scientific visualization Scientific visualization ( also spelled scientific visualisation) is an interdisciplinary branch of science concerned with the visualization of scientific phenomena. Michael Friendly (2008)"Milestones in the history of thematic cartography, s ...

skin friction lines are used to visualize flows on 3D-surfaces. They are obtained by calculating the streamlines of a derived vector field on the surface, the

wall shear stress Shear stress, often denoted by ( Greek: tau), is the component of stress coplanar with a material cross section. It arises from the shear force, the component of force vector parallel to the material cross section. '' Normal stress'', on th ...

Skin friction Skin friction drag is a type of aerodynamic or hydrodynamic drag, which is resistant force exerted on an object moving in a fluid. Skin friction drag is caused by the viscosity of fluids and is developed from laminar drag to turbulent drag as a f ...

arises from the friction of the fluid against the "skin" of the object that is moving through it and forms a vector at each point on the surface. A skin friction line is a curve on the surface tangent to skin friction vectors. A limit streamline is a streamline where the distance normal to the surface tends to zero. Limit streamlines and skin friction lines coincide. The lines can be visualized by placing a viscous film on the surface. The skin friction lines may exhibit a number of different types of singularities: attachment nodes, detachment nodes, isotropic nodes, saddle points, and foci.

References

Additional sources

* Chapman, G. T. ''Topological classification of flow separation on three-dimensional bodies'' AIAA, Aerospace Sciences Meeting, 24th, Reno, NV, Jan. 6–9, 1986. 22

Skin friction lines , CSA

New developments and applications of skin-friction measuring techniques - Abstract - Measurement Science and Technology - IOPscience
Scientific visualization Numerical function drawing {{Computer-science-stub