A streamline is a line that is tangential to the instantaneous velocity direction (velocity is a vector, and it has a magnitude and a direction). To visualize this in a flow, we could imagine the motion of a small marked element of fluid.
What Are Streamlines?
In fluid dynamics, a streamline is a line that is everywhere parallel to the instantaneous velocity vector of the flow. A streamline can be generated by a flow of inviscid, incompressible fluid.
Streamlines are useful because they can be used to visualize the flow pattern around an object and predict the direction of the fluid flow.
In the absence of friction, streamlines are exactly the same as the pathlines of the flow. Streamlines are often used to visualize the flow of air around an airplane wing or the path of a projectile through the air.
In viscous flow, streamlines do not necessarily exist. The streamlines in a viscous flow are curved and are not necessarily parallel to the velocity vector.
The streamlines in a viscous flow are also called stream tubes. A streamline is a line that is everywhere parallel to the instantaneous velocity vector of the flow.
A streamline can be generated by a flow of inviscid, incompressible fluid. Streamlines are useful because they can be used to visualize the flow pattern around an object and predict the direction of the fluid flow.
In the absence of friction, streamlines are exactly the same as the pathlines of the flow. Streamlines are often used to visualize
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