Fluid Mechanics for Mechanical Engineers/Introduction - Wikiversity 01/02/18, 6)28 PM

Fluid Mechanics for Mechanical

Engineers/Introduction

Contents
Solids, Liquids and Gases
Definition of Fluid
Motivation for studying fluid mechanics
Historical Background and Future Perspective
Basic components of Fluid Mechanics Research
Viscosity of a Fluid
Elasticity, viscosity, solid- and liquid-like behavior, and plasticity
Deborah number
Rheological Material
Continuum Assumption
Pressure in a fluid
Interface phenomena and surface tension
Saturation pressure and cavitation
Streamline, streakline, pathline and timeline
Laminar and turbulent flows
Compressibility
Classification of flows
References

Solids, Liquids and Gases

A fluid is composed of atoms and molecules. Depending on the phase of the fluid (gas,liquid or supercritical), the
distance between the molecules shows orders of magnitude difference, being the largest in the gas phase and shortest
in the liquid phase. As the distance between the molecules or the mean free path of the flowing medium approaches to
the characteristic size of the flow device, the flow can not be treated as continuum.

In a solid, molecules form a regular lattice and oscillate around an equilibrium point. At this state, there is a strong
attraction between the molecules and the kinetic energy of the molecules can not overcome this force in this phase of
the matter. When enough energy is given to the molecules, e.g. by heating it, the matter melts and consequently
becomes a liquid. The molecules gain kinetic energy as a result of added heat and start to move around in an irregular

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pattern. However, the density of liquids and solids, in other words the mean molecular distances at these two phases
do not differ much from each other. When the liquid vaporizes and turns into the gas phase, the density drastically
drops as the molecules starts to move freely between the intermolecular collisions.

Solid Liquid Gas

High density High density Low density

High intermolecular
Low intermolecular
Low intermolecular distance (typical˜0.3 nm) distance (typical˜3
distance (typical˜0.3 nm)
nm)

Highest kinetic
Low kinetic kinetic energy
Higher kinetic energy of molecules kinetic energy of
of molecules
molecules

Molecules oscillates in a Molecules moves

Molecules build lattice forms over only short distances, but
regular lattice freely between
they move in an irregular pattern over longer distance.
arrangement. collisions.

Incompressible Hardly compressible Compressible

Cartoon showing the molecular difference between solids, liquids and gases.

Definition of Fluid
Fluid Mechanics is the study of fluids at rest (fluid statics) and in motion (fluid dynamics).

A fluid is defined as a substance that continually deforms (flows) under an applied shear stress regardless of the
magnitude of the applied stress. Whereas a solid can resist an applied force by static deformation.

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Deformation of a solid and a fluid exposed to an applied force

Liquids, gases, plasmas and, to some extent, plastic

solids are accepted to be fluids. A perfect fluid offers
no internal resistance to change in shape and,
consequently, they take on the shape of their
containers. Liquids form a free surface (that is, a
surface not created by their container) whereas gases
and plasmas do not, but, instead, they expand and
occupy the entire volume of the container.

Fluid at rest

Fluid in motion: Itaipu Dam

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Behavior of liquids, gases and plasmas in a container

Motivation for studying fluid mechanics

The importance of flow phenomena is out of question.
Natural phenomena or technological applications are
completely or partially involves flow phenomena. It can be
met in a diverse range of length of time scales. Atmospheric
flows and blood flows are two examples for this diversity.
As a tool making specie, humankind learned also how to
utilize flow phenomena. Hence, those, who deal with
flowing matter, should be better equipped with theoretical
understanding and capability to use experimental and
numerical investigation tools.

Hurricane Katrina August 28 2005 NASA

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Airbus A380

Historical Background and Future Perspective

Fluid mechanics have played an
important role in human life. Therefore, it
also attracted many curious people. Even
in the ancient Greek history, systematic
theoretical works have been done. The
devlopement of governing equations of
fluid flow started already in the 16th
century. In the 18th and 19th century, the
conservation laws for mass, momentum
and energy was already known in its most
general form. In the 20th century,
developments were in theoretical,
experimental and recently numerical. In
the theoretical field, mostly solutions of
Historical perspective to the developments in the field of fluid
the governing equations for special cases
mechanics[1]
were provided. Experimental methods
have been developed to measure flow
velocities and fluid properties. By the developement of computers , the numerical treatment of fluid mechanical
problems opened new perspectives in research. It is the common blief that in the 21th century, the activities would be
most intensive in the development new experimental and numerical tools and application of those for developing new
technologies.

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Aquaduct (Pont Du Greek ship (Trireme), 7th Helicopter design of

Gard), 7th cent. BC cent. BC Leonardo da Vinci

Basic components of Fluid Mechanics Research

Besides theoretical considerations, experiments and simulations are
heavily used in research. If possible, most productive and accurate
approach is the combination of all three methods. However,
sometimes environmental conditions can be so harsh for any
experimental technique that only theoretical or numerical methods
can be used. For example, it is very hard or almost impossible to
obtain the velocity or temperature distribution in the die casting
mold or in the crucible used for crystal growth, because of very high
temperatures.

Experimental and numerical investigations

conducted on a fast train.

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Simulations for diagnosing crystal growth process.

Viscosity of a Fluid

Deformation of a fluid element

Force applied on a matter creates stresses on it. Stress is simply force per
unit area:

Hence the unit of stress is . There can be normal and shear stresses in and
on the matter.

Shear stress is proportional to the deformation rate of the matter, i.e. strain
rate:
Deformation of a low viscous fluid
under the applied stress.

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is the deformation speed. For very small deformation angles

Deformation of a high viscous

fluid under the applied stress.

is the dynamic viscosity of the fluid.

For the same and fluid having higher viscosity , the deformation rate, i.e. velocity gradient is smaller.

Dynamic viscosity is a thermodynamic property of the material and it depends on temperature and pressure. In
general, viscosity of liquids drop by increasing temperature, whereas that of gases increases. The viscosities of liquids
and gases increase with increasing pressure.

Often dynamic viscosity is normalized by the density of the fluid and this quantity is called “kinematic viscosity”:

One can judge the dominance of inertial effects to viscous effects by using a dimensionless number, namely Reynolds
number:

and are characteristic velocity and length scales of the flow.

Elasticity, viscosity, solid- and liquid-like behavior,

and plasticity
When one tries to deform a piece of material, some of the above properties appear depending on the amplitude and
duration of the applied stress.

Long time application of weak stress: Solids initially deform and then resist to deform. Fluids deform (flow)

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continuously.

Short time application of weak stress: If deformation follows the stress, material is elastic!!!. If deformation
rate follows the stress, material is viscous.

Application of high stress: After a certain stress (yield stress), some

solids start to deform irreversibly. These are called plastic solids. There
are also yield stress fluids, whose threshold stress is much lower than
plastic solids.

Stress and strain (deformation)

relation for a solid substance

Deborah number
A transition from a more resistant (elastic) to a less resistant behavior (viscous) has a relevant characteristic time
scale: the relaxation time of the material. Correspondingly, the ratio of the relaxation time of a material to the
timescale of a deformation is called Deborah number :

Small Deborah numbers correspond to situations where the material has time to relax (and behaves in a viscous
manner), while high Deborah numbers correspond to situations where the material behaves rather elastically.
Water can show elastic behavior when the time scale of deformation becomes very short. For example, when one tries
to jump to water from a height more than 100 meters, water feels like a solid ground at the instant of collision ( do not
try). Corn starch and water mixture (suspension) is a good example with which low and high De number effects
can be shown.

Rheological Material
Fluids can be classified according to the relation between stress and deformation rate . The Newtonian fluids
show a linear relation

Fluids which do not follow the linear law between stress an the deformation rate are called non-newtonian and they
are the subject of rheology. A dilatant (shear-thickening) fluid increases resistance with increasing applied stress.
Alternately, a pseudoplastic (shear-thinning) fluid decreases resistance with increasing stress. If the thinning effect is
very strong, the fluid is termed plastic. The limiting case of a plastic substance is one which requires a finite yield

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stress before it begins to flow. The linear-flow Bingham plastic idealization is shown in the figure, but the flow
behavior after yield may also be nonlinear. Examples of a yielding fluid are toothpaste and ketchup, which will not
flow out of the tube until a finite stress is applied by squeezing.

Some fluids show decreasing (thixotropic) or increasing resistance (rheopectic) in time for the same deformation rate.
For example, pudding is a rheopectic fluid and some paints are thixotropic.

Types of different fluids regarding the change of

the stress in time for constant a strain

Types of different fluids regarding their stress-strain dependence

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Comparison between solids and fluids

Continuum Assumption
In many technical applications, the distance between the
molecules (mean free path) ( ) are much larger than the
molecular diameter. For air, is around .

The molecules are not fixed in a lattice but move about

freely relative to each other. Thus fluid density, or mass per
unit volume, has no precise meaning because the number of
molecules occupying a given volume continually changes. If
the selected unit volume is smaller than the cube of the
mean free path between the molecules, there will be large
Continuum assumption in a fluid flow
scatter in the determination of density, since the molecules
move freely relative to each other, i.e. at one instant the
number of molecules in the unit volume is not constant. This effect becomes unimportant if the unit volume is large
compared with, say, the cube of the molecular spacing, when the number of molecules within the volume will remain
nearly constant in spite of the enormous interchange of particles across the boundaries. In other words, when is
selected such that the selected volume contains in average the number of molecules, the density converges to a level.
The acceptable size of the unit volume for many liquids and gases is about . Over this value, the medium can be
accepted as continuum , such that the variations in space and time can be accepted to be smooth and differential
equations can be written to describe the fluid motion. If, however, the chosen unit volume is too large, there could be a
noticeable variation within the selected volume owing to the non-uniform bulk distribution of molecules caused by
temperature and/or pressure variations in the flow field.

Pressure in a fluid

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Pressure is force per unit area and is a scalar quantity.

In a fluid at rest, the tangential viscous forces are absent and the only force between adjacent surfaces is normal to the
surface. In a resting fluid there is only a normal stress (pressure). In other words, force caused by the pressure on a
surface is normal to that surface.

Balance in x-direction:

Balance in z-direction:

Pressure forces on an infinitesimal fluid element

For an infinitesimal prism, effect of gravity can be neglected.

Interface phenomena and surface tension

Surface tension phenomena occur at the interface of one liquid and another liquid, gas or a solid wall. The cohesive
forces between molecules down into a liquid are shared with all neighboring atoms. Those on the surface have no
neighboring atoms above, and exhibit stronger attractive forces upon their nearest neighbors on the surface. This
enhancement of the intermolecular attractive forces at the surface is called surface tension.

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Examples of interface and surface tension phenomena

Inter molecular attraction in the liquid and

on the liquid surface

If the interface is curved, a mechanical balance shows that there is a pressure difference across the interface, the
pressure being higher on the concave side,

where is the surface tension coefficient. Surface tension coefficient is not a property of the liquid alone,

but a property of the liquid's interface with another medium.

According to the above equation, in the soap bubble or in the droplet, inner pressure is higher than outer pressure.
This can also be shown by a force balance. In the droplet, the force balance in the vertical direction reads

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Similarly, in the soap bubble the force balance becomes

Note that owing to the two interfaces in the soap bubble force due to surface tension is as double as that in the droplet.

Force balance in the bubble

Force balance in the droplet

The contact angle is the angle between the liquid-solid and gas-liquid interfaces. It is calculated such that angle
remains in the liquid. It is dependent on the adhesion forces between the liquid molecules and the solid wall. These
forces are sensitive to the actual physicochemical conditions of the solid-liquid interface.

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Wetting

Definition of contact angle

Saturation pressure and cavitation

Evaporation occurs at the liquid
gas interface. When the vapor
pressure of liquid is less than the
liquid's saturation pressure at the
given liquid temperature, the
evaporation and condensation
occurs at the same time on the
interface.At the liquid solid
interface, at a given temperature,
liquids starts to boil at saturation
pressure.

Cavitation Propeller Damage

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Evaporation and boiling of liquid

Boiling and cavitation shown on the saturation

temperature and pressure diagram of water

Instead of increasing the temperature of the liquid, one can decrease the pressure of the liquid so that it starts to boil,
or so to say cavitates.

One can meet cavitation in nature and in technical application. One known example is the cavitation damage on ship
propellers. An interesting natural occurrence of cavitation was observed while the snapping shrimp hunts [2].

Streamline, streakline, pathline and timeline

Four basic types of line patterns are used to visualize flows:

A streamline is a line everywhere tangent to the velocity vector at a given instant.

A pathline is the actual path traversed by a given fluid particle.
A streakline is the locus of particles which have earlier passed through a prescribed point.
A timeline is a set of fluid particles that form a line at a given instant.
In a steady flow streamlines, streaklines and pathlines are identical.

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Flow visualization around a car done by smoke.

The lines are streaklines.

Laminar and turbulent flows

Laminar flows are:

smooth,
the disturbances are damped via viscous effects,
and they are in general deterministic.
In turbulent flows:

flow and fluid variables show random fluctuations in time and space, i.e. the flow is stochastic
there are eddies of velocity and length scales over a very wide range
Laminar to turbulent transition occurs when the disturbances in the flow can not be damped anymore by viscous
forces. This happens when the inertia of the flow is increased and/or the flow configuration (boundaries, states of the
fluid(s)) causes the generation and/or amplification of very small disturbances. As Reynolds number (Re) is the ratio
of the inertial forces to viscous forces, for different types of flows, over a critical Reynolds number, transition to
turbulence takes place. Below a list of simple but still technically interesting flow cases and critical Reynolds numbers
are listed:

Pipe flow:

Jet flow:

Flow over a flat plate:

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where , are the bulk velocity of the fluid or the velocity of fluid approaching to the plate. , and are
the pipe diameter, jet diameter or the length of the plate. is the displacement thickness.

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Laminar to turbulent transition of a submerged jet

flow.

Compressibility
Ideal Gas law (Equation of State)

: Where R is the gas constant and T is the universal temperature.

Density and volume change:

The Bulk Modulus:

Large values of Ev means that the fluid is relatively incompressible.

Figure: Gas under pressure

Under standard atmospheric conditions:

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for water and

for air. Therefore air is 15000 times more compressible than water.

Liquids can be accepted to be incompressible in many applications. Air can be compressible, especially when there are
large changes of pressure in the flow.

and

Where i = 1,2,3.

Classification of flows
Following chart covers most of the flow phenomena, which might occur in a flow problem. When one deals with a flow
problem, first task is to classify the flow. Correct classification helps to choose the correct and most efficient methods
to deal with this problem.

References
1. Durst, F., "Grundlagen der Strömungsmechanik: Eine Einführung in die Theorie der Strömungen von Fluiden",
Springer,2008.
2. How Snapping Shrimp Snap (and flash)? (http://stilton.tnw.utwente.nl/shrimp/)

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