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An interesting video, that reinforces everything I saw when I explain these effects - I've taken a copy and must get in touch with the owner to talk about using it. The point about Bernoulli is that it only applies in its naive form in fluid flow where it's effectively a closed system. If you introduce airstreams of varying speeds then all bets are off. Effectively Bernoulli works because the velocity changes are being caused by the pressure differences. Take a very, very long plate with a hump in small part of it: ____________XXXX____________
Laminar flow requires that the "streamlines" are closer over the top becuase there is, effectively, less space to get through. The fluid has mass, so tries to go in a straight line. Considerably above the plate the fluid will move effectively in a straight line, so the fluid between that straight line and the plate has to move faster.As the fluid approaches that faster flowing area, it must accelerate, and the only thing to accelerate it is a pressure gradient. In the video he is using other means to accelerate the fluid flow, so it's different. At the end of the plate there is no downwash, so the only effect is Bernoulli, and in this experiment you do get a pressure difference between the sides of the plate, and hence "lift". In the case of the flow around the "elbow" there is no acceleration of the air, hence no Bernoulli effect. Quite the opposite, I would expect a Bernoulli effect to push the "elbow" to the left. However, the air is being sucked around the plate, so the "downwash" effect dominates. There are some really, really bad explanations in the literature and on the net, often written by people who do one experiment without separating the effects. They go on to teach, and unsurprisingly people get confused. |
It applies to fluid elements that have the same internal energy. In the case of the airplane wing, the air ahead of the wing is effectively unaffected by the wing's presence, so you can apply the Bernoulli effect to comparing different fluid elements.
Sure, if you compare the air coming out of a hair dryer with air that doesn't, you'll get in trouble, but that has nothing to do with an airplane wing.