Physics Lec.

Introduction to Fluid Mechanics

Mechanics is the oldest physical science that deals with both stationary and
moving bodies under the influence of forces.

The branch of mechanics that deals with bodies at rest is called statics, while the
branch that deals with bodies in motion under the action of forces is called
dynamics.

The subcategory fluid mechanics is defined as the science that deals with the
behavior of fluids at rest (fluid statics) or in motion (fluid dynamics), and the
interaction of fluids with solids or other fluids at the boundaries.

Fluid mechanics is also referred to as fluid dynamics by considering fluids at

rest as a special case of motion with zero velocity

What Is a Fluid?

A substance exists in three primary phases: solid, liquid, and gas. (At very high
temperatures, it also exists as plasma.)

A substance in the liquid or gas phase is referred to as a fluid.

4-1 CLASSIFICATION OF FLUID FLOWS

1) Viscous versus Inviscid Regions of Flow

Flows in which the frictional effects are significant are called viscous flows

Flows in which the viscous forces are negligibly small compared to inertial or
pressure forces are called inviscid flow.

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2) Internal versus External Flow

A fluid flow is classified as being internal or external, depending on whether

the fluid flows in a confined space or over a surface.

The flow of an unbounded fluid over a surface such as a plate, a wire, or a pipe
is external flow.

The flow in a pipe or duct is internal flow if the fluid is bounded by solid
surfaces.

Internal flows are dominated by the influence of viscosity throughout the flow
field. In external flows the viscous effects are limited to boundary layers near
solid surfaces and to wake regions downstream of bodies.

3) Compressible versus Incompressible Flow

A flow is classified as being compressible or incompressible, depending on the

level of variation of density during flow. Incompressibility is an approximation,
in which the flow is said to be incompressible if the density remains nearly
constant throughout.

When analyzing rockets, spacecraft, and other systems that involve high speed
gas flows, the flow speed is often expressed in terms of the dimensionless Mach
number defined as

where c is the speed of sound whose value is 346 m/s in air at room temperature
at sea level. A flow is called sonic when Ma = 1, subsonic when Ma < 1,
supersonic when Ma > 1, and hypersonic when Ma ≫ 1.

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 Liquid flows are incompressible to a high level of accuracy.

 Gas flows can often be approximated as incompressible if the density
changes are under about 5 percent, which is usually the case when Ma < 0.3.
Therefore, the compressibility effects of air at room temperature can be
neglected at speeds under about 100 m/s. Compressibility effects should
never be neglected for supersonic flows, however, since compressible flow
phenomena like shock waves occur.

4) Laminar versus Turbulent Flow

The highly ordered fluid motion characterized by smooth layers of fluid is called
laminar.

The flow of high-viscosity fluids such as oils at low velocities is typically

laminar.

The highly disordered fluid motion that typically occurs at high velocities and is
characterized by velocity fluctuations is called turbulent.

The flow of low-viscosity fluids such as air at high velocities is typically

turbulent.

A flow that alternates between being laminar and turbulent is called

transitional.

5) Natural (or Unforced) versus Forced Flow

A fluid flow is said to be natural or forced, depending on how the fluid motion is
initiated.

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In forced flow, a fluid is forced to flow over a surface or in a pipe by external

means such as a pump or a fan.

In natural flows, fluid motion is due to natural means such as the buoyancy
effect, which manifests itself as the rise of warmer (and thus lighter) fluid and
the fall of cooler (and thus denser) fluid.

6) Steady versus Unsteady Flow

The term steady implies no change of properties, velocity, temperature, etc., at

a point with time. The opposite of steady is unsteady.

The term uniform implies no change with location over a specified region.

7) One-, Two-, and Three-Dimensional Flows

A flow field is best characterized by its velocity distribution, and thus a flow is
said to be one-, two-, or three-dimensional if the flow velocity varies in one, two,
or three primary dimensions, respectively.

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4-2 VISCOSITY

there is a property that represents the internal resistance of a fluid to motion or

the “fluidity,” and that property is the viscosity.

The force a flowing fluid exerts on a body in the flow direction is called the
drag force, and the magnitude of this force depends, in part, on viscosity.

To obtain a relation for viscosity, consider a fluid layer between two very large
parallel plates (or equivalently, two parallel plates immersed in a large body of a
fluid) separated by a distance 𝓁 (Fig. 2–24). Now a constant parallel force F is
applied to the upper plate while the lower plate is held fixed.

After the initial transients, it is observed that the upper plate moves continuously
under the influence of this force at a constant speed V. The fluid in contact with
the upper plate sticks to the plate surface and moves with it at the same speed,
and the shear stress acting on this fluid layer is

where A is the contact area between the plate and the fluid. Note that the fluid
layer deforms continuously under the influence of shear stress.

The fluid in contact with the lower plate assumes the velocity of that plate,
which is zero (because of the no-slip condition). In steady laminar flow, the

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fluid velocity between the plates varies linearly between 0 and V, and thus the
velocity profile and the velocity gradient are

During a differential time interval dt, the sides of fluid particles along a vertical
line MN rotate through a differential angle d𝛽 while the upper plate moves a
differential distance da = V dt. The angular displacement or deformation (or
shear strain) can be expressed as

Rearranging, the rate of deformation under the influence of shear stress

becomes

Further, it can be verified experimentally that for most fluids the rate of
deformation (and thus the velocity gradient) is directly proportional to the shear
stress

Fluids for which the rate of deformation is linearly proportional to the shear
stress are called Newtonian fluids after Sir Isaac Newton, who expressed it first
in 1687. Most common fluids such as water, air, gasoline, and oils are
Newtonian fluids. Blood and liquid plastics are examples of non-Newtonian
fluids.

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In one-dimensional shear flow of Newtonian fluids, shear stress can be

expressed by the linear relationship

where the constant of proportionality 𝜇 is called the coefficient of viscosity or

the dynamic (or absolute) viscosity of the fluid, whose unit is kg/m.s, or
equivalently, N.s/m2

A common viscosity unit is poise, which is equivalent to 0.1 N.s/m2

In fluid mechanics and heat transfer, the ratio of dynamic viscosity to density
appears frequently. For convenience, this ratio is given the name kinematic
viscosity ν and is expressed as ν = 𝜇/𝜌. Two common units of kinematic
viscosity are m2/s and stoke (1 stoke = 1 cm2/s = 0.0001 m2/s).

Viscosity is caused by the cohesive forces between the molecules in liquids and
by the molecular collisions in gases, and it varies greatly with temperature. The

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viscosity of liquids decreases with temperature, whereas the viscosity of gases

increases with temperature (Fig. 2–28). This is because in a liquid the molecules
possess more energy at higher temperatures, and they can oppose the large
cohesive intermolecular forces more strongly. As a result, the energized liquid
molecules can move more freely.

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