Euler’s Equation of Continuity: Additional Terms of High Order of Smallness—An Overview

Professor N.E. Zhukovsky was a famous Russian mechanic and engineer. In 1876 he defended his master’s thesis at Moscow University. At a careful reading of N.E. Zhukovsky’s master’s thesis in 1997, V.A. Bubnov—a professor at the Moscow City Pedagogical University—discovered terms of the second order of smallness in the continuity equation for an incompressible fluid. Zhukovsky calculated them, but did not use the amount of substance in the balance. Ten years later, the author found high-order terms in Euler’s derivation of the 1752 continuity equation for an incompressible fluid. The physical meaning of the additional terms became clear after the derivation in 2006 of the continuity equation with terms of high order of smallness for a compressible gas. The higher order terms of the smallness of the continuity equation penetrate into the inhomogeneous part of the wave equation and lead to the generation of self-oscillations, vibrations, sound, and the initial stage of turbulent pulsations. The stochastic approach ensured success in modeling turbulent flows. The use of high-order terms of smallness of the Euler continuity equation makes it possible to transfer the description of some part of the motions from the stochastic part of the equation to the deterministic part. The article contains a review of works with the derivation of the inhomogeneous wave equation. These works use additional terms of a high order of smallness in the continuity equation.