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Variational Principles Of Fluid Mechanics And Electromagnetism: Imposition And Neglect Of The Lin Constraint, Ross Roundy Allen Jr.

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Variational principles in classical fluid mechanics and electromagnetism have sprinkled the literature since the eighteenth century. Even so, no adequate variational principle in the Eulerian description of matter was had until 1968 when an Eulerian variational principle was introduced which reproduces Euler's equation of fluid dynamics. Although it successfully produces the appropriate equation of motion for a perfect fluid, the variational principle requires imposition of a constraint which was not fully understood at the time the variational principle was introduced. That constraint is the Lin constraint. The Lin constraint has subsequently been utilized by a number of authors who have …