Looking for the absolute best fluid mechanics book available

[Reinhart]

Dear physics forum dwellers,

Currently on search for an advanced fluid mechanics book that covers all the nitty gritty details. Not looking for general introduction books like Munson, Rothmayer, ... or Cengel that are used in bachelor physics classes or engineering classes. Even after skimming the content of Landau and Lifshitz, it is not really the book I am looking for.

I want something in line of 'The physics of fluids and plasmas' by Arnab Raichoudhuri who starts with the collisionless Boltzmann equation to derive the hydrodynamic conservation laws. But I am looking for something more in depth. A book like 'Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Mechanics' by Calkin which offers unique insights and relations to other domains within physics. Bonus points for geometrical interpretations.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
Reinhart

 

[boneh3ad]

I can't claim any level of familiarity with the texts you cite. As someone whose background is engineering, I never took courses at that level on things like Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics (just a first year graduate course in an aerospace department).

However, perhaps if you take a look at something like "An Introduction to Fluid Dynamics" by Batchelor you might find something to your liking. It's certainly one of the more classical and mathematical texts on the subject. I suppose other options might be classical texts by Milne-Thomson or Lamb. Something a bit newer and more textbook-like (as opposed to more of a treatise) might be "Incompressible Flow" by Panton.

 

[vanhees71]

For me the best textbook on the subject is Landau and Lifshitz vol. 6 emphasizing the physics point of view. For the deeper foundation from kinetic theory, I'd recommend vol. 10 as a starting point. For the state of the art of relativistic dissipative fluid dynamics derived from relativistic kinetic theory, I'd recommend more recent research papers and reviews if needed.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Dear physics forum dwellers,

Currently on search for an advanced fluid mechanics book that covers all the nitty gritty details. Not looking for general introduction books like Munson, Rothmayer, ... or Cengel that are used in bachelor physics classes or engineering classes. Even after skimming the content of Landau and Lifshitz, it is not really the book I am looking for.

I want something in line of 'The physics of fluids and plasmas' by Arnab Raichoudhuri who starts with the collisionless Boltzmann equation to derive the hydrodynamic conservation laws. But I am looking for something more in depth. A book like 'Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Mechanics' by Calkin which offers unique insights and relations to other domains within physics. Bonus points for geometrical interpretations.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
Reinhart

Bird, Stewart and Lightfoot's "Transport Phenomena" is a world-class standard text.

Calkin's book doesn't appear to have much in the way of fluid mechanics, but perhaps Brenner's "Macrotransport Processes" is in line with what you are thinking of (especially Part II):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H5GQGSG/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[romsofia]

Bird, Stewart and Lightfoot's "Transport Phenomena" is a world-class standard text.

Calkin's book doesn't appear to have much in the way of fluid mechanics, but perhaps Brenner's "Macrotransport Processes" is in line with what you are thinking of (especially Part II):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H5GQGSG/?tag=pfamazon01-20

This book looks super fun!

 

[Dr Transport]

All the old timers I work with swear by "the Dynamics and Thermodynamics of Compressible Fluid Flow" Vols I & II by Ascher Shapiro.
And his lectures are online http://web.mit.edu/hml/ncfmf.html

 

[Idun]

Thanks for the suggestions (especially Brenner's book).

Myself I found a pdf of Lautrup's book (Niels Bohr Institute). Looks much better than Landau and Lifshitz although it does not deal with kinetic theory.
https://www.amazon.com/Physics-Continuous-Matter-Phenomena-Macroscopic/dp/1420077007/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=continuous+mechanics+lautrup&qid=1622817680&s=books&sr=1-1

Edit: seems I found my old account.

 

[bigfooted]

If you're interested in Maxwell-Boltzmann theory, a classic is "The mathematical theory of nonuniform gases" by Chapman and Cowling. There is also "The mathematical theory of viscous incompressible flow" from Ladyzhenskaya (she is the L in the LBB condition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladyzhenskaya–Babuška–Brezzi_condition) with background on e.g. the proof of Leray for the 2D version of 'the navier stokes problem' (finiteness of solutions for finite initial/boundary conditions). For a complete bible, look at the books of Monin and Yaglom "statistical fluid mechanics"

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003CWGEDK/?tag=pfamazon01-20
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1614276714/?tag=pfamazon01-20
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0486458830/?tag=pfamazon01-20