The Kutta-Joukowski Theorem and Lift Generation - A Review

The Kutta-Joukowski theorem is a fundamental theorem of aerodynamics. The name comes from the German scientist Martin Wilhelm Kutta and the Russian scientist Nikolai Joukowski , in the early 1920s. The theorem says that the lift generated by a cylinder is proportional to the cylinder's speed through fluid, the fluid density and the circulation. In the field of steady aerodynamics theory, a fundamental role is played by the Kutta–Joukowski theorem, which relates the lift generated by an airfoil to its relative speed with respect to the fluid, the density of the fluid, and the circulation around the airfoil . Circulation is defined as the line integral, around a closed loop involving the cylinder or airfoil, of the velocity component tangent to the loop. The magnitude and direction of the fluid's velocity varies along the path.