No label defined (Q4938232)

The authors consider forced motions of a wing, or, equivalently, unsteady flow with known free stream velocity \(U(t)\), past a fixed lifting body. It is supposed that the trailing edge is straight and unswept. Mathematically, the problem splits up into four distinct steps, namely, to determine: (i) a harmonic function \(\Phi\) satisfying Neumann boundary condition on the body surface and discontinuous across the wake \(\mathcal W =\mathcal W(t)\); (ii) the vorticity \(\omega\) shed into the wake at a sharp trailing edge, and hence the wake configuration near the detachment at any given time; (iii) the time evolution of the wake, and (iv) the pressure distribution, by means of Bernoulli's theorem. The authors address here the first two steps only, and admit that, once they are solved, the time evolution of the wake follows from the weak form of Euler equations. The problem becomes then essentially one of the potential theory, at any given time instant, and a crucial role is played by the behavior of the harmonic function \(\Phi\) at the sharp edge, which is intimately related to the choice of \(\omega\) in (ii). For the entire collection see [Zbl 0924.00038].