Drag (physics) - D'Alembert's Paradox

D'Alembert's Paradox

In 1752 d'Alembert proved that potential flow, the 18th century state-of-the-art inviscid flow theory amenable to mathematical solutions, resulted in the prediction of zero drag. This was in contradiction with experimental evidence, and became known as d'Alembert's paradox. In the 19th century the Navier–Stokes equations for the description of viscous flow were developed by Saint-Venant, Navier and Stokes. Stokes derived the drag around a sphere at very low Reynolds numbers, the result of which is called Stokes law.

In the limit of high-Reynolds numbers the Navier–Stokes equations approach the inviscid Euler equations; of which the potential-flow solutions considered by d'Alembert are solutions. However, at high Reynolds numbers all experiments showed there is drag. Attempts to construct inviscid steady flow solutions to the Euler equations, other than the potential flow solutions, did not result in realistic results.

The notion of boundary layers—introduced by Prandtl in 1904, founded on both theory and experiments—explained the causes of drag at high Reynolds numbers. The boundary layer is the thin layer of fluid close to the object's boundary, where viscous effects remain important when the viscosity becomes very small (or equivalently the Reynolds number becomes very large).