside a sp her e of rad ius '1', centred on the
dcri Ill' equ ation s describing small perturbations ab out all equilibriu m st at e . origin .) Now \7'1/) = (ch/)/d1') e ,. if 'II> is only a func ti on of 1', e r being a unit
vector in t he rad ial direction . Hence E q. (2.8) im plies

. Gm.
2.1 H ydrostatic Equilibrium for a Self-gravit at ing Body 9 == - \7'1jJ = - - ,- e ,. .
.,.'2 (2.10)

If we suppose th at u = 0 everywhere, and tha t all qu antiti es are indcpen- Eq uat ion (2.10 ) st ate s that in the spherically symmetric case, the gr avita-
den t of ti uio, th en E q, (2.1) becomes tiona l accelerat ion at position r is du e only to the mass interior to r and
indep endent of t he density dist rubt ion outs ide r : this is kn own as Newto n 's
(2.;» ) sphere t heorem . Also , hy Eq. (2.5),

the cont inuit y equat ion beco mes trivial ; and Eq. (2.:3) is unchanged. A " _ Grnp
vp - - - -2 - e ,. . (2.11)
fiuid sa t isfying Eq. (2.5) i::; said to be in hydrostati c equilibrium . If it is r
self-gr av it ating (so t hat '¢' is determined by t he density distribution wit hi n The vector \7p po in ts towards t he or igin, so t he p ressur e decreases as T
the fluid ), the n Eq. (2.:3) must also be satisfied . increases.
Putting 'U = 0 and a/ot = 0 in E q. (2.4), we obtain that the heat sources One ca n only make further progress by ass um ing some rela t ion be tween
given by f must he exactly balanced by the he at flux term p - 1 \7 . F. If pressur e and density. Supp ose then t hat the fluid is a per fect gas, so
t his IJOhl::;, t he n t.he fluid is a lso said to be in t hermal equilib rium . Since
R pT 2
we have no t yet co nsi dered what. t he heat so urces mi ght be, nor th e de tails p = - - == a p ; (2.12)
of t he heat fiux , we shall neglect cons ide ra t ions of t herm al eq uilibrium at /.L
this po int . a is kn own as t he isothermal so und spe ed. Su ppo se fur t her t hat t he t em-
perature T and mean molecular weight /.L are both const ants throughout
t he fluid , so a is also a constant . Then Eq. (2.11) becomes
2.1.1 Sph er-ically symmetr i c ca s e
Gmp
In sp herical polar coo rd inates (1',0, ¢) (see Append ix B), - 72
\7 '2 ,,
'1/
= - a( ')eN)
I, -
'1''2 8T
1'- -
8T
-1 -
+ -1''2 sin 8 (.
-
() 8(}
sm (} -8'1/!) +
EJ(}
1
'1' 2 sin 2 ()
8'2 '1"/'
EJ¢'2
(2 .6) which im plies that
2
Let us seek a so lut ion where everything is independent of () and ¢ (and d~' ('r pa'2 ~~) = -4nG1'2 p . (2.13)
hen ce dependent only all t he radial variable 1' ). T hen Eq. (2.3) becom es
Seeking a solut ion of t he form p = A1·n , where A and n are constants , gives
(2.7) a2
p = ')""f.!• • 2 ' (2.14)
 22 Astropliusico l Fluid D yn am i cs S im p le Mode ls

This is t he sing ular self-grav itati ng isoth erm al sp here solution . It is not polyt rope of index n = J .5. Note t hat t he isotherm a l l a'y( ~r is ob t ai JH'd ill
physically realist ic at r = 0, where p an d (I are sing ula r , but non eth eless th e limit. n. --7 00 .
it is a useful an alytical mod el solution. Of course , in a real non degen erat e Subst.it.uti us; Eq. (2 .1R) into E q. (2. 1G) giws
st a r , for ex ample, th e inte rior is not isot hermal : the t em perat ure in creases
wit h depth , which in turn m eans t hat t he pressure inc reases and the star is , (n -l- J) 1 __ 1dp
/\ p" - y (2. 1!I)
pr evented fro m collapsing in uJlon itself wit hout. recourse to infinit e pressure 11 dz
an d de nsity at t he centre. and t his integrates to give

- yz
2.1.2 Plane-parallel layer under constant gravity pI / 1I = -I- constant. . (2.20)
(n-l- l )K
In m odellin g t he atmosphe re and ou ter layers of a star, Ute sp herica l g(~­
1[1.1)(' <lonsil .y van i shes at. .:
(J (wh ich cou ld 1)(' a rcn sonahlr - ap p ro x im nl.ion
C7
omctry ca n often h e ignor ed , so t hat such a regio n can h e approximated
if z = 0 wore t ho snrlaco of il s t.ilr) 1.lH' /l I.h(' COJlst.anf. of inU'gra t. ioJl ill
as a pl ane-pa rallel layer. Moreover , in the rarified oute r layers of a star
Eq . (2.20) is zero. Hence fOJ' a plau e- parall ol p nly t.rop « of fini te ill<lex "II,
the gr avi t ational acceleration 9 m ay he ap proxim ated as a con st ant vect or.
P ex: (- Z) - I ex: ) -- z ),,-tI ., a ].so
" 71 all(]! - 'I'
J ex: p / p ex: - -;; , so t J Ie t.el11]>cratun:
T hus , in Cartesian coor d inates (:J:, y , z) we have a region in which every-
increases linea rly wit h depth .
t hing is a function of z alo ne and 9 = -ge z , whe re 9 is constant . Note that
we t ake z t o b e height , so e z p oints upwa rd s. Hence Eq. (2.5) becomes

dp 2.2 Equations of Stellar Structure

- = - g p(z ) . (2.15)
dz
Alt hough it if) a n asi de, it. m ay be instruct ive t.o point out hr-ro the rc la-
Since self-gravity is being igno red , Eq. (2.3) is not used . ti onship b etw een the fluid equations that we have der ived t h us fa r an d t he
In the isothermal case (pi p = 0. 2 constant) , Eq. (2.15) ca n h e integr a ted equa tions of stellar st r uct ur e describi ng a stat ic, sp her ically syn nnct.ri r: star.
to give These ar e comm only used in studies of stellar str uct ure and evolution.
T he equation of hy dr ostat ic equilibrium is j ust t he morn eutu m eq uation
(2.1G)
in the sta t.ir: case: wit h sphe ric al sy mmetry, so t h at. quantities are only
whe re t he constant Po is the de nsity a t z = o. functions of radial var iable 1' , t h is is giv en by Eq . (2.1 1 ):

I
!
The densit y scale height H is de fined by

1-1
dp
(17·
== -- - -
G'm p
1'2 (2.21)
I
H = -1 -dp (2 .17)
i p dz A differential equation for variation of mas s m (1') containe d within a sphere
Ir ,. 1

of radius r is j ust the deri va t ive of Eq . (2.9):

r Hen ce, in t his case, H = 0. 2 I 9 and is constan t . T hus p = Po exp( - z I H ).

A useful fam ily of solution s is that of plan e-parallel ]!olytro pes, wh ere dm

I ]J = J( p I -l- l / n (2 .18)
dr
In a spherica lly sy mme t ric star t he hea t flux F is p urely radial: F =
(2. 22)

I . ,! (wit h bot h J( an d n constant); n is ca lled t he p olytropic index . For exam- F(T)e,.. The flux F(1') is rela te d to t he total lum inosity th rou gh a sphe re
.i' :y
:;. p le, in the ad iabatically st rati fied convect ion zone of the Sun the pressur e- of radius T by L (r ) = 41r1' 2 F (T). An equa tion describin g t he rad ial va riation
~
I densi t y rela ti on is well descri b ed by p = K p" where I = 5/ 3 (except in of lum inosity follows from Eq. (2.4) . Setting the deri va ti ves Oil th e left of
i regions of partia l ioni zati on ) and hence , com pa ri ng with E q . (2.18) by a t ha t equat ion to zero. a nd using the expression for d ivergen ce in sp her ical
24 Astrophysical Fluid Dy n am ics
Simple Mo dels 25

p olar coordinates (Appe ndix B), it follows t hat More det ails of the derivation and use of these equat ions, and of st ellar
structure awl evolution in gen eral, may be found in e.g. the book by Kip-
-dL = 4 7fT
2
pf. . (2.23) penha hn & Weiger t (1990). It. should be evident from the above discussion
dl"
of the origins of the st an dard equa t ions of ste llar structure that, if the st ar
A fourth and final differenti al equat ion describes how heat is transported in is not stat ic or not spher ically symmetric, it is ap pro priate to ret urn to t he
t he star. In the bulk of a st ar like t he Sun this is by radiation. To combine full fiuid dynami cal equations t o ob tain equations ap propriate for modelling
radiative t ransfer wit h fluid dynamics in general is a substant ial t opic in t he star.
it self, and is excellently expounded by Mihalas & Mihalas (1984). Here we
only consider a st at ic case and moreover , in t he int erior of a st ar the rad ia-
t ive transport is well described by a diffusion equat ion . The prototypical 2.3 Small Perturbations about Equilibrium
diffusive transport equat ion for the fiux j q of some qu antity q with density
(I " per unit volume is In ma ny int er esti ng instance s, the motion of a fluid hod y may be considered
t.o be a small disturbance about an equilibrium state. Suppose t hat in
(2.24)
equilibr ium the pr essure, density and gravitat ional pot ent ial are given by
where D is the coefficient of diffusion. Typically D can be related to t he P = Po , P = Po , 'l/J = 'l/Jo (all possibly functions of position , but independent
mean free path l amd mean sp eed v of particl es carrying the fiux , by of time) and u = O. Using Eqs. (2.5) and (2.3), t he equilibrium quant it ies
sat isfy
1
D = "3v l . (2.25)
(2.28)
In the pr esent case of radiative diffusion of heat , t he particle velocity is
the sp eed of light (which in this subs ectio n only we denot e by c), and Suppos e now t hat t he system und ergoes small mot ions about the equ ilib-
ast rophysicists describe the mean free path in te rms of a mea n op acity rium state, so
t o radiatio n (1'), thus l = (I' p)- I . The dens ity of thermal energy in t he
radiation is U = aT 4 , where a is t he radiation const ant . T hus finally we p = Po + p' , P = Po + p' , 'l/J = 'l/Jo + 'l/J' , (2.29)
ob t ain t he four th differe nt ial equat ion aft er some rearrangement to make
dT/ dr the subj ect of t he formula as so for example p' (r , t) == p(r , t) - Po(r ) is the difference between t he act ual
dT - 3 1'p L pressure at t ime t and posit ion r and it s equilibrium value t here. Subs t i-
(2.26) tuting these expressions into Eqs . (2.1) - (2.3) yields
dT 167facr 2 T 3

(Po + p' ) (~~

in regions of the star where heat is transported solely by radiation. In
convectively unst able regions the heat transport is by convect ion (or some +u . \lu) = - \l(po + p' ) - (Po + P')\I ('l/Jo + 'l/J') ,
comb ination of convection and rad iation) . If convection is very efficient , this
typ ically leads t o a strat ificat ion that is ver y close to marginal st ability (see
~(po
at + p') = - \I . ((po + P')u ) (2.30)
Section 4.1.1) in which t he temperature gr ad ient is instead given to a very \l2('l/Jo + 'l/J' ) = 4nG(po + P') .
good approx imation by
We suppose t hat the p ert ur ba tions (t he primed qua ntities and the velocity)
dT
(2.27) are small; hence we neglect the products of two or 1110re small quant it ies,
dr
since t hese will be even smaller . This is known as lineari zation, because we
only retain equ ilibrium terms a nd t erms t hat ar e linear in small quantities.
26 A strophusical Fl uid Dynam ics
Si m p le M od d s 27

This simplifies the above equat ions to

T he lineari zed form of this equat ion is
au + p') \7'1/Jo
Po Df; = - \7 (Po + p') (pO - Po\7'1}/ ,
-iJ,l,/ -I- u , "v 1Jo = Po
- (()
- (I' + 1/. ' \7(111 ) . (2.:17)
ap' iJf PII Uf
- \7 . (Po1L ) , (2.:n)
Dt
2 ,
\7 (1jJo +'l/J ) = 41TG(PII -I- p') .

Subtracting equilibri um Eqs. (2.28) leaves a set of eq uat ions all the terms 2.3.2 Adiabatic [iuctuaiion»
of whic h are linear ill smal l qu antities:
T ho converse si t.nat.ion is whe n ' thr: ti ll!eseak lor heat. exd lHl lp;e hotwocn
Dn neighho uri ng matnrial is mu ch Jonger t.han t he t.im escalo of the p ort.url ia-
p075t (2.32)
t.ious. 'I' hcn we can Ray t hat. over a t.i moscak- T 1.h(: hea t gai lled or lost by
Dp' a flu id eICIIH'llt is zero: (KJ = O. By E q . ( 1.2H) th is iUlplies t.hai
= - \7 . (Po1/.) , (2.:1:3)
at
\7 2 '1j/ 41TGp' . (2.:34) d ]J dp
1" -- . (2 .:11-\)
]1 P
Equations (2.:32) (2.34) give five eq uations [couutiug the vector oqun-
t ion as three) for six unknowus (1/" v; p' , 'ljl' ). We need anoth er equation or in terms of materi a l de ri vati vos
to clos e t he sys te m : t hat eq uation com es fro m energy considerations. In
1)]1 , ]1 Dp
generality, we sho uld perturb t he ene rgy equation (2.4) in the same ma nner (2.:39)
Dt fl i»
as Eqs. (2.1) --(2.3). But t here ar e two lim it ing cas es, isot hermal perturba-
t ions a nd adi ab atic p ert ur bations, which are sufficiently common t o be very The lineari zed for m of t his equation is
useful ami are simpler than using the full p ertur bed equation (2 .4) because
t hey don 't involve a det ailed descript ion of how E an d F are p erturbed .
-D,p,' + n
1l. . v Po = -, Po (D-.-f/ + 11 · \7 Po) . (2.40 )
of. Po Dt
2.3.1 Isoth ermal flu ctuations
(In the last equation, is al so an equilibrium qua nt ity because we have
Let t he typical time scale and length scale on whi ch the perturbations vary linearized , bu t for clarit y the zero su bscript has heen omittod.) We see
be T and A, resp ectively. Suppose that t he timescale on which heat can be t hat t his is of t he same for m as Eq. (2.37) hut wit h an additional facto r At.
exchanged over a di st ance A if> mu ch short er than T. Since heat tends to The adi abatic approximation will gener ally be a good on e when con _
flow from hotter regions to cooler ones, efficient heat exchange will eliminate sidcri ng dynamical motions of e.g. t he deep in teriors of sta rs, whor« the
any t emper a t ure flu ctua tion s. Assuming a. per fect gas , pert ur bing equation dyn am ical t imesca le is much shorter th an the t hermal timoscal« . In j.]ml
(2.12) gives case, differ en t iating Eq. (2.32) (t he linear ized equat ion of moti on) wit h
respect to ti me, an d using E q .(2.40) t o elim inate p' and E q. (2.:33) (t he
dp dp dT
(2.35 ) linearized continuity equat ion) /.0 eliminate p'; yields
p p -I- T
For iso t hermal fluctuation s , dT = O. Hence dp jp d p j p. In terms of
mater ial deriva tives,
Dp pD p In the p en ul timate term, the eq uilibri um Eq s. (2.28) have been use d to
(2.36)
Dt pDf eliminate \7'1/Jn in favour of \7vn.
28 Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics Simple Models 29

2.4 Lagrangian Perturbations shall do so in the remainder of this chapter. The ./// term is of course also
absent in problems where self-gravitation is ignored altogether. However it
We have previously considered perturbations evaluated at a fixed point is crucially important in the Jeans instability (see Chapter 10).
in space, so for example p' = p( r, t) - Po (1') is the difference between the Suppose now that we have a homogeneous medium, so that equilibrium
actual pressure and the value it would take in equilibrium at that same point quantities are independent of position (and hence in particular \7po = () =
in space. One can also evaluate perturbations as seen by a fluid element \71/!O)' Equations (2.32) and (2.33) can then he rewritten
(d. the material derivative). Such a perturbation will be denoted lip, for
8u ,
example. Now lir is the displacement of a fluid element from the position Po-.- = -\7p (2.46)
8t
it would have been at in equilibrium. So
so taking the divergence of the first of these equations and substituting for
lip == p(ro + 61') - po(ro) = p(ro) + lir· \7po - po(ro) , (2.42) \7 . u from the second gives
where 1'0 is the equilibrium position of the fluid element; in the second ,)2 ,
U (I 2 ,
equation, the first two terms of a Taylor expansion of p( 1'0 + lir) have been -a·~ =
t
\7 p . (2.47)
taken: strictly we should have lir . \7]), but or· \7po is correct up to terms
linear in small quantities. Equation (2.42) can be written Suppose further that the perturbations are adiabatic. Now Eq. (2.40) for a
homogeneous medium becomes
lip(ro) = p'(ro) + or· \7po (2.43)

where the argument on the left is written 1'0 (rather than 1') and this is
again correct in linear theory. Of course, Eq. (2.43) holds for any quantity,
not just pressure. We note that, in linear theory, 81i II 8t = Do I I Dt (where
I is any quantity). The material rate of change of the displacement or of
a fluid element from its equilibrium position is equal to its velocity. Hence
Dol' 801'
U = Dt = 8t . (2.44)
Perturbations such as p' at a fixed point in space are called Eulerian;
perturbations such as op following the fluid are called Lagrangian.
2.5 Sound Waves
(2.48)
where c6 == ,PolPo is a constant. Integrating with respect to time gives
p' = c6P', which can be used to eliminate p' from Eq. (2.47):
8 2 p' 2 2 ,
8t 2 = Co \7 p . (2.49)
This is a wave equation (d. the I-D analogue 8 2p'18t2 = c6 8 2p' 18 x 2 )
and describes sound waves propagating with speed co. In fact, Co is called
the adiabatic sound speed. If we had instead assumed isothermal fluctua-
tions, we would have obtained a wave equation with Co replaced by a, the
isothermal sound speed; d. Section 2.1.2.
One can seek plane wave solutions of Eq. (2.49):

Just as the Poisson equation (1.15) has integral solution (1.13), so Eq. (2.34) p' = Aexp(ik· T' - iwt) , (2.50)
has solution

'1//(1') = j' -Gp'(r) dV ,

11' - 1'1
(2.45)
where the amplitude A, frequency wand wavenumber k are constants.
(Here and elsewhere, it should be understood when writing complex quan-
tities that the real part should be taken to get a physically meaningful
the integration being over the whole volume of the fluid. In the integral solution.) Substituting Eq. (2.50) into (2.49), one finds that a non-trivial
on the right-hand side of (2.45) the positive and negative fluctuations in solution (A i= 0) requires
p' tend to cancel out, so that it is often a reasonable approximation to say
that ib' s::;; O. 1'h11s W8 will fneollfmt.lv nron ih' ill Eo (?411 Tnnpen we
 A s tro phiisi cal Flui d D ynam ics S im ple M"dds :{ I

This is known as th e dispersion relation for the waves. It. sp ecifies the whe nce
relation t hat must. hold betw een the frcq oncy and wavenumber for t he wave
to h e a solution of t he given wave eq uat ion . W ith a sui table choice of ph aso, f( z ) = Aexp(kz ) +- l3ex p( :-k:: ) .
one can deduce from (2.50) t h at
, The fluid is infinit ely d eep , and t he solution sho uld not l)(~(:()]lJI' infinitr- ;IF:
P (l cos(k . r - wi ) , z ----> - 00; h onc« 13 = ().
]I' n c~ eos(k . T: - wi.) , (2.fJ2) The bounda ry co nd it.iou a t. tlH' frr~e :-;urfal'f' is Ih at 1,111' pn 'sslIn ' a i, 1,1\1'
L cdp/, of th r: flu id should he' ('ollst,llJl,: hl'])(,(, (51) ~ 0 (.]1('1"1 ' . ' I'lms, at, 11 1('
r'ir - (] ~ k sin (k . l ' - w I,) , (2 . fJ:~ )
f! IlW L sur face,

for so me const a nt a mplit ude rr. Not.e t h at th e adia batic pre ssure and den -
sity fluctuations a re in p hase, where as th e di spl ace ment r if> 7r / 2 out of
ph as e . A sound wa ve is call ed longitudinal, b ecause the fluid displacement 011 t he ot her h and, taking; Lllf' do t product of E q. (2.rd ) wit h c;, an d using;
is p arallel to the wave number I.~ . Eqs. (2.56 ) a nd (2.G8) with B = I), yi<'1 dF:

2. 6 S u r face G ravity W aves (2.(jO)

As a se cond example of a sim ple wave solution of the lin earized p erturbed
fluid equat ions, cons ider incom pressible motions (V . u. = 0) of a fluid of
const ant density Po which oc cu p ies the region z < 0 be low t he free surface
z = 0 (so p is cons t a nt at the sur face) . Suppose also that gravit y 9 =
-ge z is uni for m a nd points downwards , and that self-gravity is negli gible.
Thi s is a reason a ble model for ocean waves on deep water, for example.
Equation ( 2 . :~ 3) implies t h at p' = O. Hence Eq. (2.32) be comes
(2 .54)
a nd t a king the divergence of t h is gives
(2 .55)
We seek a solution wit h sinusoidal horizont al variat ion in the x direction :
p'(x , z , t ) = j( z )cos(k.r - wt ) (2.56 )
(wit h k > 0 for definiten ess), where f is an as yet. unknown fun ction; a nd
wit ho ut loss of gener ality k > O. Sub stituting this into (2.55) gives
(2.57)
P-l1CT7/wh cr c. Hen ce the bo u ndary con dition (2.59) can only 1)(' sarisfiod if w
a nd k satisfy t he disper sion relat ion
(2.n] )
It is clear that these ar e surface waves: for t.hc p ortu rhorl quant.iti cs a ll
decrease expon entially with dep th . In rea IiLy, of co urse, th e f uid canu: 1j, 1)('
infinitely deep , so B is not identica lly zero. In stead , A and 13 will hav e {,o
he chosen such that sonic boundary cond it ion is sa tisfie d a t the bottom of
the fluid layer. However , provid ed the dep t h of t he layer is much greater
1
than k - , it will gene rally h e t he cas e that B has to b e much less tha n A .
If the layer has depth h , a nd t he conditi on at z = - h is that the ver ti ca l
disp lacem ent is zero, B =I 0 a nd by t he first. pari of E q . (2.GO) th e lower
bounda ry condition a mounts to requir ing that Dp' / G.: = 0 t he re. All the
above equat ions hold , excep t the last pa rt of Eq. (2.60). It follows that
13/ A = exp( - k h) and t h e dispers ion relation is
2
w = gkt.anh kh . (2 .62)
In t he r egim e kh. » ] ( "deep layer" ) t hen t h is is approxim ated by
Eq . (2.61) . In t he opposite limi t of kh «: 1 ( "shallow layer" ) the disp ers ion
relation annroxirnatns t.n I,J 2 = (nhlk,2 i P I . ' = , r;;r; L·
 , 'W'

f
,

32 Astrophysical Flu id Dynami cs i S imple M odels 33

,.~
-~.

2.7 Phase Speed and Group Velo city {~

~.
2.8 Order-of-magnitude Estimates for
A s trophysical Fluids
Before leaving the to pic of waves it is worth noting two differ ent concepts
regarding the speed at which waves prop agate. Consider a wave wh ich is 2.8.1 Typical scales
locally a plane wave , prop agating with wavenumber k a nd with frequ ency w.
T hese two quanti t ies are related IJy a disp ersion relation , so w = w(k ). Such A Elyst em call often be charact erized by a typic al lengt h scale L , time scale
. ,: a wave is proportional t o eik .x - iw (k )i . T he ph ase of the wave is k ·x - w(k )t , 'T and velocity U . T hese are usu ally related by U = £ /T.
,

j
and wave fronts are surfaces of constant ph ase. One concept of the speed
at which a wave propaga tes is t he pha se speed. Compare t he wave at some
locat ion x and t ime t with the wave at a location x + n6.x and slightly
different t ime t + /st , where n is a unit vector in any chosen dir ection.
The ph ase at t he second location and t ime will be the same as at t he first
location and time if 6. :,{; = (w/ k . n )6.t. Henc e we refer to w/( k . n ) as
the phase speed in dir ect ion n. In par ticular, the ph ase speed in t he x-
ii dir ect ion is Vp h x = w / k x , an d likewise for t he y- and z-direct ions, provided
the waven umber has a non-zero com po nent in t hat direction . Sometimes
I! the phase velocity is defined to be a quantity wit h the direction of k and
magnitude equa l to the pha se speed in the direction of k ; but it should be
! noted th at the x-, y- and a-components of this 'vector' are not in general
f is called t he dynamical t imescale.
i, the same as the phase speeds in t he x- , y- and z-direct ions . Note also t hat
in directions a lmost perpendicular to k (so k . n almost zero) the phase
I speed can beco me arbitrarily lar ge; but t his does not correspond to any
I physical transp ort at t hat spe ed .
II'
A second concept of t he speed of a wave is the group speed or group
vel ocity. A packet of waves of different wave numbers but similar to k o
j' say prop agates physically at a veloc ity v g given by Vg i = Dw/ o k i , or in
t
shorthand v g = ow/D k , evaluated at k = k o. This is the group velocity .
I I ,
We can also speak of the magnit ude of t his vector as t he gro up speed.
For a proof t hat t his is indeed the velocity at which a wave p acket would
propagate, see for example t he book by Lighthill (1978) . This is t he velocity
at which wave ene rgy propagates.
In the case of pure sound waves, it is st raight forward to sho w fr om their
dispersion re lat ion (2.51) that the gro up speed is Co and that the phase
speed normal t o the wave fronts is also Co . Hence in t his case these tw o
are equal. In t he cas e of sur face gravity waves considered in Section 2.6,
the phase speed normal to the wave fronts is w/k, but differentiating t he
dispersion re lation (2.61) gives that the gro up sp eed is on ly half of this,
so in this case the two sp eeds are not equal. Although in t he case of pure
sound waves t he gro up velocity is in the direction of the wave number, t his
T he appropriate length scale E for a part icular motion may be different
from the size of the who le syste m - e.g . for sound waves, L might be t he
wavelength , T the per iod and U the Hound spee d .
For exa mple, for motion in a gravit.at ional field , wit h length scale E, the
time scale is T ~ (£/g)I / '2 . For mot ion in a star's gravitatio nal Held wit h
g = G111/ R'2 , where R = £: is the radius of t he star an d III it s mass,
R:3 ) 1/ 2 ,
T ~ t dYlI = ( GIll ex (mean density) - I/2 . (2.63)
This is t he typical time sca le for oscillations of e.g. Cepheid variable stars.
td Yll
2.8 .2 Importance of viscosity
Molecular viscosity, which provides tangent ial forces in fluids, comes about
microscopically be cau se molecules from faster-flowin g fluid diffuse into
slower-flowing fluid , and vice versa . As can be seen from e.g. Eq. (1.9) , the
viscosity 11 has dimensions M L -1 T - 1 where ~M, L, T denot e mass, length
and time respectively. Let the mo lecules have mean velocity v and mean
free pat h l . Then on dimensio nal grounds ,
fi ~ pvl . (2.64)
Often people work with the kinematic viscosit y v == 11/ p; t hus u ~ ul. Equa-
tion (2.64) can also instructively be ded uced by cons idering the tangent ial
force at a plane int erface between two fluids moving at different speeds,
assuming that such force comes about by molecu les diffusing a distance of
orde r l across t he bou nda ry at a sp eed v and dep osit ing their mom entum
in the new environment , noting the relation t hat force is equal to rate of
change of momentum.
To make fur ther progress, we need to relate v and l t o macroscopic
properties of t he fluid . If t he collisional r.rnss-spl"t,inll for t hp mn! p('ll !p<: j c
34 A st roph ys ical Fluid D yna.m ics 871H1,1" M on d s

(Y (not t o be confused wit h tho stress to nso rl}, and t he nu mber den sity of th e left-h a nd sidp. of S q. (1.9) to tho viscous term 0 11 t.lIl ' righ t- ha nd sidl':
particl es is 11 (so that. (J = 11m , where In is the m ean molecul ar mass), t hen
0 11 average hot WC Ull collisions a particle sweeps out a cylind er of vol um« a] I!m . Y u l (11.1"2 / 1: rtf:
HI' .
and thus such a cylinder mu st. contain 011 aver age on e particle: nlo ~ l . IIJV 2
ul jill I £"2 II

Hen ce I ~ tn.](J (Y . TI l<) mean kinetic energy of a molecule ~ k nT, when,

ViscoUS dfed,s an' imp ortnnt. if H(, ::; 1. For str-llnr s('a1l:s, lor sj"'l' d:- "1,,,;(-
k n is Boltzma nn 's cons t.ant., so
to the sound sjJl'ed in side th e S1I1 1 ( ~ ](I " IUS-- I) . Hi ' CV HI I" , :\lJd ;;0 rv cu
kHT) 1/ 2 for subs t.ant ia lly subsonic Hj H'(,ds tl w H.eYllolds num b er is g('w' n illy very
'V rv
( -

In
- (2.(i[) ) much greal.! ~r t.luu: unity. T his shows once ag ai n (.]mt n rolocu lnr V iS ( T O IlS
effects are gencrally negligib le ill the std lm «on l.cx t. However, smnll-scal«
Thus tnr lmj(>nt. flows ca n h ave a n dfcd . on the mean lar gc-scale mot.ion sim ila r
to t.ha! of viscosity: th is is known as t.nrhul cnt viscosity . Jt mnv woll 1)('
(kJ3 m) 1/2 J/ 2
p. ~ T. (2.GG) th e source of " v isr.osi tv" i ll JlII l.lIY a.c;1.rop liy si, ·;I! \'is l"l 'lI:< lWITl'i. io Jl d isks. IiI]·
(Y
exa mp)('.
For a crude est im a te, o ~ (radius of a!.o lll? , so a bout 10 -- 2 1J1ll 2 . (This
undercst.ima te s (Y in an ioni zed gas, where electrom agnetic inte rac ti on s arc
im portant .] T he m ean mass t n. = ii.m,,, whe re ji here denotes t he moan 2.8 .3 The adiabatic opproximaiion.
molecular weig ht and m il is the at omic ma ss un it . Assu ming reas on abl y Suppose Tp is t he ti mescale Ior the tra nsfer of heat. (11.Y flux F ). if t his
t hat a ll the constants im plied in t he ,~, relations above are of or der unity, is much greater th an t he timescale of th e mot ion U W Il (1 )(' G I ll t.n'at. t.he
this gives motion as H.dial>at ic (oQ = 0). This is th e adinbati« nppro ximatiou . Feu Ll H'
SIIIl , 7/.. ~ 10 7 years ill d IP. in l.erior, and a bou t ono dav noar t.li« snrfnr« .
(2.G7) Th e fund amental period of oscillat ion of the S IlIl is ah'ntl OJl( ' hom (sef'
Cha pter 11 ). so fur most Jlurposes t he ad iabn t.i« upproxnu ation is cxrol lc-nt
where T is in Kelvin and {J is in kg m -:i . (See Appendix A for the values for describing oscillations of the SII11 . Til th e solar a t.mosphore , howeve r, T»
of p hysical rous t.an ts. ] c all he much shorte r , in fact so sho rt t hat there are Rome circ um st.au ro» in

Now the left-hand side of t he Navier-St okcs equa t ion (U J) is pDul Dt . which one can treat t he mot ion as isotherm al (Section 2.3).
while a typi cal viscous te rm is ILy 2U . If viscosity were dominan t , then t he
tim esca le of moti on wo uld be det ermined by its effect:
2.8.4 Th e approximation of incompreseilnliu]

(2.68) Th e flow is incom pre ssibl e if Dpl D t = (J fur th en the density of a fluid
element docs not change with t im e. By the conti nuity equa tio n (2.2) th is
or, re a rranging, Tv ~ 1:2 / ,1 . For t ypi cal ste llar values (1' = lOGK , (I = is equivalent t o Y . u. = O. (Some authors prefer to take Y . u = 0 as I.he
lkgm- 3 , ji. = 1, I: = 10 8m ) we ded uce usin g (2 .67) tha t t he viscous definit ion of incompressibi lity, a nd lJ[II Dt. = 0 as t he conseq uence of th at. ]
timescal e is of ord er 10 2 1 s ~ 3 X 10 13 years. Even for a star t his is a Ro ughl y speaking , the cond it ions for t his to hold a re that U is mu ch less
very long time , so mo lecula r vis cosity is unlikely to be important on st ellar th an the sound sp eed and that I: is much smaller than tho pr essure scale
scales. T his will ge nerally be true for ast ro physical fluids, t hough some height.
form of viscosity is imp or tant in e.g. accret ion disks (see Ch apter 9) .
1
A com monly used mea sure of th e importan ce of viscou s effects is t he lip 1--- (2.70)
H I' = ]1 dz .
Reynolds number R.e, which is the ratio oft-he ad vect ion te rm (impli cit) on I
Astrophysical Flui d D ynam ics

For exam p le , for the Earth's atmosphere Hp ~ 10 km . Of course, co m -

pressibilit.y cannot. b e ign ored for m odelling sound waves!
 C hapter 3

Theory of Rotating Bodies

Most if not all obj ects in t he universe rotate , a nd t he effect s of rotation are
impor tant to a n understanding of the s tru cture a nd dyn am ics of many as-
troph ysical syst ems. Rotation is indee d suliiciont.ly iiuportun t to the subject
of astrophysk al tluid dynamics th at we ret ur n to it several times in ad dit ion
to t he present chapter: in Chapt er 4 on fluid instabiliti es, in Chapt er 7 on
th e dyn amics of planet ary atmospher es, in C ha pter D on accretion disks,
and elsewhere . T he pr esent chapter est ablishes the equa tions of motion in
a rota ting fram e of reference a nd considers t he equilibrium st r uct ure and
shape of a slowly and unifor mly rot a t ing st ar (or gas eous plane t). Vo/ e shall
also cons ider briefly t he int ern al dynamics of a rot at ing star, and some
conseq uences of orbital rot ation of stars in a binary sys te m .
A great deal of resea rch h as been made into eq uilibria of rotating bodies,
particularly in t he case of bodies with unifo rm density, by such illustrious
names as Lap lace, Jacob i, Liouville, Riemann , P oincare , Lord Kelvin and
J ean s. Much interesting d et a il of the results and his tory can be found in
e.g. Lyttleto n (1953) , Lebovitz (1967), Chand ras ekhar (1969) and Tassoul
(1978). Just to give some brief hist oric al context, we mention that in the
ease of bo dies of uni form rot a ti on t here are two families of equilibrium
configurations. One consists of t he Maclaur in spheroids : these are axisy rn-
metric configur ations . T he second family con sists of t he J acob i ellipsoids,
which are non- axisymmet ric. When the rot ation is sufficient ly fast , as mea-
n
sur ed by t he quantity 2 / 27fGp where p is the density, then t he Maclaurin
sequence terminates and for faster rotation the only equilibriu m configura-
tions for homogeneous bodies ar e the t ri-ax ial J acob i ellipsoids.

;17
 38
Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics
Theory of Rotating Bodies
3.1 Equation of Motion in a Rotating Frame
mmetry. For slow rotation, the distorted body is axisymmetric about
When considering rotating systems, it is usually most convenient to work sy
the I'O t a t',Ion axis' , " as one would expect. Although,. we shall . not. COIISHlpr
" ..
in a rotating frame of reference, The fluid velocity u is the ratcl of chang(~ f, "or rotation can give rise to SOIlIn surprrscs, notahly th« Jacobi
it here, dS",. , . ..., " .., • ,"
of a fluid element's position r with time, If we use D / Dt to denote rate of . . '1'S w.hich
elhps()]C , are triaxial ' . figures of oquilll niurn. For. a , h.Jllu (XjH)Slj]OJ!
change as measured in an inertial (nonrotating) fi'aI1W, and d/dt to denotp ~ the
of 1 S111·).1C . .ct.L, ,0. 'J'J('.' classic
C'('(',I, ,e", " texts
. hv.. CJmudras('khar (I%(J) and Lvtt.lr-t.ou
rate of change as measured in the rotating frame, then
(195:3). , " .' ' , ' '" 'I" ._
vVe work in a frame rotating WIth the body: III that h eUI]( 1, H. ,c(jm
Dr dr .'
hbnuIll . , described
IS.,o .. .1 u = 0 and CJ/Dt = • 0,
lrv Since we arr:
• llJoddlmg a
Dt -dt + Oxr (3,] ) ncar 1y sp . . configuration,
mhorical ' . , we use spherical polar " coordinates (,., (),, 4)).
. ordinates
In t Irese co ) e, , " , WI'l' ting
t. 0 as., i le.,
• " (where e • IS a unit vector alollg the
where n is the angular velor-itv of the rotating frame relative to the inertial z

one. Applying the same rule a second time givps polar axis,

( ell.~ + nx)2 r d2 r
dt 2 +
dr
2fh-
dt + nX(Oxr), (:3,2) Tns
1 · IS
(:1 01)
' J.usr'j the. "velocit.v
, , ',I of tli« fiuid as seen from the nonrotating Iraino, if
, a'.j rc.. st in the rotating' frame. J'vlon~(Jvcr,
it IS
where in the last step we have now assumed that the rotation rate n
does
not vary with time. There are some subtleties to VActors in rotating frarnes - Ox(Oxr) n2 7' sin 2 () e, + 0 2 , sin () cos () eo
and calculating their rates of change, and the reader who would like more
details is referred to Chapter 3 of Jeffreys & .JefFreys (1956). \7 (~n2r2 sin ' ()) , (3.5)
Now in the inertial framA, Eq. (2.1) is the equation of motion; so substi-
2r/Dt 2
tuting for Du/Dt =:: D from Eq, (3,2), and identi(ying dr/ell. as the So the centrifugal acceleration can he written as the gradient of a potential.
velocity as measured in the rotating frame, gives the following equation of Note that T sin () is simply the distance from the rot.ar.ion axis, Indeed the
motion in the rotating frame: above would he simpler in cylindrical polar coordinates (tv, ¢, ;;) since co-
du 1 ordinate tv (pronounced "pomoga") is the distance from the axis: Eq. (:3,5)
--\7p - \7'I/J - 20xu - OX(Oxr) . would become
dt p (3.3)
The last term is the centrifugal acceleration; the penultimate term is the - Ox(Oxr) = \7 ( 2'0
1 2 2)
tv . (3.G)
Coriolis acceleration, which is zero if u = 0 and is perpendicular to the
velocity otherwise. We are interested in finding equilibrium solutions of Eq, (a.3), Setting
u = 0 gives

3.2 Equilibrium Equations for a Slowly Rotating Body \7p - p\71> , (3.7)
where
In this chapter we shall consider how to calculate the shape of a fluid body
that is rotating slowly with a uniform rotation rate. \Ve shall consider in 1> = 1/) - 2'n
1 2 r 2 sin
' 28 (3 .8)
particular the case of a slowly rotating star; but the equations apply equally
well to, for example, a slowly rotating gaseous planet, It will be assumed is the total effective gravitational potential (gravitational plus centrifugal).
that in the absence of rotation the body would be spherically symmetric, vVe can argue qualitatively from Eq, (3.5) what the effect of rotation
and that rotation induces a weak distortion of the shape from spherical on the equilibrium shape of the body will be. At the poles (8 = 0,71') the
centrifugal acceleration -0 x (0 xr) is zero, and it is radially outwards at
 40 A st rophysical Fluid Dynami cs Theory of R otuting B odi es 41

t~lC equa tor ((j = 1T/ 2). It thus re duces the effective gravitational a ccelera_ where f(O) is a function of B. T he n
tion at th e e(~uator, i.e. t he centreward pull is not so st rong there as at t he
pole~ and so .m stea d of be ing sp herical the bo dy "b ulges" at the equa tor. OM
(:U:3)
q) S l lrfac(~
C ' . ~ ~le gra(~lCnt vector \7 f of a ny sca la r is p erpend icul a r to surfaces of
R(l + f( B))
_on,s t ant f ,. so a norm al n to the surface of consta n t .f satisfies n x \7 f = 0
is constant (i.e. indep endent of B). The rotation is slow a nd t he distortion
It follows from Eq. (3. 7) t hat surfac es of constant p a re also surfaces of weak , so rfl and e ar e small and we neg lect pro du cts of smal l qua nt iti es .
con stant !P, and vice ver sa, T hus we ca n write p = p(p ), an d so
Then (:3.13) im plies tha t
dp OM 1 .. 2
\lp = - \l p
d1' (3.9) - - ( 1 - f (O) ) -n"' "
R sin- (j (:3 .14)
R 2
Substituting t his into Eq . (:-~ .7) yields is indep ende nt of 0, i.e.

dp 1 n2 j { 3 . 2
(J = - -d p , f(fJ ) 2" G !YT sin 0 + constant. (3.15)
(:3.10)

so (J is abo 11 Iuuct.ion of q" i.e, p = p( q,). Note th at n2 R is t he equat orial acc eleration due to cent rifugal for ces ; an d
GMI R'2 is the gravitational accelerat.ion. So, the di me nsio nless quantity
, , ~:Iencef~)rward , for definiteness, we sh all speak of t he b ody as being a
star , but, It could equally be a gaseous pl a net , for example. T he outer
n2 R 3 I (OM ) is the ratio of cent rifugal acceleration to gr avitation al ac cel-

surf~ce ~)f the star is a s urface of constant pressure (b ecause t he pressure era t.ion .
out side IS const a nt, say zero) and so <l? is const a nt on t he surface. T he radii at t he p ole and a t. t he equat or a re obtained from Eq. (3 .12 )
\~~e consider the case where if t he sta r wer e not rotating it wou ld b e by pntting e= 0 a nd 0 = 1T12 respectively. T hu s t he relative diffe rence
between equat orial a nd p olar r adii is
~phencally symmetric, and rotation in d uces a weak distort ion fro m spheric~
Ity, . VVe SUppo se that t he star has m ass M and (I'll t he n onro t a tim g' case ) R( l + f(1T12)) - R (l + f(O)) ] n2 R 3
radi us R . 2" OM . (3 .16)
R
Thus th e relative difference in radi i, which is a measure of t he shape dis-
3.3 The Roche Mod el tortion, is n 2 R'J I (0 fl.i) ti mes a coefficient of order unity.
The only thing wro ng wit h t h is ar gument is the use of Eq. (3. 11) to de-
O n the surface P - " I, 1 n2 .2 " 2 () . scribe the gravitational potential. \Ve sho uld properly use the gravitational
" ' - sm
'J-' - IS constant. Let us approximate the
2' 1
gravitat IOnal potential t/J by what it wou ld be in the nonrotating cas e: potential app ro priate to the distorted st ar . We proceed to do t his now.

1/-' = _ OM (3.11) 3.4 Chandrasekhar-Milne Expansion

T

at t~~e,s~rface a nd o~tside . the star . This is equivalent t o approximating the
gr ax itational potential as If all t he mass were at t he centre a nd is called t he
R och e model. T l: is is ~ reason a ble approximation in the case of a centrally
condens ed st ar , III which mos t of t he m ass is concentrated nea r t he centre .
\ Ve suppose t hat t he surface of t he rotating st a r is described by
r = R(l + f (B)) , (3 .12)
The missing ingredient in t he previous sect ion was a proper treatment of the
gravita tional p otenti al of the dis to rted star. In t he Chandrasekhar-M ilne
expansion, on e cons iders the O(n 2 ) p ert urbation not onl y to the shape of
t he st ar b ut also t o it s gravitation al potenti al. T he procedure is des crib ed
in more detail in Tassoul (1978) .
We know that on the surface <l? is constant; also p = p(<p ) everywhere.
Now t he gravit ational potential satisfies P oisson 's equation (1.15) ; an d it
 42
A stmphysical Fluid Dy nam ics Theoru of Rotating Bodi es

is straightforward to demonst.rate t hat

Bence Ell " ( .'{. ].8) b ecomes

LJ 7rG1 (
Pu + <I rl(lp(I) .
" I ) - :m:l "
1l'1I
It follows t hen from t he defin ition (3.8) of q> that
. 2 Co u , '
whi le t he first-orrl er tori ns
Th e zero-orde r terms give \7 1/)" 1~
.1 7f .i ].

yield
The problem invol ves th e \72 oper at or , so it is mo re natural to write j,]1(. (:\.2(;)
2
B-d ep eJl(len ce not as F>i1l () but ill te rms of Legendre pol Yllomials of cos 0:
P" (cos 0) , since
Also, (j) is constant Oil the surfac e, so
v = l'''P', (cosO) and V = 1" - (n+ JJp,, (cosO)
(3.] 9 ) 1/)'1 (R(1 -I- r )) -I- ij>1(7',0 ) (:\.27)
are solut ions of Lap lace 's eq ua t ion , \72V = O. The firs t three Legen dre
polynomials are is illdepml( lellrt,0 l' O', whic
. h. ' aft er expandin g l j!, ." ,' jS,, the firs t two j.('nus of a
Taylor series expan sion , gJvos
Po (.1:) = 1, :J: , ] c 2
2" (.h: - 1) .
= (,3 .2(J)
dO) = _ ~R (~h/'"
dr R
I) I (l/ (R J i) ( -j- r:o lls !: 1l11) "
Thus (j) may be rewritten as
. (3 26) is an lnliomogencous differe nti al equation " for ij>' : on ce (1)'
Equat.lOn " ,. f E ( '~ 28)
(3. 21) I ' f the surface follows rom ' q. . . .
is found, the s, iape o . . " ' I , I ti I1111F>t h e regul ar in t he interior ,
rt " q)' is t h at t i e so u ,IOn " .
Let us write On e cone I ,IOn on " f 1 , I cond it ion , we mu st ensure th at
. ti lar at l' - 0 To llll a seconu c ' .
and III par ,I ClI . ( - . . I " tll v o n t o t he oxtcr ual gravi!<1-
(j) = '1/;,, (1") + (j)1 (1',O) , the
I gra". "J' t'at,)
, ., ' 011'1
,. 1 po tential
' . 1
/' m ate ics smo o ' ) ..
p = p,,(7') + P'(1', B) , (3 .22) tional fiel d.
wh er e 'lj)" and p" a re the gravit at ional p ot ential a nd deusity in t he sp he r- Ou tsid e t he s tar,
ically sym met ric, nonrot:ating star , and t he primed quantities are smal l
perturbations, of order [2 2 R 3j (G.M ), induced by the rotation. As before, GM
'1/' - - - - + 00
"L..-J A n (~) n+1 P,, (cos(1) (3 .20)
-' - T 11.=0 T
we ex press the ste llar sur face as 7' = R (l +E(B)), wh ere E is the same order as
t he other small perturbations; and we neglect product s of small quantities . . 0 f 0riel'
Recalling t hat p = p( (j)), since \72'1/' = 0 ther e by E q . (1.15), where A " IS ( . [22fl3 /GM .
Insid e the st ar ,

Pu -+ P1 = P( 1/'" -+ <I> ') = P(

1/)u
) + dp
q)1 dq) I
. "lj,u
(3.23) 1/' = (j) 1 2r 2 {I
+ -[2 - 'P.2(eos(O) } = 1/.!11 (1') -I- q/ + ~n21'2
.3 {l - P2(COS(0)} )
3 (3.30
Matching zero -ord er t erms gives Pu = p('1/),,) , and first-order terms give To allow complet e gene r ality, we would now wr it e
00 00

(3 .24 ) <]/ (1', B) = L qJ n(1' )Pn (cosB) , E(1',B) = L E,,(1')P,, (eosB) (3.31)
n=() 11 = 0
 45
A st roph ysical Fluid Dyn am i cs Theory of R ot atin g Bodies

(see Tassoul 1978). However , to avoid needl ess algebra, we note that the where all fun ctions are eva luated at r = R . Now rec alling t hat 1/.'u obeys
problem for uniform rotation has only P'2 (cosB) and Po(cosB) angul ar de- poisson'S equation so
pendence "-- see Eel"u . (o
J ')6) an
v.. ' d (3 .30) -- an.d so we anticipate
. . the solut ion ef'l/Ju 2 d'ljJu
to be __ ,_ + - -- -_ 1 G P'/l '
L7r
dr '2 r dr
and using Eq. (3.28) with (3.:12) to eliminate E'2 , E q. (:1.:17) ]lecon wH
qi' (r,O) = Po(-r ) + P '2 (r)P2(cos B) , E( r, B) = EO(r ) + E2(r )P'2 (cos B) ,
'. . . . (:3.:32) dP'2 3 ;r tl7rR'2;r 5 n '2R (:3.39)
and similarly for th e external field (3.29) . The surfa ce b oundar y cond ition
__ + - ~z -- p u ~ '2 - H .
dr R M 3
b~com~s t hat of requiring 'l/J and o~jJ /or to be cont inuous there: for other-
w~se , since 4' satisfies th e Poisson equat ion (1.15), a discontinuity in ouo at = R.
'I'
Equatio lJ (3.39) pro vide s the surface boundary condit ion t hat mu st b e
of th ese quantities would imply that there was an infinite density at th,
applied to the d ifferential equat ion for P z· Taking just the P2 (cos 0) t erms
surface, Continuity of 'ljJ means , equat ing (:3.29) and (3.:30), that . '
froUl Eq. (3.26) , this differential equat ion is

'1/)'11 ( R (l + EO + E2P2)) + ~..

47rG -<Ip
l
\ <I''2 P2
d !>
'
, 'II.
- G Ad 1. "

~\ = clp'/l / d'ljJu (3.'1 1)

d<D 1L
dr dr

'ljJ ,, (R ) so Eq. (3.40) gives the following ordinary differ ential equat ion for <1> 2:

(3.34 )
~i. (rzd<l> z) _ .Q.<I> z = _ 47r.,.z dPu<l> '2 (3.42)
rZ dr dr ".2 rn(r ) dr '

Similarly, cont inuity of a ljJ / ar implies
To zero-order , these two equat ions give simply
d'l/Ju (R)
dr
The first- order terms propo rtional to P2 (cos B) give two equations which
after A 2 has been elim inate d between them , yields
with boundar y condi tion (3.39) at r = R and <l>z regular at r = O.
In t he general case it would be neces sary t o solve the ab ove equa-
tion numeri cally. However , in the spec ial case wh ere Pu is cons t ant, it
P
is straig ht forward to find t he solut ions of Eq. (3.42) in the form <l> z = Ar
for constant s A and p, and after applying boundary cond it ions to de-
duce t hat <1> 2 = (5/ 6)Ozr- 2 . Further , it follows from Eq. (3.28) that
02 = - (5/6)0 2 R 3 / GM. Hen ce the difference b et ween the equat or ial and
polar radii , divid ed by R, is (5 /4)0 2 R :3 / G M in the case of a homo gen eou s
GM stellar model.
(3.36)
R2 .
3.5 Dynamics of Rotating Stellar Models
'
We have not so far considered how energy is transp orted in the ro t at ing star.
A well-know n result, whi ch is discus sed at leng th by Tassoul (1978), is that
(3.3 7) one cannot have a uniformly rotating star in strict radiative equ ilibrium .
 T hc01'Y of n ot,ettin g Bor/i cs
46 A st roph ysical Fl uid Dimam i cs
l E i
• i
1 ' 1 " -- ' . , I
·/l ·

Assuming t he co ntrary leads to what is kn own as von Zcipel '» po'/'aclox,

The same is t rue if the ro t.atiou rate is a Iunc t.ion onl y of di stance Iron, the
rotation axis. \Vc co nclude ther efore th at tl w ro t ation rate must hH V( ~ a 1.0
:-\ : ~ o
mor e gene ral form, dep ending on cy lind rica l polar coordinate z aR well as {
:'-)(1
di stance fWIII the a xis, or t hat stiict radiative oqui libri m u (IoCR 1101. hold . \ f I
O.B :IHO
( (\ ( I

\<\10. cons ider now the la tter possibili ty. The VOIl Zeipol paradox in dl'c'et
) i
says th at t.ho radiati ve Hux ca n not h e b al anced everywhere by th e (~Jl( 'r gy
':\1\0 I \
I
o; ,, 0 (\
ge nerat ion . Som e regions have n net influx of heat: these will Iwat Ill) aile! -, 0 .0 \
~ 1~~t)

tend 1.0 rise under 1moya ncy, O th ers will cool a IHI sink , This t end s 10 set
up motions in m cridiou nl pl anos: thi s is ca lled m orid ionnl cir oulat.iou . It \
0.'1 \ \
ca ll he S b OW Il , e .g . Kippcnhahn & \ 'Vl'i gert. (J ~!)() ) a nd Tussoul (J D7S). th at \ \
t.ho global t.imoscal o for mi xin g by t.he m eridional oir cul at.ion . k now n aR the \
Eddin gton-S weet timescale, is of order TIm/ X where TI<J] == GAr 2 / R], iRthe I
.. '

COl I
s
C'
\I- \
\ ,I
Kelvin-Helmholtz timescal e (L h(,ing Ow lumin osity) and X ~ 0 '2 R:I/(.'f\J .
Ii
I
I, \\ \ !i
I

' I ,\i \
For tho Sun , T l( ll iR about lO 7 years, and X ~ 10 - " ; :-;0 t he E dd ing to ll- CUi O.B 1.0
CH
Sweet l.imescalo iHa b ou t J Ol'2 yea rs , Il11H:IJ lon ger than the Sun 's age . Local T/R
circ ulation timescal os ca n 1Ir. much shor t er, however.
. ' S I '16 in ferred bv helio1"ei611lo1o!,\~" '1'1 ", (' O ll tOlll,S
For the Su n , the Eddingto n-Sweet timescale is much gren tc~r ( ~W~II th nll d e t he . ..111 , ' f' ](J II Ti le h o r i 7,Ol ll. :11 axis is i ll 1h e S un s
Fl'g, :1,1 R ota t.ion r a t e] 1ll1"I
I C :1 s p:1cm g 0 n 7" , . f t1
th e n uclea r tim escal e, hut this is not so for som e m ore ma ssive s tars . Yet are (l:1hell<,d in n llz aur iav "
.. .. 1
' . . ' f
is i s the a Xl f-' 0 rot.a .i on , ]ljs. t.r'lI1<'e1"
1 t.i
~
a re in u ni ts 0 • IC
,.

t he o bservationa l ev idence does no t sup p or t t he idea t hat th ese stars a rc nnt.o rial pl all e , th e vc rt .icn aXI. , '. 'I t.1 \ ase o f th o Suns COI\ VCc\.IOl l zo ne ,
~\I:' s phot osph eric radiu s. T he dashed lin e m a r ( S ie )"
mi xed , as th ese tim oscal os would sug gest. The exp lanat ion (d . Kippcnhahn
& Weigert J 990 ) is t hat mi xin g is opposed a nd stop ped by com p os it ion
gra dient s (and hence gradients ill the mean molecul ar weight) . 'lll' is aj v(:n bv . 11 Ct, 0..I. (, J98R)
Ulric • (
' \R all!)]'llxi1ua tdv
, . ' "
.' a lIjl , ' b
for ('X ,-
It should he m entioned t hat , al thou gh one CHn po stulate HOllie a rhitra rv
n / 27f = (tiS]'!) - G5.:~ ('os2 (J - GG.7 ('OS·1 0) nll z . (:U :{)
rotation profile for the interi or of a st ar , this will not necessarily lie sta hl«,
a nd hence will not necessarily be realizable in a real st a r. An exam ple of a . " , .' . . 1 from t r aekin g di fferent fea1.11res do not agree
sta bility consideratio n is the Rayleigh criterion (sec Section 4.3). The rot ntlOll rates dc1Cll!lllleC . . ,', l ' Sn uspots , for exa mp le ,
1 t ' with c'1('h oth er pt ecise }. ,
wit,;]1 tho a love r a .e OJ . ," I "' " (3 4'3) ind icates a t low latitudes. Thcir
. t ' . t 10 15 nlIz Ias t.ei t iau . " I '.
rol.a .c c . • . ' I thc r t' t' rate in a some w h at c oep ei
movement may ]) 0. mor e l!lcl!catlvc 0 1. ic 10 ,<1 .ion "
1 tl ots m ay he rooted .
suhsurface regioll ".rlCl.· C • re sp I " '. " " I. ' t (']I'ln O '('c! l .v 1Il111'l ' th an
3.6 Solar Rotation 1 '. tl e sllr hcc rat (' I,ll' lIO , , ,.., .
fo r at. 1('ast n e(m ,m y , 1. ,
.'
" .1
. f t he oj'( (' 1' ()
f' 1(1/ ] 1'\ \ '( ' 11('( '11 d p\.pc!,0,d as
!O , , ' .

Deta iled observat ion s have been ca rried out of t he Sun' s su rfa ce rot.atioll G pC'1' C(' l Jf.. However, vnna\.~ons 0 ' • ' 1 1.'j'·j' \(I('~ t( > t he ('ll u a t,or with a
" l . t g from nn( - ,I ,I ,I ,~, "
rate over m an y years, by t ra cking surface featllreH such as su nsp o ts a nd. zona l hands of fi.ow nng a ,1~1 _ . ' II d to rsiOll't1 osc.illa t ioJlS, thon gh
period of' a 1) 01 1t' 11 yc,), . . 1 hese
" l'S " al e en e " .
more recentl y, using Doppler velocity measurellleu t s. The rotation ra l:c
thi s is a 1M of a mi sn omer. . " l ' l ' t h e p ast.
The rot at ion rate of the intel·.ior its~lf hals l~eee":~ ~.:;(el~~e~~ci::': of ~lo1Jal
varies wit h latitude, t.he equ a to ria l region s h avin g a rota t ion peri od of a ho ut
25 d ays while high la ti tudes rotate 1110re slowly, wi th peri ods in ex cess of olle · . ... . , imagmg' llSlJI g 0 ) SCI V .. ' '
two dccad es by 1Ie I10SClsmlC " ' . '. l ' r in ti ll'
mon t h. T he surfa ce rotation rat e is comnHm ly expressed in a n ex p a nHion , .' '.. (S r ] 2 C)) 'Wf\VC's p l opag,1 m g
aeons !ic modes of t.he Snn see . cc ,10 n . ":, ' .. ,
e,
jn cos '2 e
wher e is co-lat it ude, e.g . Snod gr ass (J98:3). The Doppl er r nt e.
 49
T heory oj R otating Bodies
48 Astrophysi cal Flu id Dynamics

ntum by the distance 7' sin 8 from the rotation ax is, and using the
same dir~ction a.s the rotation have a slightly higher frequency than those InOme
propagatmg .ag amst the rotation, and the differ ence in frequency dep ends continuity equat ion (1.3):
on the rotation rate. The results of such imaging in the outer 60 per cent oJ = - \7 . (.rr,IC + .rRS + .rEM + .rv ) .
(:3.46)
or so of the .sola~· ill~erior are shown in Fig. 3.1. The outer 30 per cent at
of ~he solar I.Iltenor IS the convcctively un stable convection zone. In thi s Here th e term on the right com prises (m inus) the <liverg eu ce of various
re gion , the d ifferential rotation with latitude is similar to t ha t seen at the angular-momentum fluxes. The first tw o are
sur faee: so the contours of constant rotation are nearly radial. Only at
(3.47)
low latitudes do we see somet hing like Taylor columns (see Section 7.4).
By .c ont rast the radiative interior beneath the convection zone appears to the flux of an gul ar momentum due to the meridional circula.tion in the
be III a st ate of nearly rigid-body rotation, to the exte nt that it ca n be
measured at present using helioscismology, Between the two regions is a (1', e)-directions , and
(3.4 8)
layer of strong she ar , called the tachocline, There is also st rong radial shear
in the region just beneath the surface. The hclioseisinic findings and their
the Reyn old s st ress t erm that arises from non-zero correlations b etween
theoretical interpretation are revi ewed by Thompson ei at. (20(J3).
turbulent fluctuations 11,' == 11, - (11,) in the velocity in the ¢-direet ion and
.Youn g stars are observed to rotate much faster than the Sun, and it is
the other t wo directions . The remaining tenus·represent the transport due
believed ~hat l:itar~ lose angular momentum from their surface layers through
stellar winds . TIns loss is only communicated to the st ellar interior if there to electromagnetic Maxwell stresses
are ways to redistribute the angular momentum inside the star. As we sha ll
.rEM = -r sin-f « pB, B,p) e,. + (pBoB,p) eo) (3.49)
see in. ~haPter 4, shea r in a flow induces inst abilities (Sect ions 4.3, 4.4 ), so po
a ~u fflc Jently stee p rotational gradient would become un stable . Turbulen ce
and viscous diffusion
might then transport the angular momentum. Magn etic fields via t he
ac t ion of Alf veu wav es , may also redistribute an gular momentum: A weak .rv = - z;p(r sin (J )2\7D (3.50 )
magnetic field may indeed be responsible for the nearly rigid rotation of
respect ively (e.g. Thompson et al. 2003 ). In deriving Eqs. (3.47 )-(3.50)
much of the radiative interior and may also stop the spread of the tacho clin e
we have neglected lon gitudinal variati ons in p and 1/ .
gradient further down into the Sun.
Viscous forc es ar e presumably negligible in the solar interior, and
Including magnetic Lorentz force j xB and a viscous t erm 'D, the mo -
t he Max well stresses ar e also likely small in the bulk of the convection
men.tum equat ion in a frame rotating with steady angular velocity no
zone (t hough possibl y not in the r adiati ve interior and tachocline, nor in
(which we take to h e the mean solar rotation rate) is
sunspots). Hen ce a steady-state rotation in the convection zone indi cates a
au _
Pat - - p(u · \7)11, - \7p + p\7iJ> - 2pn o x u +
1
- jx B + V. (3,44)
balan ce betwen the divergen ces of the flux es of angular momentum caused
/10 by meridional cir cul ation and Re ynolds stresses due to turbulence. If the
Rossby number is small and the flow barotropic , then the Taylor-Proudman
As usual, 11, is the residual velocity in the rotating frame. The total angular t heorem (Section 7.4 ) states that the rotation rate will be constant on cylin-
rotation rate is drical sur faces aligned wit h the rotation axis . This is evidently not the case
in the sola r conv ection zone (F ig. 3.1) except p erhaps at low la titudes. This
D(1' ) = no + (u</J) . (3.45) is at least partly du e to baroclinicity (\7px \7p =1= 0) driving a meridional
rsin 8 '
circulat ion which red istributes angular momentum. Latitudinal variations
(. . .) denotes an average over longitude. An equat ion for the conserva- in heat tran sport du e to rotational modulation of the turbulence cause a
tion ~f a.ngular momentum density J = p(r sin 8)2 n can be obtained by t hermal wind (Section 7.4); but also the Rossby number is likely not sm all
multiplying the ¢-com pone nt of eq. (3 ,44) describing the rate of change of
 Theory of R o/. n.t.in g Bodi es

for some scales of motion in th e t ur b ulent con vec t ion zone, breaking th e
M,
conditions for t he T ayl or-Proudrnan t heorem to app ly. I x
I
It is po ssible to model t he rot ation in the convect ion zone usin g nH'an _ I
I L3 poi nt
field m odels (d . Section 5.3.2) but kn owin g how to prescribe the Re ynolds
st ress es from the m ean -field velo city is a d ifficulty with thi s approach . He- L, poin t

cent large-scal e numeri cal simulations (e.g. large-eddy sim ula tions ) ca p-
t u ring some of the turbulen t nature of th e con vection ZOlW , can produce
rotation profiles t h at a re q ua lit at .ivoly simi lar to what is b ein g found ill
hclioscisniology (see Thompson ci al. 200;l for a review).

3.7 Binary Stars

Many stars a re found to h c in b in ary system», Tho orbit» of s1.;\.]"s in a

clos o bin ary system tend t o becom e circ ula r ovor ti rno , due to t idal foru 's. ' 1 I' t.wo s \'l rs wit II ll ,a SSI ' S 11 / , a ' \I' 1\ /'2 a lllll!!.
.J 1J ' H, d w 1',,1 1'1I1U1 " , .., . . , I " '\ ' I
" 2 1\ <;111. 111 r Olll!.I . "
.J
'I'll , 't n ' I 0( ,", \ 1,f '.( 1 .,l til",
) , ~ s1 nrs l)lIsi t.illll S illd lCa l ." . '," ,>.5 \I '
Conside r a binary system in which the two componen ts a n' in circular orbits I • If!; . .) . · , . . '
III<' li tH' joi n ill!!. t h e two ~1a rs . . .' ..' " "1 " / L.) a lld /' :J, a l'l' La p;rHll)!;iali jl oJll1S,
a b out t heir common centre of l WI. SS 0 , a nd in which nw t wo star s cor otat( , '. , T h e s tat iOll a ry p oint.s , t""hL<1t" , '" ' 1 , -
lili es.
so as to always show the same side to the other st a r. In this sys te m th en>
is a rotating fram e in wh ich the st a rs a re comp letely stat iona ry . If is tlw n
an gular veloc ity of each sta r abo u t 0 , in an inertial frame , then of course ') ,() 0) q, can h e writ t ()]l from E q . (;P» as
(-( 1 - II (I " ,

n is also t he angular veloc ity of the rot ating frame. - GAl (; A12 ---;-:-
Suppose that t he sep aration di stance b etween the t wo st a rs is 0 , that. q) = ( . )" -I 1 2 + z2 .)
( :1: - flO - - )/
- ((,:1: + ( I _ /I) a )2 +)/2 + :0; 2 )
t heir m asses a re IH 1 , A12 , and that their re spe ctive di stances from 0 are
110 awl (1 - 11)0. Since () is t he ce n t re of m ass, - -1 Sl2 (x 2 + y2) ,
2
I. r· 1 Here we h ave llHlde the same ap pr ox-
whieh is c<,\lIc, cl the Ro che po e,n]',la 1.'1 " t' can usc Ow ulldistorted gravi-,
Ii (3.51) . . S t' 3 3 name v . I ,). , we J . ,
ima!.IOlI as III , ec .ion " , .... . , ]'1(' for cpntrally cOllclcnsed
. I f ,I '1. ar: t Ius 1S reason a J ~ ,' •
tati on a.] potent1a 0 eac 1 s ·< . ." . trat ell nC'IT t he cent re.
. 1. f 11 e mass is conce n. c . • " "
Also the grav it at ional for ce on star .l towards star 2 (and hence t owards stars ill w1nch most 0 , 1 , .' : ~ :, 1 " fun ction of :r :1!OUg the lino
0 ) mu st be equa l t o 111 1(p.a.) rl 2 , since 11.0 is t he rad iu s of it s circu la r or bit; The n oell(' p otent.ia] (3,53) IS 11l1lSt.1 at.er as a . t ars . Fi e 'l 2
. ]. . ., t he c('nt n 's ol tw o s m 1', III h " "
. '11on the me jOllllllg . ~ , TI
y = "',' = (), l. ( ~ . , . h
o
hen ce it is straightforward t o show that " . £ I ' , \7q) = 0 are indicat fld. . , lest'
. . t s £ £ 2 and :), w lPlfl ' , .
The Lagr angwJI P 0111 ' . I , , .' Ir , whe re t he for ces of attraetJOll
are e(lllilihrinlU points 111 the rO,t a.t m l ame, g r o in l , ]'II('C
G( M 1 + M2) t -if ., 1 force an ' III Jd a . .'
(3.52) towarcls the two stars a nd the ccn n u ga .,
a:)

Lar the surface of eac h st a r in the b inary

. ,1
Now Eqs. (3.7) a nd (3.8) hold for this sys tem in the ro t ating frame, where AS. III
' 1.1ie case of a sing e s ar, ' . . 1 I th e surface p ot ent.1a ia] f
" 0
' " _ .fac e of cons t,ant <I> . Now PIO\,]( ec . , ' . ,. ,' . , ", .
t he gravitat ional p oten ti al 1/; is given by t he sum of t he potenti als due to t he syst.elll is a 81U a ' . ' . . t1 ' £ l'1 gTang,-ian p oi nt, eac h st.at
is l II I the 1)ot enha1 q> I at . 18 I .sc
tw o stars . Choos ing Cartesian coordinates (x , y , z) such th at the ang ula r each staris css .1a · . ~ " ~ " ' , .. Jl] , 1 '1 stars form a dctacJwd binary
. , ]1' t-] n chc ])otcnt1a a uc \. 10 S ."
veloc ity of t he frame is in the z-directi on , wit h th e stars at (p,a, 0 , 0) a nd OCCllp leS a. we III . ie .0 .
 53
T heory of Rotating Bodies
/cs iro ptui sica! Flui d Dy nam ics
.
bins . " r "contact Innary " (Fig. . 3 .•3c)
, . It is
"common enve1ope mary a . . . 3 4) '
M2 Ml M2 M1 we have a . t lot contours of constant (j) in the x - y plane (F Ig. . . .
I I I I . ,tl'Uct lve 0 P . t l .tar can
I I I I also 1115 . . 11 l : Roche lob e is the maximum rcgJOn . i c s ..
sha ded reg lOl1, ca e( a. . ,.. . .'

~) 't~ ' ~lf"

the I"
belor ct1 s
it ar ts to lose m ass t o It.S compa.nlOn.
aeeUpy
(> ", • •

".
F ig . 3.3 C uts throu gh t he R oche p ot ent ial of st ars along the lin e j oini ng th e t wo stars
illstrat ing three cases . (a ) The two st ars (ind icate d by h at ching) form a d et ach ed binar ;
system . (b) One star has filled its Ro ch e lobe an d is n ow losing m as s to its co m p anicJIl
star. (e) The two stars form a cont act. bin a ry in whic h t he tw o st ellar cores oceupy iu a
CO Ill IllO U enve lope.

Fi g . 3 .4 A contour pl ot of t he R och e potential of two stars , in a pl an e co ntaini ng t he

tw o stars. T he Ro ch e lob e of the star on the left is indicated by the ha t ching.

system (F ig. 3.33). Suppose though t hat 11,12 expands (perhaps at tempting
t o b ecome a red giant) until it s sur fac e pot ential is equa l to (j) t. , (F ig. 3.3b) .
Any fur ther expansion will ca use matter t o fall from star 2 t o st ar 1, since
it will fall to the lower potential. Algol is an examp le of such a bin ar y.
F ina lly, if the sur face potenti als of b oth st ars are great er than (j) L l , t hen
T·
•• ••
···· .· '· ··· ·

Chapter 4

Fluid Dynamical Instabilities

It. is hardly po ssibl e to st udy astrophysical fluid dywlIlli cs wit.hou t «onsirl-

ering fluid dynami cal instahil iti cs. A fluid flow, either in reality or ill a
!Hodel, may be un stable, in which case perturbati on s nmy grow qui ckly and
change the fluid configu ration awl it s flow. Fluid dYlIami cs involve var ious
ill st.ahiJiti ( ~s , which may profoundly a fl'I'Ct ! 11(' sl.I'1 I('I.I1 ],(· alld r-volut.iou or
Hst.]'o physical obj ects ; A well known ('Xallll' !r' is t.hl: ('01l v('d i\,(' insl.ah ilit.y
which lead s to convective core s and con voct.ivo onvolopes in ru nny stars , 1.1]('
forlllnr aff(~cting their nu clear evolu ti on and tho l aH( ~]'l e adiJJ g to a vnri-
cty of ph enomen a includ ing ma gn eti c activity cycles in th e Sun aw l ot her
lat e-ty pe stars .
T he top ic of fluid dynamical insl.au ilit.ies is a large one and we shall only
(lisc:uss selected inst abilit ies her e. vVe mention a few others elscwh oro ill thi s
hook: in particular t he J ean s instability in a self-grav itnt ing flnid is t]'(~ atcd
in det ail in Ch apte r 10. Excellent further re ading on fluid instabi liti es arc
t he hook by Dr azin & Reid (198 1) an d , particularly for rotating st ars, t he
review by Zahn (1993) .

4.1 Convective Instability

4.1.1 The S chwar zschild criterion

Convection plays an impor t an t ro le in ste llar int erior s and planet ary at-
mospheres . Con sid er a fluid at r est with densi ty st rati fica t ion (i( z ) and
with gra.vity g = - ge z acting "d ownwar ds" , so z increases upwards. The
pressure distr ibut ion in z is given by hyd rostatic equilibrium . Let us now
conside r what happens if a fluid parcel is displ aced slightly up ward s from
height z = Zo by an amo unt oz.
We suppose t hat t.h e displace ment O ('C 1ll'S

55
 Flu id D ynamical In stab iliti es 57
.• ~ ". Vl''' ysu;at Fttiui Vyn am i cs

. .
ith de t h t o b e stab le to convection. ' .t ly the' same crit erion
E xactr
s ufficient ly slowly that the fluid parcel rem ains in pressure equilibrium with
it s new surroun dings . On t he ot he r hand we suppose t hat t he displacem ent rapIdly WI p iderir 1,1 e p arcel moving downw ards inst ead, t I.lOu.gh
11 ' ult fro m consI errng 1 . . I
occ ures sufficient ly quickly t hat no heat is exchang ed between the parcel WOll C res
must then rem em)Cl
I ' t o rever se the inequality
. whe n dividing hy t ie
one
a nd it s surroundings, so t he properties of the parcel change adiabaticall y,
(negat ive) e5 z . " f ti. C' convec t ive ins tability, is thepotellti al energy
The pressu re and density at the ori gin al posit ion z = zo are Po a nd Po , Bay. The ene rgy 8 0 m ce or . I , . . .
At the new position z = zo + 6z , t he pressure a nd den sity of t he parcel ar e . .: " mi unstable strat ific aticlll. . .
Po + 0]) and Po + op, say. Now at z() + 6z the pressure of the surroun dings of thIfethe
Ollgn . , . IS
st rat IficatIOn ' . S·t·'a 1)Ie' t.0. t,he above
.
cr it.erion then t he accelerat ion
a nd hence also of the fluid parcel is Po + 6zdp /d z to first ord er in oz ; so of the parcel is given by
Jp = e5zdp /d z. T he density of t he su rro u ndin gs is Po + ozdp/d z . But lJy
the adiabati c assumption, the parcel's pressure a nd density perturbations ~
.2 u.1: Z = ( J UP)
+ 8 z~ 9 - (p + (j p) g (4.5)
P dt 2 f UZ
a re re lated by
(blloyallcy l'01'." ' . . wei,,·ht
LL llllllllS o
) , where we now cons ide r oz to be a function
Po +6p = (PO +6 P) ' .
(4.1) of time: and h en ce
Po Po
Hen ce , linea ri zin g in p erturbation quantities , th e density perturbation of (4.6)
t he p ar cel is
whcre
op = .f!.!!-.op = Po e5z dp ,
pg (dln p _ ~) .
2
(4.2) 1 dlnp _ dln p ) = (4.7)
,,(Po ' ''(Po dz 2
N = g( '1dz dz p d In p "(
T he p ar cel finds it self heavier than its sur ro undings a nd hen ce sinks b ack
towards it s original loca ti on if .f . . .'1, ad h ad b een defin ed to increase
(Recall t h a t z increas es up wa r d S : I illS ea z . , T .sed .)
·1 " , of the two deri vatives in z would have b en re verse .
dp downwan 1s, t re sign s .' . 1 f' ' N Thus
Po + op > Po + oz dz ' (4.:3) < ' t ion (4.6) descr ib es simple harmonic mot ion WIt 1. l eque.n,cy,., "
~qlla .. " 1 can oscillate in the vertical dir ection ab out Its equ ilibri um POSI-
t .le pa~ cIL f.
i.e., if
. N whi ch is known as the Brunt- Viiisiilii fr equ enc y or
tion WIt 1 l equen cy , . I '1, aves in a
f
lJ'Uoyan cy requency. . This is the m ech anism for int ern a gravi y w
stably stratified fluid (e .g. Sectio~ 12.4).
i.e., The instabi lity criterion (4.4) IS t hus t hat
1 dp 1 dp 1 d Inp (4.8)
-- > - - i .e., <
,pdz p dz ' "( dlnp
(W III·C,I1 W oul d imply
•
oscillations WIth nnagm ar y fI'eque nc"J ' on e root leading
" , .r .. , .

(since dp/d z < 0). Converse ly, if , ilibri )

to exp onen t ial I' growth of t he disp lacem ent from equui num .
1 d in p If t he chemi cal composit ion is uni form , t he n
> -- (4.4 )
"( d lnp
ln p = In p + InT + cons tant
t he n the par cel finds it self lighter than the surroun ding fluid a nd hen ce
contin ues rising. In t he la t t er case, the ori ginal stratification is un stable for a perfect gas (see Section 1.7) and so the instabilit y criter ion (4.4)
and fluid parcels will mo ve a round, i.e. the st rat ification is convect ive ly b ecom es
un st abl e , Note that t he density ca n in cre ase with depth (eq uivalen tly, dinT > 1 _ 1 (4.9)
incr ease with pressure) a n d still be un st able: it has to in cr ease suffic iently dlnp "(
 <'>0
Astrophysical F lui d Dynamics
Fluid D yn am i cal In st abilities ;' 9

which is often wri t ten

to t.ransp or t t he st ar' s entire heat flux. III t hat. casp 'V ~ \l ad a nd N 2 r-: IJ
\7 > \7 a d t.here ; also S is nearly consta n t.
for the fluid t o be un stable, where ]\,lost stellar-structure modd liug nfiCfi a s im p k- p lll'uOUIl'lIo]ogic.<1 I d(,-
scription called l ni:J:i n y- lr:ny l h tJU:017J t o ca lculate t.ho ]wa1 t.ran spor! 11y
\7 == dd IIIlnpl' n _ (ddlnIn 1') 1 f convccti on and hen ce the s trati fication re quire d in «on voct.ivclv uns t.ah lo
and v
a,
!
= p s = 1
- 'Y (4.]] ) !
!
regionfi in order t o produ ce the necessary cou voc.l.iv« he at flux (l'.g. Kip-
Eq\l~ti~n Lh~ Schwarzschi ld cr it erion for conveetive insta bi lit y.
(4. g) is r jleuhallll & vVeigart 1(90 ). T he idea is th at b lob s of convectol fluid t ravel a
1\101 e ~eneraI1'y, If t here is a vertical gr adient of chemical COlIlp()~il ion [ dist.auce (1 from thei r posit ion of equilibrium and thon di srupt a nd d ispers e
CImractenzed by , , [
;
into t he IIl'W surroundings : f' ifi th e iuixing longt.h. Th e rnixi iu; !l'ngt h lias
t to he proscribed . In sto llar «ouvecti vo envelo p es it is ron uno u lv P]'('filll lll'd
-
d ln /l
d ]J)]J ~ (1.12)
,
i
to he a fixed con st ant t.imo» t.h« local prossu ro seal<' I I( ~i gh t: th o val ue o r t. h( ~
fixed r-onst.aut (th« niirinq-lcuqth. 1J(l'm:m.!dcl ·) ca n hi ) adjusted fiO afi prodllcp
th en
e.g. a solar mod el or the CO !Ted. radius, or course, xinco th ere is JlO ]'('al
N 2 = go th eory involved , we do not k now t.hat 11)(' ini xiug-lon gf.h paramcte r sho uld
If
l'
(\7 a d - \7 + \7/1) (4.1:3) he the same for d iffer ent stars . Other proscriptions of 1J)( ~ mixing longth
where H p is the pressure scale h eight (2.70) a nd are possible. In order to lise thi s mixing-len gth thcorv iu modelling stella r
:-: t rllct.urc, it is necessary t.o cal cu late tll(~ fi l W(~d aJ whi ch blobs 1I100'e and
(5 == (f)f) In1'
In f> )
(4 .14)
th e aIIIOll11t of hea t they transp ort. 11. should !Jo)'J1l' in mind t.hill. t.his is a ll
fairly cr ude an d t hat the adjus tment of t.ho rnixiug-lengt h parameter Ul k ('R
p
up the slack left by in cxac tit.ude in the argume nt. T hus l.he spee d 71 of
(0 = 1 for a p erfect gas). Then t he criterion for instabilit y is
th e bl obs can be calc ulated from the equa tion of m oti on (!J .G) (whore N 2
\7 > \7 a d + \7'1 ; (4. 15) is negative for a n unstable reg ion) assuming at it s sim p lest t hat the blob
starts from r est and t ravels a distance I! a t cons tant acceleration. Th e con-
thi s ~s the Led oux ~rit~rion for conv ective inst ability (see Secti on 4. 1.2). vcct ivo heat transpo r t effect ed by the motion of the blobs is fJvc 1' 6.T where
1 he Schwa rzsc:1nld mstability criterion for a region f if
sit ' , I 1 .( " 0 Ulll on n comp o- (;1' is t he sp ecific heat ca p acit y and 6.T is the te mperature excess of a blob
, tl~n caIn a so Je exp ressed in t erms of the gradient of sp ecific pnt ro l)11 S over it s surround ings . Sin ce 6.1) = (J (tho blob is in pr essure equi librium
no mg' t rat " , , . ,J ,
with its surround ings}, the te mp er a t u re excess can be wri tten in te nus of
~dS 1 d]J df> th e su p erndiaba t ic grad ient divided by the p ressure scale height , multiplied
c]J 'Y ]J P (4 .16) by th e dist a nce f. travell ed by the h lob . Since it t urns out t hat v is p ro-
where cp is the specific heat a t cons tant pressure. Tl portion al to the square ro ot of t he supcradiabatic grad ient , t he convective
len from (4.7), heat flux is p roportional to t he sup er a d iahatic grad ien t raised t o t he p ower
N 2 = go dS . :~ /2 . As alre ady stated , in deep convective envelopes of stars it turns out
c]J d z ' (4. 17) th at the sp ecific heat capacity is large en ough that a lilly snp('n l.dia,] la1.ic
th e Ilt~r is stable t o convecti on if the sp ecific ent ro py increases upwards. temp erature gradient is sufficien t to give 1.]10 nec essary convecti ve hea t Jinx,
so that N 2 ~ 0 there.
\7 \7 ~. ~ ad
the . tem p erat n re gl:adien t is said to be 8upcradiabatic; if
. < 11 ad :1, IS .'~ 'U,badZQ.bat~c.
Convective motions tr ansport hea t : comllJon ly
III ste n.T interior regions that a re convectively un stable c ti .
effici t i t l . . ' , onvec lO ll IS very
cien III iat It requires onl y a very small superadiabatic gradien t \7 - \7 ad
 Gl
Fl'uid Dynamical In st abilities
60 'As trophysical Fluid D yn am i cs
., ' . 1 e thermally IInSt ,a I)Ie ;,;' 0 tilt',
T l 't'll' r st rat IficatlO n may ) , ' . ' 1'
4 .1.2 Effects of dissipation last example. . le ~,c a ' . r insbbility is sat.isfied , hut stah le over al so
Schwarzschild cn te n on (4.10) fo
. ,' . , ,'
'. c 1 :l' t, " not satisfied - T he res ulting
(415)formsta Hl ,yls , " . ' .
Convect ive in stability is a dynam.ical process: it do es not require a dis- th at the Led ou x (.l It o iou i -i . , . • : _ . " Iv ec [i ou in ::;t.(;l1ar as t.ro physll:S ,
. t.im e ' referr ed tu as ,%UH <-(I I , 1
sipat ive process , and can ther efor e b e treated in the adiabatic, invi scid
approxim atio n. As established by R aylei gh (1880) , dissipation m odifies t he
motion IS some ,U IlC;,; Z'1 (1993) 'mgnlar JJlOJllcntullI w ay abo pl ay I. Je
As point ml out by a 111. ' . ' c ' 1' ff ' " mor e slowly t han heat .
instability cr iterion only sligh t ly: , . le t o the sa lt, sm ce It too (I uses .
ana logouS 10 e '
C
(4. 18)
t ytc! 3 l\!l odelli n g convection: the B07l.ssines q apprm.:imation
for inst a bility. Here c: is a positive cons tant of order unity, and t; and td 4. 1. .. . " '. veet ion we m en ti on a com111only adopt ed a p-
are the dissipatiou tiiuescal es associated with viscos ity and heat diffu sion , Before leaving the tOpICof con ' . l ' , .t: hk j"(.,,'ion s , T his i::; the Bons81,-
. ' . . o(kllillg convedlve y un s a ' -o " .
re spectively (see Zahn 1993). Const an t c: dep ends on the geomet ry of the ]lrOXllllat lOll 1.,1.11.1l. ' I ,t pi 1)(' the. i1 ur:'1.ua' I'.ion. of ])ressure ab ou t Its h ori zon-
fluid reg ion and on boundar y conditions . In sid e stars, t d is shorte r than t ; nesq (L1I1Y1 '(),:I:i'ma~,uJ'li. J(' 'f' ,t'l " 't'll('l'oJJlod v n mn ie quantiti es. The ve.locit y
1 . inilarlv or () , W I " ' .J • II '
since th e therm al diffu sivi ty r: is gene rally mu ch larger than the viscosity 11 ; ta1meall , anc S l c • ' 1 ut 'I l'('f'pJ'{'ncp st.ate'. in whic 1 t ie ve-
'l 1 Ii duat l0n ano c " , " .
t he Prandtl number PI' == 1 /1'" is est imate d to b e of order 10- 9 to lO -G in
c

u is also COllSl(. er e( a . u " .. , . t' t 11(' deusity fluctuations a re

B ' " e::;q a pproxnll a ,lOn . , " .
the Sun: see Lignier es (1999) . In the con vectively stab le re gions , diffu sion locit.y is zero. In the O UHS lll ., . , . . tl '-' eClua t ion of mot.ion . Specifica.lly,
. t 1 ' bu r ya ncy t.erru III .ue " , '1
t ends t o damp oscillation s. W hen t-: ("-' l2I ",) b ecom es compar able with retained on1y III .ne ),' I. ', ' . . 1 ' II tile continu ity equat iOn . 1. Ie
" fi t u: ti ns an' Ig1101CC I ' .
N - 1 , where l is a characteris tic parc el size t o b e damped , t he ent ro py st rut- t.hen , the rlcusity uc ua J( ~ , . , ' . t ' (Goug h 19(9) and filt er s out
" ,I' 'h e a pproxnlla .ion .r
ification is no lon ger effective in stabilizing the layer , t houg h com pos it ion lat.ter is called t 1ie ane as , . , 1 " t h at may h e considered
. , , 1 >' ..ena such as sounr Wcl.ves ' " " . ,
gradients if presen t will st ill provide a re storing for ce, higlJ-freqn<'.!lcy p lenOlll , >. ' " f 1.1e flow . The set of equat iOns fOJ
.
unllupOl 't.,d ll t for t ransport pr op eJl.lcs .0 I ,
.~
Interesting competing effects (" doub le-diffus ive insta b ility" ) occur in a , , . 13 . : , 'q a j)jwoxnnatiOn IS
.

layer whi ch is dyn amicall y stab le, i.e. N 2 > 0 in (4 .13) but eit he r the Huetuations in the ouss mes
comp osit ion stratifica tion or thermal strat ificat ion on their own would be 1 , pi 2 (4 ,19)
un st able. T he archet ypal laboratory examp le is wa ter heated eit he r from u
~I U
_ _ + u . \7u = - - \7p _ 9 + v\7 u
oj p o (4.20)
ab ove or b elow a nd wit h a gradient in salinity. Heat diffu ses much fas ter
t han the salt con centration, If it is t he salinity gradient that is destabilizing \7 ·u =O
(4. 21) i
(sa lt water on to p of fresh wate r, but wit h t he top of t he layer hott er t han ~ + u·\7T'
(Je
z
. u = radiative exchange t erm
I
the bot tom), th en small-scale perturbati on s for which td '" N::' can grow , at I
H )( \7 - \7 ) is t he so-called superadi- I
producing so-called salt fingers . Eventuall y t he st ratification b ecomes a
(c.g . Go ugh 1977 ) wh er e (J .=. (~{ IBoussine:~ app roximat ion t he pi / pin
I
layered convec t ion with b oth temper ature an d salin ity va rying stepwise in I
dep th _. see Zalm (1993). The op p osite case is that of salt y water b eneath
\ a bati c lap se r at e. Mor eover , m b l~TI I T whe re 0 = - (8 1n pI Dln T )p, i.e.
fresh water, wit h a n othe rw ise unst abl e t emperature grad ient whi ch ca n b e ! the first equat ion gets rep laced , y
. t'
. " 1 t o temperature fluctuations.
'e neglected com paJe tl
produced by heating the water fro m below. One can envisage a di splaced pressure ftue:tua .ions 31 . . itifi ed j 1 labor ator y convec-
. .. tion can b e JUs lIe n
fluid p ar cel oscillating but coo ling down (due to t he sho r te r timescale t c! T he Boussinesq approxlllla , d d :ltv are long com pare d
1 . 1 1, f wessure an ens J
when it is above its equilibrium po sit ion a nd hea ting up whe n b elow the ti on , whe re t he scale lelg 1 s 0 ]d . ,t d a nd also in some geop hys ical
1.1 fluid layer un er s u y, fi 11
equilibr iu m position. This ca uses the veloc ity at wh ich t he parcel passes t o the dept11 0 f Ie . 11 . ct ion is n ot reall y jus ti a ) e,
" I .,
applicatiOns. ts app 1
r cat ion to ste ar conve
I,1
. , .
d m av v ield some mSlght Illto
t he equi librium level to increase and the amp lit ude of t he oscillation to . Id ' tractab le pro ) em an J J ,
grow. This is overstability: t his p ar ti cu lar example is call ed thermohaline but it does Yle a mOJ e . ) for a discussion of st ellar convect lOn
the full problem , See SpIegel (1971
convection .
a nd the Boussinesq approximation .
In stellar cores, helium may play t he a nalogous ro le to the salt in the
 62
A strophysical Pl uid Dynam i cs
Flui d Dynamical lnst.oh ilit ies

. .c ner al situat.ion . III . ,SPC t'.1011.4",j , ,so rather than.

We sh all analyse a lJlOl c g , . . "j I , . , 1(' 1.1H' rr-snlt : {roll I
" ., I al 'sis w e S l It l]') y l(]( . q 110 . . .
fJ , ,oIlCat.
I" "
th e mathcmat.icn
, ' I au ' (')I. 1,,0 zer o, W I' IiIlll I t]I
[I, . 'lI. f"r irrol a t ionnl . ,111 ..
,
1
Eq. (,1.:18)
' " S'
I
WIt h U .1 ]](
]I]r,
2 s "
t.he t l'llJjlOJ
.. I f .(,( 1H 'I W \' w 0 (' t hr: ]H'rl.llrl.:I!.lll1l
"OJJl I)1 LS, p ort.nrhnt.ions ] ,'h 1J I " .
2=0 "is rein1.CI"I ',0 I ,." Jlori~olll.al
" C'
" , WaVP lJlJHI )(~r ., l,i'

w2 = (fi 2 - fi 1 ) gk,
F ig .4 .J The se t-up for th e R ayl eigh - Tayl or in st ability : o ne flui d of ( un iform ] dCllsit.y PI
[J2 + /) 1
ovcl'ly illg another of densi ty PL' T h« gravitatio na l accelera tion is 9 :' Ild z is th o ver t ica l
coord te (he ight) . The d asl wd curve rcpl'esell1.s th e p er tu rbed illt.erface between UJ('
ina s. if > (lH" IVWr . HUH . I Oll 1".op ) w 2 < () am i so w is im agi nary: 22) on e1
two fluid
Thus 1 PI fi 2,. . . , li ,tlly I-';J'Ow i lll-'; sollJt io1ls (-1 . , , : UH
'Z .
I.II(~
. 1S ('o],J'l 'SjlOll<!S t o ('XjlOllUI . , , . .
of two Iie10,,0 " is uu sl.ab l '1'1IlS
" j ion IS 11JJs1.a 1J ( ' ,
. ,., 11' HO:I/1I'il/h ,. 'lhyZ 01 ' 1.nsf ab1.1.f y.
IS 11." , , 2 k
SO th« COll 19m" " .. _ () th en W( ' ]'()cover w = .1/,
4 .2 The Rayl ei gh-Tayl or Instability • • . .' I)..'; that 1] W() put fi l .- • I
.We ' note
] IIrI .jJ.lSSIl
rorsion relation " ]01' sm . ,/',dH., )..''; 1.1\
" ,'I1\,. wav es that .
was deriver
,
whiol: IS' t.1e2 I(' IS] F.X])l'(
, 'ssJOIl ' ,"(4.2,
, ,~) gUICl
'" J', 'S th a1. dispersion rel ati on to
t-
,11Ze.
j , .,

Sev eral in stahiliti es can OCcur a.t inte rfa.c es hetween fluids , Consider two flu- ill Sed, lOll ,J . .J ., ,

ids of uniform (hut different) density with a pl a ne interf a.ce between them, ifor density upp er layer. f ,
illcllJde a JllU orm- , , '. . (C' t ' A 1) the ('llergy SOlJ]'('e 01
with a uniform gra vit at ional field p erpendicula r to th o int erface (F ig . 4.1). ti ins tahili Iy ,~ p c ,lOll ' i . " . .. .
As with t he convcc 'lve , . ' ". ]" '1' 1'.1 en erg y sto red ill Ow initial
If the de ns er fiui d is on top, (so Pl > P2 in the notation defined in the fig- the RayJp igb -Taylor instability IS 1.ic p o .( Il .1,1, . .

ur e), the Rayleigh-Taylor in stahility develops. This m ay see m an unlikely cOIIfi gnratioll.
config ura t ion to occur in nature, but 9 can equally he an ef fcc tivc gravit a-
tional acce leration , e.g. at an accelerating shock front a nd this sit ua t ion can
4.3 R ot atio n al I nstability
be found in Rupem ovac , for ex a.m p le. The R.ayl eigh-Taylor instability com-
mon ly occurs at the same t ime as the Kelvin-Helmholtz inst ability , whi ch
. . I I Ie n ew rang e of possible
." . ins tabiliti es. Som e arc
a rises from veloc ity shear between the t wo layers : the K elvin-Helmholtz Hotation intror uces a W 10 . , , . le . ' I ill t he nex t section, For
1. 'J ~ mi ght. envisage in t. lC
instabili ty is discusRed in Sect ion 4 .4. 1 .' I 1 r and shall he COnSl( E1en m rn e 1
assoc iatec WI ,; 1 s lea , . L ' .

idor lv a sim p le scenario , w 11L J W ,. .

To under Rtand t he develojlmen t of the R aylei gh- Tayl or instability. we now we cousir cr a u " ' ." "t, q varios on ly wl11 1 1.1]('
, . ., . , r ' n wh ich th e rotatio n ra ,( L , " • • " ..

co ns ider wh at happen R if there is a. sm a ll perturbat ion t o t he interface. mtcrror of a s t a r , sa) , I ' I " li: 1 coordinate JlJ a cylinch ltd ]
f til ax is (so to IS 1 JP Jd( 1<1 , ' • •] I
If the p er turbation grows t hen the configm a t ion is unst able. Since th e distance w rom . e , ." , 1.1 . t Ifects of viscosit y arc negligi ) c.
polar coon md ,c s~ , ", . neg led
li . 1· ' ' t ) \Ve assumc , M, e .··c " . , '
ba ckground confi guration is tran sla.tionally inva ria nt hori zonta lly (F ig. 4,1), " . . so m . 1,, 1 1C' oquilibrium config uration
\Ve also for sim p IJCll;y , grav
, ity'. ,
we may without loss of ge nerality consid er an individual Fourier compo-
pr essure and ce nt rifuga.l forces balance:
nen t , in the x-d irect ion say, so with x- dep en denc e e i h . Lik ewise the time-
indep endence of the background m eans that we seek a t empor al variation of
iwt
1 ip " + wn 2
.;-(-" = O. (4.24)
the form e- say. vVe suppose that any velocities, pressure varia.tions, etc. pdw
a.rise only from the p er t ur ba t ion from t he interfa ce: hen ce all pert urba t ion
va riables will be propor t ion al t o
. . ) undergoing a sm all ra.diaJ d isplacelncn1. fr:)~n
Consider now a pal ceJ of flul< . I' '1 1 (1 ])'Irc('l COllS('I,\,('S it s spcClhc
s: S· ", , ,'s cosity IS nc g 191 ) C , . Ie , , ' . . 1
ex p (?:kx - iwt) . w t o w + uW . , mee \ I." . ' 2' 0" "tl tl l' ha nd the pressure for ce t l,e
(4.22) t I - w n n le 0 . 18. , ,
. ' "11111 ". I = rrollndmgs
an gu la r m0111en . . " IS
. d I',t",C11J1]]
. . led iJv the angu lar vcloc lty
parc~1
\Vitho\1t loss of generality we take k to be positive. "
feels Jl1 Its new Rll I . 1 I"11('e of for ce per unit mass
th ere , accordmg . t"o E q . (4 .24) ' Hence t Ie ml ) f\. « . ,
 65
F lu i d D ynam i cal In stabilit ies
64 A stroph ysical Flui d D yn am i cs

in the rad ial direction felt by t he parcel after it s displacem en t is

2
( { W 0 (W) }
W + SW) (W + ow )2 - (W + OW){O (W + SW)}
= _
-
1 d ( 4 2) -
w :J dw w n Sw ==
,) oW
-Nfl (4.25)
I z =()
to O (5rv). T hus t he equation of moti on of the par cel is t pz
20
d rv 2
I
dt 2 + N0.(\w = 0 (4.26) l Fig . 4.2 T he set -u p for t.h e K elvill-Hehn ho lt z illst abiJ it y : one fluid layer flowin g over
I "Hot her. T he u p per fluid la y e r has densi ty PI an d hor izontal speed 'Ill , t he lower layer
~V I J iC,h gives astable, oscillat ory motion if Ng
is po sit ive but an instabilit y ( has density P 2 a w l horizo nt .u! sp eed '11 2 . For other d et ails, see t he capti on t o F ig. 4.1.
If .N~ is w:g.aLi ~(;. As in t he convective am i R ayleigh- Ta.ylor illstahilitie~,
thi s .inst ah ility ~s a dyn amical instability . T hus for stab ility t he rot at.ion
pr ofile must satisfy II 'vVe have already seen that in t he case of no horizontal velocity such a
config ur ation is subjec t t o the R ayleigh-Taylor ill::;tahility if t he fluid ill top
- 3
1 ~
dd ( w 4 O~)
'.
> O. (4.27)
co to is more dense t han the fluid below (PI > (J2 ) . 'vVe sh all now see that if th ere

. . Rather. stro ng ~ l j fi"erelltial

blh~y aJ~d 111 practi ce
rotations are requi red t o trigger this iust a-
other instabil it ies would usu ally set in soone r (Zahn
I is shear hetween th e two layers (i.e. V J "I [h ) t hen t his fur t her de::;tabili ;,::es
the configurat ion, wh ich m ay t hen b e unst able even if the lower layer is t he

1(93). Su ch a shear inst abilit y is discu ssed next.

I denser one. Put anot h er way, a sufficiently st ab le density st rat ifica t ion is
necessary t o overcom e t h e shear inst abili ty.
As in Section 4.2, we cons ide r a pertur bation z = (x) of the interface
4.4 Shear and the Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability of the form
(4.28)
~~10ar, ~I~stabilities, whi~h Cal~ occ ur when a fluid 's velocity is not uniform, ( = A exp (i kx - iw t) -
ale ve.l } eOl:unon. ThClr mam feat ur e is t hat t hey ext ract vorticity from
~. la1llll1ar .(I.e. non-turbulent ) flow and t he vor ti ces can then grow and We shall consider incOln p ressi ble, irrot.ationa] per turbations in each layer ,
IIlt~r act WIt h one another . An excellent reference is the bo ok by Drazin & so that t he small perturbations u ' t o t he background veloc ity are express ible
Reid (19tH ); Zahn (1993) also provides a good referen ce. . in terms of a scalar p o t ential 4>:
l~~re we rest rict our selves to an analysis of t he Kelvin-Helmholt z in-
st a bility, and some general comments about the onset of shear instabili ti es (4.29)
u' = Vc/J ,
and about t urbulen ce.
We shall use sub scr ip ts 1 and 2 to den ot e qu antiti es in t he upper an d lower
4.4.1 Th e Kelvin-Helmholtz instability layers resp ecti vely ; so , for exam ple, the t otal velo city u is V I e x + \74>1 in
the upp er layer and U 2 € X + \74>2 in t he lower one.
T he Kelvin-Helmholt z inst ability can occur when one fluid flows over an -
All perturbati ons are deri ven by the interface d istorti on . Thus all per-
o tl~er.. Cons~der. a two-layer fiuid wit h a plan ar interfa ce (z = 0) in a
t ur bed quantities have t he same dep end en ce on x a nd t as in E q. (4.28) ;
u.l1Ifonn gr~vltatlOnal field g = - ge z . Each fluid has it s own uni form den-
and they all tend to zero far from the inter face . Withou t loss of gener ality
sity and u~llfo~'l1: , stead y, horizont al velocity (in t he z-direction say). The we take k t o be positi ve . T hen since t he velocity p ot enti als ar e solutions of
configuration IS Illustrated in Fi g. 4.2 .
 r ..,.
J .__'~"-, <
A st rophysi cal Flui d D yn amics ··
Flui d D yn am i cal hist.olnliiir:s 07

Lap]a ce 's equation (4. 29) , one ca ll im nH'di ately say t hat r··
Agai n it. is !lO W co nsis te nt to oval u ato th is at :: 0-: . () : 11(' ))(' ( '
.
..
C J exp ( - iwt + i k» : - k z) ,
I
·
(,'.2 ox p ]- iwt + i k:7: + k z ) (4.:~ ())

for some constants C l a nd C« T he diffr>I'Cllt. ,' , .

. -' , . ,, - , SlgBS III t.he z- d ep en d ell c(~
I SlIbst.it llting [0]' (;1 a nd (.'2 fro m E qs , ( 4 . ;~ 2) give'S all c'(jlw1.i(ln that is ]J( )-

ens ures that ¢; -> 0 as z -> ±oo. Illogmlcous in A : for non -t ri vial (11 =/: OJ solut.ions W( ~ ))IlISt haw' t hat
A kin ern.at.ic con diti on is that, Oll either side of the int o ·f·, . ' ar fI .
MI·t · ,] atf.I ,
-, " . . . In ,(J d c e , d ll Y Iud
I.tl I., Ie11 e ,I. , t .H: intcrfac « sllrfacc~ m ust remain on tho. - "111'f"lC'C' whir..']1 ..n)('a us
t·. l~ ./c vc~·t.rcalcol1JjJollellt of t.he velocity I1JllSt match t he m ater ial d()]'i va~
.ive a t 1io in te rfa ce dlHjJlacemen t «( :/:, 1):
'J , ,, ." .

i.o ..

Dc!)] D( (4 .:l8)
o, ~(
[) z Dt + d 'l:
wher c tr = ( PlUI + f!2Ih ) j (PI + f!2) is a density -weighted aW'l'age s! H'C'd .
ur!J2
Dz
u(
Dt + U2 ?(
UT (·1.:31) TIlt' cou fign ra t.ion is unst. nhlo if U I(' right-h.u «] side of Eq . (;1.:18) is
at t he interface Con· c'c·t l' f "l ' ] . llcgati ve, s in ce th e n w w ill h: 1YC a 1I Oll··;I,crO ill J:1gilla r ,v pa r l n11l 1 ou r- of t.l«-
, Ir ad firs t-orr j .0 II S '. orr or, sin ce terms in these equations aro
' . ,. '
t.wo solu tions will corresp o nd to ex p o nen ti al gl'owtl l w it.h tim o, If 111 112
arr eady llst-ordc'r sm all " 1'1'
' , (JU d.I! :1 .ics , we m av eval u ate Ec ~ (4. 31) ..t I
C O'

'1. ' j' I. "

.' c, ". " 1,0. .• a , t.lio we obtai n the cri terion (11.2:1) Ior ti l(' Hay leigh -Taylo]' inst.ahility. ]l'lh =/:
u np er U1 )ec. surface loca l.ion z - 0 1'1 ' E ( . '
dedu c 1·1 1 ' ,( ' - ' . IUS using :J(Jfi. 4.28) a nd (4 .:30) we U2 , we see that the co nfigura t.io u is s t.ablc only if th « first (st rat ifica t ion)
.e . la .
ter m on the right-ha nd side of (4 .:38) is la rger than the second , shea r , term
-k C l = - iwA + i kUJA ., AC'
~ 2 = - iwA + ikU2A . (4.3 2)
which al ways act s in t he sense 10 dcst.abilize the sys t em . Dist urbances
of suffi ciently sm all wavelength (high k) ar e always unstable if U I # [12 ,
Allo~;)ler condition is that t h e norm al st re ss acros s t he inter face mus t t hough this is not t r ue in a rea l layer of finite t h ickness, see Draz in Sr lh'id
he cont in uous , which h ere means lhat t.l ~ ' .. . . .' .' , . (1981) . ote t hat the 0 ter m 01 1 the left of E q . (4.38) is nicrolv oquival r-nt.
N I ie pi essure p must. be continuo ns
ow 1. ie momentum equat ion ca ll be written '. to a Galilean tran sforma tio n in t he a-dire ction wit h speecl U,
If the sh ea r cau ses the configuration t o be unstable by ma king j:]ll ' rigId
v--'E
( D ') at + v (2 1 2
U ) = - p1 v» (4.33)
of (4.38) negative, this is called the Kel vin-Helmholtz insta.l!ilily . Not«
t hat. we ha ve on ly pr oved a s ufficient condit ion for stab ility since wo havo
.ec tr,0 grvo
which can be int egl'a ted " (to [inear
. order ) considere d on ly a subse t of possibl e di st ur bances, namely irr otation al ones.

a¢; + U a¢; = p
+ F (I) ,
at D.T P
- gz (4. 34 )
4 .4 .2 Cr iti cal R ichardson and R eynolds numbers
whe re F (t) is. a " cons 1. ant " 0 f IIltegration
' . Now since t he . I , I '
dep end t t . .' .' " on } ,un c- \Ve have seen in Sec ti on 4.4 .1 how a stable stratifica t ion hinders th e onse t
-l .' Cll ' quan ;ltles are the per turba tions, an d t hese tend to zero fa r frOl~l
t.n e int er f ace we can deduce' tl ' 1. P(t ) ' . ] . of shea r inst. abl ity. In a mo re general configuration, whe re st rati ficati ou
• , ' . . ' . .~ , ],l . IS IC en tlcally zero . T hu s cont inuitv and velocity vary wit h height z, t he st abilizing effect is measllJ'ed l,y tl w
of p l essm e at the Illterface Impli es , using E q . (4.3Ll) , t.hat "
Richa rd soll Illllnh er

- PI (a~1 + U l ~~l
v .l:
+ g() = - P2 ( a¢;2
at + u aeP2
ax 2
+
9
c) . (4 .35 ) Ri
(dU j dz )2
 69
Fluid J)ynamiwl In st abilities
68 A strophysi cal Fluid Dimomics
. . .. 1" 1 until eve nt ually at some scale 1II it is
de to sm aller and sma11eI sca es . .'
In the a bsence of dissip ation , a sufficient con d it ion for instability for a ca es . ' . t 1 , t he llnid's mol ecular VISCOSIty II .
variet y of velo city and density profiles is t h at Hi is smaller than a critical dissip ated as heat )J . . t.lu t dissipa t ive lcu gthscal e l, do es n ot
It seem s r easonable to SllP.pose , 1,1· . f . . . , [ .] _ £ '2'1'. -:1
0 0 . • .

value which in 1/4. If heat can di ssipate, however , t his will weaken t.he ,• . 1 Now I he ChllWIlSIOllS () t ,11 e t - . ,
J 1 but only on E am IJ . ' I' . . . .
buoyancy for ce (see the dis cus sion of double-diffusion, Section 4.1.2) a nd depellll 0 11 0 ' • . ' . . . . f lc '1'1 and time: and the C UJIenSIOnS
L.» 1 T lonote dnnens lOllS 0 cu g , I c 1
m ake th e layer less st a ble; thus the critica l Ri chardson number is increa sed . where aUC ,( ]. > fore c (lJ'IIl('usional gro u lldS we deduce t !at
.
_ I '2 1"- There 01 e on ' ,
See Zahn (1993 ) for a fuller d iscussion of t he iSSlJ(). of v arc [v ] - J •

l; rv (1)I/ff / .
4 (4 .t1 1)
An other important quautitity determining the on set of turbulen ce in
a viscous How is the crit ical Reynolds number. The R eyn old s munbcr is . . ' 1, ' S ' on scale In presmnahly dep ends only on
defined 1Jy Tl ' kin etIC ene rgy pm UI1l rna s
, I . 1,1lUS ag"alll 1Y
It.
), dl'IIIC'l'ICj'
. ., onal arg ume nts
He == L Ull} (4.4 0) In ,1l11 c, '2/3 ('1.42)
'U 6 rv (d o) .
wher e L and U are characteristic leu gthscale a nd speed of th e flow respcc- . ' re ssjous y ilJ ds
' . l ,'lt. .l'I'lg" E b etween
; 1l111l • these two ex ]! .. , ' .
t ively, and J/ is the kin euratic viscosity . The Reyuolds number m easures tl w El
H ,)--:1/4l (4.4:1)
re lat ive importance of in ertial terms a nd the viscous t erm in the rnornentum l , rv ( .c 0

equation . In th e ab"mH:e of other forc es (e.g. buoyancy ), a laminar flow

wit.h H. eyno1ds number Re == 'Uoln/ v ,
becom es unstable when t he Reynolds nu m ber ex ceeds some cr it ica l number
V>le also introduce wavenumbers k so
Rl~e ' Generally Re., is of t he order of I 000 , hut it dep ends ou boundary (4.44)
condit.ious of the How and on the particular velocity profil e. See Drazin & I.'. = l- 1 , 1.'." = I' v- I ,
ko = t:'
() .

Reid (1981). . -umber sp ace is called the i ne rti al r a'nge.

. t ·1 k < k < k m waven ut
T he IJl erva 0 '" . E(k t ) is defined suc h that the aver age
The kin etic ener'yy speet1"'lJ.m ..J ' , '
4.4 .3 Turbulence and the Kolmogorov spectrum kineti c per unit ma ss is
In st a bili ti es such as those discussed ab ove ca n rapidly lead ill high ~ ('U 2 ) = j'oo E dk . (4.45)
Reyn old s-number flow to turbulen ce, ill which neighbouring pa rcels of fiuid 2 0
at so n ic inst an t rapidly follow very differ en t an d practicall y unpredi ct able . . , .. . ther e is an upper cut-off to t he integr al at
Becau se of VISCOUS dISSIpatIOn, . " e [E] = L3T- '2 , we deduce
traj ectories . (A How that is not turbul ent is ca lled laminar .) The onset k = k/l' On dimension al gro un ds on ce more, sine
of turbulen ce ma y b e pi ctured as the flow developing smaller a nd smaller
th at in the inertial range
scales of motion un til at sufficient ly small scales molecul ar viscos it y se ts in. (4.46)
E = Cf.'2/ :1{,;- 5/ 3
Turbule n ce is a very challeng ing pr obl em . We sh all not consi de r furth er the
st ag es by wh ich turbulen ce develops, but focus instead on fully developed . . tl at E is indel)endent 10 and L there . This
turbulen ce. E ven ther e the challenges are formid a ble an d we restrict our c'' '.
where . IS a cons
stant as su nn ng 1
' .' . "
. .
1 inertial range the energy densi t y in
is t he Ko lm ogorov scaling, t h at m t~~/3
attent ion t o t he case wher e the statis tic al properties of the turbulen ce are
homo gen eous turbulen ce scales as k .
homogen eous, isotropic and ste ady. The basic idea s wer e conceived by
Kohnogorov (1941) a nd a classic text in which the t heo ry is developed is
Batchelor (1953).
vVe envisage that t he t urbulent How is in a st at ist ically st ea dy stat e .
1 '; 1I( ~rgy ente rs the flow a t a r ate E in motions on some lengthscale lo. T he
( 'lll ~r~'y p er unit mass on this len gthscale is ~ u6 ' This energy then cas-