Reynolds transport theorem

Dr. Yuan Jing, Assistant Professor

1. System and Control volume

To study fluid mechanics, we want to apply fundamental physical laws (e.g. Newton’s second
law) which are described by a set of equations. There are two ways that these governing laws can
be applied to a fluid, including the system approach and the control volume approach.

A system is a collection of matter of fixed identity (always the same atoms or fluid particles). A
system is a specific, identifiable quantity of matter. It may consist of a relatively large amount of
mass (such as all of the air in the earth’s atmosphere), or it may be an infinitesimal size (such as
a single fluid particle). In any case, the molecules making up the system are “tagged” in some
fashion (dyed red, either actually or only in your mind) so that they can be continually identified
as they move about. The system may interact with its surroundings by various means (by the
transfer of heat or the exertion of a pressure force, for example). It may continually change size
and shape, but it always contains the same mass. One of the important concepts used in the study
of statics and dynamics is that of the free-body diagram. That is, we identify an object, isolate it
from its surroundings, replace its surroundings by the equivalent actions that they put on the
object, and apply Newton’s laws of motion. The body in such cases is our system, i.e. an
identified portion of matter that we follow during its interactions with its surroundings.

In fluid mechanics, it is often quite difficult to identify and keep track of a specific quantity of
matter. A finite portion of a fluid contains an uncountable number of fluid particles that move
about quite freely, unlike a solid that may deform but usually remains relatively easy to identify.
For example, we cannot as easily follow a specific portion of water flowing in a river as we can
follow a branch floating on its surface. We may often be more interested in determining the
forces put on a fan, airplane, or automobile by air flowing past the object than we are in the
information obtained by following a given portion of the air (a system) as it flows along. For
example, we may be more interested in determining the thrust on the rocket body than the
information obtained by following the highly complex, irregular path of the exhaust plume. For
these situations we often use the control volume approach.
A control volume, on the other hand, is a volume in space formed by a closed boundary through
which fluid may flow. We identify a specific volume in space (volume associated with the fan,
airplane, or automobile, for example) and analyze the fluid flow within, through, or around that
volume. In general, the control volume can be a moving volume, although for most situations
considered in this module we will use only fixed control volumes. The matter within a control
volume may change with time as the fluid flows through it. Similarly, the amount of mass within
the volume may change with time. The control volume itself is a specific geometric entity,
independent of the flowing fluid.

A good example showing the difference between a control volume and a system is a fire
extinguisher. Here we can define the inner surface of the shell of the extinguisher plus a virtual
plane surface covering the nozzle as a fixed control volume. The system is all the fluid within
this control volume. When the extinguisher is not in use, the boundary of the control volume is
the same as the boundary of the system. From the moment of opening the nozzle, fluids shoot out
of the fixed control volume, so the boundary of the system extend outside the nozzle and keeps
extending as the fluid moving away from the nozzle. Apparently, the mass of the system is
conserved, but the mass of the control volume keeps reducing. However, the boundary of the
system is very difficult to study.

In many ways the relationship between a system and a control volume is similar to the
relationship between the Lagrangian and Eulerian flow descriptions. In the system or Lagrangian
description, we follow the fluid and observe its behavior as it moves about. In the control volume
or Eulerian description we remain stationary and observe the fluid’s behavior at a fixed location
or a certain region. All of the laws governing the motion of a fluid are stated in their basic form
in terms of a system approach. For example, “the mass of a system remains constant,” or “the
time rate of change of momentum of a system is equal to the sum of all the forces acting on the
system.” Note the word system, not control volume, is used in these statements. To use the
fundamental laws in a control volume approach, we must rephrase the laws in an appropriate
manner. To this end we introduce the Reynolds transport theorem in the following section.

2. Reynolds transport theorem

Here we use a very simple case to illustrate the concept of the Reynolds transport theorem. As
shown in Figure 1, we define a rectangular fixed control volume BCED within a 2-dimensional
flow. The top and bottom boundaries of the CV (BC and ED) are two streamlines. We also
define all the particles within BCED at the instant t as a system. Thus the surface of the
control volume (often called the control surface or CS) and the surface of the system (Ssys) are the
same at the instant t:

CS  S sys

Assuming that we want to study an extensive physical property B of the system, i.e. momentum,
and B at the instant t can be given by integrating the corresponding intensity property b over the
volume of the system:

Bsys (t )   bdV (1)

Here b is defined as “B per unit volume”. Many physical laws require determine the rate of
change, e.g. Newton’s second law requires the rate of change of momentum, so we want to
determine the rate of change of B in the control volume approach.

In Figure 1, the fluid particles within the system move a bit downstream after a short time
interval Δt, and the new boundary of the system is B’C’E’D’, so:

DBsys Bsys (t  t )  Bsys (t )

where:

Bsys (t )   b(t )dV ,

b
Bsys (t  t )   b(t  t )dV   [b(t )  t ]dV
Vsys ( t t ) Vsys ( t t ) t

The area BB’E’E is given by:

Vin   q dAt
Ain

which is the volume of fluid flow through the inflow boundary BE of the control volume.
Similarly, the area CC’D’D is just the volume of fluid flow through the outflow boundary CD of
the control volume:

Vout   q dAt
Aout
We can easily see that:

VB 'C ' D ' E '  CV  Vin  Vout

Thus, Bsys at t=t+Δt can be written as:

b
Bsys (t  t )   [b(t )  t ]dV
Vsys ( t t ) t
b b b
  [b(t )  t ]dV   [b(t )  t ]dV   [b(t )  t ]dV
CV t Vout t Vin t
(3)
b
  [b(t )  t ]dV   b(t )dV   b(t )dV  (t 2 terms)
CV t Vout Vin

b
 Bsys (t )   tdV   b(t )dV   b(t )dV
CV t Vout Vin

The last two terms of Eq. (3) can be evaluated as:

 Vin
b(t )dV   b( q t )dA   bq dA  t
Ain Ain

 Vout
b(t )dV  
Aout
b(q t )dA  
Aout
bq dA  t

Thus:

b
B (t  t )  B (t )   dV  t   bq dA  t   bq dA  t (4)
CV t Ain Aout

Substitute Eq. (4) into Eq. (2), we can get:

DB 
Dt t CV
 bdV   bq dA   bq dA (5)
Ain Aout

The time derivative can be taken out of the integral for the first term on the left-hand side since
the control volume is fixed in space for this particular case.
 Figure 1 Reynolds transport theorem

The physical meaning of Eq. (5) is as follows. [The rate of change of B for a system that
occupies the same space as the control volume] IS EQUAL TO [the rate of change of B within
the control volume] MINUS [the rate of inflow of B into the control volume through inflow
boundaries] PLUS [the rate of outflow of B from the control volume through outflow
boundaries]:

DB B
( ) system  [  Bin  Bout ]CV (6)
Dt t

This is for the very simple example in Figure 1. For complex flow, we may identify many inflow
and outflow areas, so we need to apply summation operators to the last two terms of Eq. (6). As
you know, the summation can also be expressed as an integral. The minus and plus signs for the
inflow and outflow terms can be taken care of by using concept of vectors, so:
 
[ Bin  Bout ]CV   b(q  n )dA
CS

Thus, Eq. (6) can be written as:

DB   
  bdV   b(q  n )dA (7)
Dt t CV CS

The right-hand side is the rate of change of bulk property B of a system occupies the space of
the control volume. The left-hand side is the rate of change of B within the control volume plus
the net influx of this property through the surfaces of the control volume. This is the general
form for the Reynolds transport theorem. It enables us to express the rate of change for a system
using the control volume approach.

3. Conservation laws for mass and volume

Here we consider two simple applications of the Reynolds transport theorem, i.e. the
conservation of mass and volume. Both laws must be based on a system.

The mass of a system should be conserved, i.e. D(Mass)/Dt=0. Mass is represented by density ρ,
so we can replace b in Eq. (7)with ρ to get:

  
t CV
 dV    (q  n )dA  0
CS
(8)

For incompressible fluid, the volume is conserved, i.e. D(Volume)/Dt=0.. We can replace b in Eq.
(7)with 1 to get:

VCV  
  (q  n )dA  0 (9)
t CS

Eq. (8) and (9) are just the two equations we obtained in the lecture note titled “nature of
conservation laws”.