Viscous Flow

Cambridge Texts in Applied Mathematics #13

by H. Ockendon, J. R. Ockendon

Viscous flow crops up in many real-life situations such as aerodynamics and lubrication, and because of its universality it is a paradigm for the application of mathematics to the real world. This book is a coherent account of the ways in which mathematics can both give insight into viscous flow and suggest analogies and implications for other branches of applied mathematics. The authors place particular emphasis on the unification brought about by the use of asymptotic analysis and scaling properties and the use of everyday observations from the real world (especially industry) to illustrate the theory. The book is aimed at final-year undergraduate and beginning graduate students in applied mathematics, physics, and engineering courses on fluid flow.

124 pages, Paperback

First published January 27, 1995

Reviews

[George · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a very frustrating book. I bought it because I am very interested in the topic. The topics covered are all interesting, but they are far too superficial. Every time some heavy calculation is needed, the authors shunt it into the exercises. That's right - the meat of the book is exercises for the reader, *without* answers.

I get the distinct impression that the authors were not prepared to put in the effort to write a properly worked out book. They have given a very superficial coverage of a wide range of topics, leaving the reader without any real understanding of those topics.
In addition, even rather standard topics, e.g. the derivation of the Navier-Stokes Equations, are done in such a cack-handed manner as to be very hard going even for someone who already knows the topic.
I think that it is almost impossible to learn the subjects covered, by reading this book.

To steal a quote from Russell: "Ockendon & Ockendon seem to have grown tired of serious working, and have written a book where they ask the reader to do it all for them".