I. Basic Concepts of Fluid Flow random type eventually produces a more ran f flow that is called turbulent the process of laminar-turbulent transition is an important area in its own right Finally, the ratio of the flow speed to the speed of sound in the fluid(the Mach number) determines whether exchange between kinetic energy of the motion and internal degrees of freedom needs to be considered. For small Mach numbers, Ma 0.3, the flow may be considered incompressible; other wise, it is compressible. li Ma 11 the tiow is called subsonvc; when Ma l, the flow is supersonic and shock waves are possible. Finally, for Ma 5, the compression may create high enough temperatures to change the chemical nature of the fluid; such flows are called hypersonic. These distinctions affect the mathematical nature of the problem and therefore the solution method all the flow compressihle nr incompressible depending on the Norp that we compressibility is a property of the fluid. This Mach number, even though is common terminology since the flow of a compressible fluid at low Mach number is essentially incompressible. In many flows, the effects of viscosity are important only near walls, that the flow in the largest part of the domain can be considered as inviscid. in ulie fluids wt edt in tliis Look, Newlon's law of viscosity is a good apr proximation and it will be used exclusively. Fluids obeying Newton's law are called Newtonian; non-Newtonian fluids are important for some engineering applications but are not treated here Many other phenomena affect fluid flow. These include temperature dif ferences which lead to heat transfer and density differences which give ris buoyancy. They, and differences in concentration of solutes, may affect flows sole cause of the flow. Phase changes(boiling, significantly or, even be the condensation, melting and freezing), when they occur, always lead to import tant modifications of the flow and give rise to multi-phase flow. Variation of other properties such as viscosity, surface tension etc. may also play impor ow. With only a few exceptions the nati1rn nf the tant rn these effects will not be considered in this book In this chapter the basic equations governing fluid flow and associated a coordinate-free forin henomena will be presented in several forns: which can be specialized to various coordinate systems, i) an integral form for a finite control volume, which serves as starting point for an important a Lial(tcnaok) furna in a Cart ulaas reference frame, which is the basis for another important approach. The basic conservation principles and laws used to derive these equations will only be briefly summarized here; more detailed derivations can be found in a number of standard texts on fauid mechanics(e.g. Bird et al., 1962; Slattery. 1972; White, 1986). It is assumed that the reader is somewhat familiar with the physics of fluid flow and related phenomena, so we shall concentrate on techniques for the numerical solution of the governing equations.