
108 Irrotational Two-Dimensional Flows
with subsequent discomfort to passengers. In open areas with frequent crosswinds,
power and telephone lines can be seen to “gallop” on windy days. (Simple weights hung
at the quarter-wave points can alter the natural frequency of the line and thus prevent
catastrophic motion.) Perhaps the most famous case of motion due to vortex shedding
is the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, dubbed “galloping Gertie,” that self-destructed months
after it was built. (Von Kármán was on the committee that was formed to investigate the
collapse.) The final word on this bridge has not yet been written, as scientific articles
are still appearing with additions and further explanations for the collapse. Pictures can
be found by searching the Internet.
Our model for a vortex street here was the most simple one, where the vortices
are concentrated. In three dimensions no such simple models are found, and the anal-
ysis becomes more complicated. More details are given in the chapter on numerical
calculations and in the book by Saffman (1992).
3.9 Conformal Mapping and the Schwarz-Christoffel
Transformation
In performing the transformation of the circle to the ellipse by means of the Joukowski
transform, we say that we have mapped the circle in the z plane into an ellipse and
that the mapping is conformal, or angle-preserving. This means that if two lines cross
at some point in the z plane with an angle between them, at the corresponding point
in the z
plane the angle between the mapped lines is still . The relation between w
and z can be thought of as a mapping of one plane into another.
There are a few mappings that have been found to be generally useful, particularly
for dealing with free streamline flows.
2
The simplest one is the logarithm function
used in mapping the hodograph plane dw/dz. Letting dw/dz =u −iv = qe
−i
,wesee
that ln dw/dz = ln q −i. Thus, regions of constant speed are vertical line segments in
the hodograph plane, whereas regions of constant direction of velocity are vertical line
segments.
The Schwarz-Christoffel transformation is used to map the interior of a closed
polygon into either the upper or lower half plane. The definition of polygon in this case
includes cases where the length of one or more sides can be infinite.
To illustrate the Schwarz-Christoffel transformation, consider for the sake of argu-
ment a five-sided polygon in the z plane with corners A, B, C, D, and E. We wish to
transform this into a half-plane in the plane. The angles one turns through in passing a
corner of the polygon are defined in Figure 3.9.1. By virtue of the polygon being closed
the angles must satisfy
+ + + + =2 (3.9.1)
This mapping can be carried out by the transformation
dz
d
=R −a
−/
−b
−/
−c
−/
−d
−/
−e
−/
(3.9.2)
where a, b, c, d and e are real numbers. Usually three of these numbers may be chosen
arbitrarily. Notice that it is necessary to traverse the polygon in a counterclockwise
2
A free streamline or free surface is a line or surface of constant pressure.