INTRODUCTION TO FLUID FLOW

DEFITIONS AND TERMINOLOGIES

Fluid
Fluids are divided into liquids and gases. A liquid is hard to compress and as in the ancient saying
‘Water takes the shape of the vessel containing it’, it changes its shape according to the shape of
its container with an upper free surface. Gas on the other hand is easy to compress, and fully
expands to fill its container. There is thus no free surface.

Density, Specific Gravity and Specific Volume

The mass per unit volume of material is called the density, which is generally expressed by the
symbol p. The density of a gas changes according to the pressure, but that of a liquid may be
considered unchangeable in general. The units of density are kg/m3 (SI).

The ratio of the density of a material p to the density of water pw , is called the specific gravity,
which is expressed by the symbol s. The reciprocal of density, i.e. the volume per unit mass, is
called the specific volume, which is generally expressed by the symbol .

Surface Tension
The surface of a liquid is apt to shrink, and its free surface is in such a state where each section
pulls another as if an elastic film is being stretched. The tensile strength per unit length of
assumed section on the free surface is called the surface tension.

PRESSURE GAUGES

Types of Pressure Gauges

Pressure gauges are devices used to measure pressure. All pressure gauges have their own sensing
element, which senses the value of the measured quantity. There are different types of pressure
gauge available, common types available are:

 Diaphragm
 Bellow
 Bourdon tube

Diaphragm
The diaphragm is an elastic membrane that elongates when pressure is applied to it. The
diaphragm is a single sheet which elongate, joining two diaphragm to form a capsule. Two
capsules joining to form a stacked diaphragm.

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Adding more capsules to the diaphragm increases the sensitivity of the gauge. When pressure is
applied to the diaphragm, it flexes. The movement is transmitted by a link that connects to the
pointer. The pointer moves to indicate the amount of pressure applied to the diaphragm. The
diaphragm stays at the original position until a pressure is applied to it.

Bellow
This is another type of stacked diaphragm. The stacked diaphragm is made of several sheets, while
the bellow is made of single sheet. The applied pressure makes the bellows expand. The expansion
causes the bellows to get longer. When pressure is removed, the bellows get shorter. The
movement of the bellows will be transmitted by a link connected to a pointer. The pointer
indicates the pressure applied to the bellows.

The Bourdon Tube

The Bourdon tube is the ‘C’ shaped tube shown in the above figure. When a pressure is applied to
the tube, the tube stretches outwards. The tube end is attached to a pointer using a link. The link-
gear system makes the pointer moves along the scale. The circular motion of the pinion gear
drives the position of the pointer to indicate the amount of pressure applied to the Bourdon tube.

FLOW IN PIPES

Sources of Pressure Loss along a Pipe

In hydraulic engineering practice, it is frequently necessary to estimate the head loss incurred by a
fluid as it flows along a pipeline. For example, it may be desired to predict the rate of flow along a
proposed pipe connecting two reservoirs at different levels. Or it may be necessary to calculate
what additional head would be required to double the rate of flow along an existing pipeline.

Loss of head is incurred by fluid mixing which occurs at fittings such as bends or valves, and by
frictional resistance at the pipe wall. Where there are numerous fittings and the pipe is short, the
major part of the head loss will be due to the local mixing near the fittings. For a long pipeline, on
the other hand, skin friction at the pipe wall will predominate. In the experiment described below,
we investigate the frictional resistance to flow along a long straight pipe with smooth walls.

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Basic Theory
Molecules of fluids exert forces of attraction on each other. In liquids this is strong enough to keep
the mass together but not strong enough to keep it rigid. In gases these forces are very weak and
cannot hold the mass together. When a fluid flows over a surface, the layer next to the surface
may become attached to it (it wets the surface). The layers of fluid above the surface are moving
so there must be shearing taking place between the layers of the fluid.

Each layer moves a distance dx in time dt relative to the layer below it. The ratio dx/dt must be the
change in velocity between layers so du = dx/dt. When any material is deformed sideways by a
(shear) force acting in the same direction, a shear stress τ is produced between the layers and a
corresponding shear strain γ is produced. Shear strain is defined as:

The rate of shear strain is defined as:

It is found that fluids such as water, oil and air, behave in such a manner that the shear stress
between layers is directly proportional to the rate of shear strain.

Fluids that obey this law are called Newtonian Fluids. It is the constant in this formula that we
know as the dynamic viscosity of the fluid.

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The units of dynamic viscosity μ are N s/m2. The symbol η is also commonly used for
dynamic viscosity.

Force Balance and Velocity Distribution

A shear stress τ exists between each layer and this increase by dτ over each layer. The pressure
difference between the downstream end and the upstream end is dp. The pressure change is
needed to overcome the shear stress. The total force on a layer must be zero so balancing forces on
one layer (assumed 1 m wide):

It is normally assumed that the pressure declines uniformly with distance downstream so the
pressure gradient, dp/dL is assumed constant. The minus sign indicates that the pressure falls with
distance. Integrating between the no slip surface (y = 0) and any height y we get:

Integrating twice to solve u we get:

A and B are constants of integration that should be solved based on the known conditions
(boundary conditions). For the flat surface considered in figure 1.1 one boundary condition is that
u = 0 when y = 0 (the no slip surface). Substitution reveals:

0 = 0 +0 +B hence B = 0

At some height δ above the surface, the velocity will reach the mainstream velocity uo. This gives
us the second boundary condition u = uo when y = δ. On substituting, we get:

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The velocity grows from zero at the surface to a maximum at height δ. In theory, the value of δ is
infinity but in practice it is taken as the height needed to obtain 99% of the mainstream velocity.
This layer is called the boundary layer and δ is the boundary layer thickness. It is a very important
concept and is discussed more fully in later work. The inverse gradient of the boundary layer is
du/dy and this is the rate of shear strain γ.

Laminar verses Turbulent Flow

A stream line is an imaginary line with no flow normal to it, only along it. When the flow is
laminar, the streamlines are parallel and for flow between two parallel surfaces we may consider
the flow as made up of parallel laminar layers. In a pipe these laminar layers are cylindrical and
may be called stream tubes. In laminar flow, no mixing occurs between adjacent layers and it
occurs at low average velocities.

The shearing process causes energy loss and heating of the fluid. This increase with mean
velocity. When a certain critical velocity is exceeded, the streamlines break up and mixing of the
fluid occurs. The diagram illustrates Reynolds coloured ribbon experiment. Coloured dye is
injected into a horizontal flow. When the flow is laminar the dye passes along without mixing
with the water. When the speed of the flow is increased turbulence sets in and the dye mixes with
the surrounding water. One explanation of this transition is that it is necessary to change the
pressure loss into other forms of energy such as angular kinetic energy as indicated by small
eddies in the flow.

Laminar and Turbulent Boundary Layers

When the flow within the boundary layer becomes turbulent, the shape of the boundary layers
waivers and when diagrams are drawn of turbulent boundary layers, the mean shape is usually
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shown. Comparing a laminar and turbulent boundary layer reveals that the turbulent layer is
thinner than the laminar layer.

Critical Velocity – Reynold’s Number

When a fluid flows in a pipe at a volumetric flow rate Q m3/s the average velocity is defined
Um = Q/A, where A is the cross sectional area. The Reynolds number is defined as:

Where ν = dynamic viscosity /density (i.e. kinematic viscosity).

ν = μ/ρ
The basic units are m2/s.

If you check the units of Re you will see that there are none and that it is a dimensionless number.
Reynolds discovered that it was possible to predict the velocity or flow rate at which the transition
from laminar to turbulent flow occurred for any Newtonian fluid in any pipe. He also discovered
that the critical velocity at which it changed back again was different. He found that when the
flow was gradually increased, the change from laminar to turbulent always occurred at a Reynolds
number of 2500 and when the flow was gradually reduced it changed back again at a Reynolds
number of 2000. Normally, 2000 is taken as the critical value.

Poiseuille’s Equation for Laminar Flow

Poiseuille did the original derivation which relates pressure loss in a pipe to the velocity and
viscosity for laminar flow. His equation is the basis for measurement of viscosity hence his name
has been used for the unit of viscosity. Consider a pipe with laminar flow in it.

Note!
The basic units for kinematic viscosity are m2/s. The old metric unit was the cm2/s and this was
called the STOKE after the British scientist. The SI unit is related to the Stoke as follows:

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1 Stoke (St) = 0.0001 m2/s and is not an acceptable SI multiple. The centi Stoke (cSt), however, is
0.000001 m2/s and this is an acceptable multiple.

1cSt = 0.000001 m2/s = 1 mm2/s

Example

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