[vtkusers] streamline & streakline

[Berk Geveci]

>From Introduction to Fluid Mechanics by Jerzy Owczarek:
"A streak line is defined as a line formed by the fluid elements which
pass through a given location in the flow field. A streak line can be
made visible by injecting a dye into the fluid at the given location. In
a steady flow, the streak lines coincide with the path lines and the
streamlines."
Streaklines are very common in experimental fluid mechanics because they
are very easy to visualize (usually with dye, gas or bubbles). On the other
hand, streamlines (which are lines to which the velocity vectors are tangent 
at
all points) are a lot harder to visualize in an experiment and are usually
computed from velocity fields. They are a lot more common in computational
fluid mechanics. I would recommend looking at "An Album of Fluid Motion" by 
Milton
Van Dyke from some great examples.

-Berk

>From: Song Li <lisong at vrac.iastate.edu>
>Reply-To: lisong at vrac.iastate.edu
>To: vtkusers at public.kitware.com
>Subject: [vtkusers] streamline & streakline
>Date: Sun, 07 Oct 2001 16:44:06 -0500
>
>Just got a conceptual question, what is the difference between
>streamline and streakline? what does the streakline represent ? Thanks
>in advance!
>
>--
>Song Li
>VRAC(Virtual Reality Application Center),Iowa State University
>Email: lisong at vrac.iastate.edu
>Homepage: http://www.vrac.iastate.edu/~lisong
>
>


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