The convective term in a velocity field 
is
It is the directional derivative of the velocity in the direction of the flow and measures the
change in velocity caused by motion through a spatially
varying velocity field. The convective term is
the spatial part of the material derivative
of the velocity and is the nonlinear term in both Euler's equations of inviscid motion
and the Navier-Stokes equations.
See also
Convective Acceleration,
Convective Derivative,
Convective
Operator,
Material Derivative
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References
Batchelor, G. K. An Introduction to Fluid Dynamics. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University
Press, p. 73, 1977.Quanta Magazine. "Why Navier-Stokes Pushes
Math and Physics to the Edge." Sep. 17, 2026. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsWR1rQEWYo.
Cite this as:
Weisstein, Eric W. "Convective Term."
From MathWorld--A Wolfram Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/ConvectiveTerm.html
Subject classifications
