Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2006
It is shown that for the steady isoenergetic rotational flow of an ideal gas, both the specific enthalpy and the speed of sound can be expressed as functions of the velocity. As a result, it is possible to formulate the equations of motion so that the velocity is the only dependent variable. For a gas whose enthalpy and sound speed are functionally related, the results are a generalization of those for a perfect gas. If the enthalpy and sound speed are independent variables, the new formulation leads to a single vector equation whose solution completely determines the flow.