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2D.1 Rolling-Ball Viscometer: DP .12, U (Zy Z) ( ) DZ

1. The rolling-ball viscometer uses a sphere rolling down an inclined tube filled with liquid to determine fluid viscosity. The terminal velocity of the ball is related to viscosity. 2. A force balance equating pressure drop across the tube to gravitational and buoyancy forces on the ball yields an equation relating viscosity to ball velocity, tube dimensions, fluid densities, and gravitational acceleration. 3. The drainage of liquid from a surface over time involves an unsteady mass balance that results in a first-order partial differential equation describing the boundary layer thickness as inversely proportional to the square root of time.

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Arsal Maqbool
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58 views4 pages

2D.1 Rolling-Ball Viscometer: DP .12, U (Zy Z) ( ) DZ

1. The rolling-ball viscometer uses a sphere rolling down an inclined tube filled with liquid to determine fluid viscosity. The terminal velocity of the ball is related to viscosity. 2. A force balance equating pressure drop across the tube to gravitational and buoyancy forces on the ball yields an equation relating viscosity to ball velocity, tube dimensions, fluid densities, and gravitational acceleration. 3. The drainage of liquid from a surface over time involves an unsteady mass balance that results in a first-order partial differential equation describing the boundary layer thickness as inversely proportional to the square root of time.

Uploaded by

Arsal Maqbool
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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2D.

1 Rolling-ball viscometer
The rolling-ball viscometer consists of an inclined tube
containing a sphere whose diameter is but slightly smaller than the
internal diameter of the tube. The fluid viscosity is determined by
observing the speed with which the ball rolls down the tube, when
the latter is filled with liquid. We want to interrelate the viscosity and
the terminal velocity of the rolling ball.
The flow between the sphere and the cylinder can be treated
locally as slit flow (see Problem 2B.3) and hence the only hydro-
dynamic result we need is

dp .12 ,u(zy z) (*)


dz 62
But we must allow the slit width a to vary with 0 and z. From the
figure we see that

where r' = ir 2- Z2 . Solving for a we get

R — r) cos 0 +RAll +[(R — R]2 (— sin2 0)


a = —r' + (

The second term under the square-root sign will be very small for the
tightly fitting sphere-cylinder system and will hence be neglected.
VR2
Furthermore we replace Al r 2 — z2 by , — z2 and add compensating
terms

2 (AIR2 z2
z 2 z2
Vr

R— I R2 —
= (R — r)cos 0 + R —r
R — 1 R2 — R - r) —
z2 + ( (R — r)(z/R)2.•-]
= (R — icos 0 +
R —r
R I R2 — z2
(R — r) (cos 9 + 1) + R r
( A/R2 z2
2 0 -
= 2(R — r) cos +R
2 2 (R — r)

The omission of the term containing (z/R)2 and the higher-order


terms is possible, since the greatest contribution to the viscous drag
occurs at the plane z = 0, and hence less accuracy is required for
regions of larger z. Note that the above result gives correctly o = 0 at
z = 0, 0 = 7r, and o- = 2(R — r) at = 0, 0 = O.
Next we assert that dp/dz will be independent of 0, which is
probably a good approximation. Then according to (*) (vi) must
have the form

(vi) = B(z)o2 (**)


Next, the volume rate of flow across any plane z will be

Q = O vz)o-(9,z)Rd0 = RB(z)f:[o-(0,z)]3c/0

= 8RB(z)(R — r)3 f_lcos2 2 0 + a]3 d0 = 8RB(z)(R — r)3 1(a)


in which a = (R I R2 z2 ) / 2(R r).
The volume rate of flow Q at all cross-sections will be the
same, and its value will be, to a very good approximation Q = 7cR2vo,
where vo is the translational speed of the rolling ball. Equating the
two expressions for Q gives

Combining (*), (**), and (***) we get

The total pressure drop across the slit is then


into which we have to insert dzlda. Virtually no error is introduced by
making the upper limit infinite. From the definition of a

z2 = -4(R - a2 +4R(R -r)a

The first term on the right is smaller than the second, at least for
small z. Then dz = VR(R - r)da / -Vix, and the pressure drop
expression becomes (with 2 = a)

c.dp 1 dp
Op = 2-jR(R - r) Jo — da = 4A1R(R-r)fo
dz -v a —dztg
3717.4voR c. 1 _ 3a,uvoR3/2
= 4-NIR(R - r) 2(R 03 Jo * 2)4 -
2(R - 0512

where

J = 2r 1 - + 2Y12]= 0.531
° *2 ) 3

The pressure drop multiplied by the tube cross-section must,


according to an overall force balance, be equal to the net force acting on
the sphere by gravity and buoyancy

where ps and p are the densities of the sphere and fluid respectively.
Combining the last three results gives the equation for the viscosity

4 R2 (p, p)gsinfl R- r)5/ 2


=
9 7T1 v° R
2D.2 Drainage of liquids
a. The unsteady mass balance is

Divide by pWAz and take the limit as Az --> 0, to get Eq. 2D.2-1.
b. Then use Eq. 2.2-22 to get Eq. 2D.2-1:

which is a first-order partial differential equation.


c. First let A = Jpglµ , so that the equation in (b) becomes:

ao = 6,2 ao
dt dz

Inspection of the equation suggests that A = -Vz/t, which can be seen to


satisfy the differential equation exactly. Therefore Eq. 2D.2-3
follows at once. This equation has a reasonable form, since for long
times the boundary layer is thin, whereas for short times the
boundary layer is thick.

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