MTH624 Official Handouts

1-What is Fluid

Before discussing fluids let’s first discuss phases of matter. Matter around us exists in three phases, excluding plasma. Plasma is superheated matter – so hot that the electrons are ripped away from the atoms forming an ionized gas. There three phases of matter are

1. Solid
2. Liquid
3. Gas

From the above three phases, liquid and gas are combinedly known as fluids.

The main difference between fluids and solids lies in their ability to resist shear stresses.

Let’s understand fluids with their definition.

When a constant shear force is applied, a solid eventually stops deforming, whereas a fluid never

stops deforming and approaches a constant rate of strain

2-Application Areas of Fluid Mechanics

It is important to develop a good understanding of the basic principles of fluid mechanics, since fluid mechanics is widely used both in everyday activities and in the design of modern engineering systems from vacuum cleaners to supersonic aircraft. For example, fluid mechanics plays a vital role in the human body. The heart is constantly pumping blood to all parts of the human body through the arteries and veins, and the lungs are the sites of airflow in alternating directions. All artificial hearts, breathing machines, and dialysis systems are designed using fluid dynamics.

An ordinary house is, in some respects, an exhibition hall filled with applications of fluid mechanics. The piping systems for water, natural gas, and sewage for an individual house and the entire city are designed primarily on the basis of fluid mechanics. The same is also true for the piping and ducting network of heating and air-conditioning systems. A refrigerator involves tubes through which the refrigerant flows, a compressor that pressurizes the refrigerant, and two heat exchangers where the refrigerant absorbs and rejects heat. Fluid mechanics plays a major role in the design of all these components. Even the operation of ordinary faucets is based on fluid mechanics.

3-No Slip Condition

Fluid flow is often confined by solid surfaces, and it is important to understand how the presence of solid surfaces affects fluid flow. We know that water in a river cannot flow through large rocks, and must go around them. That is, the water velocity normal to the rock surface must be zero, and water approaching the surface normally comes to a complete stop at the surface. What is not as obvious is that water approaching the rock at any angle also comes to a complete stop at the rock surface, and thus the tangential velocity of water at the surface is also zero.

Consider the flow of a fluid in a stationary pipe or over a solid surface that is nonporous (i.e., impermeable to the fluid). All experimental observations indicate that a fluid in motion comes to a complete stop at the surface and assumes a zero velocity relative to the surface. That is, a fluid in direct contact with a solid “sticks” to the surface, and there is no slip. This is known as the no-slip condition. The fluid property responsible for the noslip condition and the development of the boundary layer is viscosity.

One of the first engineering problems humankind faced as cities were developed was the supply of water for domestic use and irrigation of crops. Our urban lifestyles can be retained only with abundant water, and it is clear from archeology that every successful civilization of prehistory invested in the construction and maintenance of water systems. The Roman aqueducts, some of which are still in use, are the best known examples. However, perhaps the most impressive engineering from a technical viewpoint was done at the Hellenistic city of Pergamon in present-day Turkey. There, from 283 to 133 bc, they built a series of pressurized lead and clay pipelines, up to 45 km long that operated at pressures exceeding 1.7 MPa (180 m of head). Unfortunately, the names of almost all these early builders are lost to history.

The earliest recognized contribution to fluid mechanics theory was made by the Greek mathematician Archimedes (285–212 bc). He formulated and applied the buoyancy principle in history’s first nondestructive test to determine the gold content of the crown of King Hiero II. During the Middle Ages, the application of fluid machinery slowly but steadily expanded. Elegant piston pumps were developed for dewatering mines, and the watermill and windmill were perfected to grind grain, forge metal, and for other tasks.

The Renaissance brought continued development of fluid systems and machines, but more importantly, the scientific method was perfected and adopted throughout Europe. Simon Stevin (1548–1617), Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), Edme Mariotte (1620–1684), and Evangelista Torricelli (1608–1647) were among the first to apply the method to fluids as they investigated hydrostatic pressure distributions and vacuums. That work was integrated and refined by the brilliant mathematician and philosopher, Blaise Pascal (1623–1662). The Italian monk, Benedetto Castelli (1577– 1644) was the first person to publish a statement of the continuity principle for fluids. Besides formulating his equations of motion for solids, Sir Isaac Newton (1643–1727) applied his laws to fluids and explored fluid inertia and resistance, free jets, and viscosity. That effort was built upon by Daniel Bernoulli (1700–1782), a Swiss, and his associate Leonard Euler (1707– 1783). Together, their work defined the energy and momentum equations. Bernoulli’s 1738 classic treatise Hydrodynamica may be considered the first fluid mechanics text. Finally, Jean d’Alembert (1717– 1789) developed the idea of velocity and acceleration components, a differential expression of continuity, and his “paradox” of zero resistance to steady uniform motion over a body. By the mid nineteenth century, fundamental advances were coming on several fronts. The physician Jean Poiseuille (1799–1869) had accurately measured flow in capillary tubes for multiple fluids, while in Germany Gotthilf Hagen (1797–1884) had differentiated between laminar and turbulent flow in pipes. In England, Lord Osborne Reynolds (1842–1912) continued that work and developed the dimensionless number that bears his name. Similarly, in parallel to the early work of Navier, George Stokes (1819–1903) completed the general equation of fluid motion (with friction) that takes their names. William Froude (1810–1879) almost singlehandedly developed the procedures and proved the value of physical model testing. American expertise had become equal to the Europeans as demonstrated by James Francis’ (1815–1892) and Lester Pelton’s (1829–1908) pioneering work in turbines and Clemens Herschel’s (1842– 1930) invention of the Venturi meter. In addition to Reynolds and Stokes, many notable contributions were made to fluid theory in the late nineteenth century by Irish and English scientists, including William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (1824–1907), William Strutt, Lord Rayleigh (1842–1919), and Sir Horace Lamb (1849–1934). These individuals investigated a large number of problems, including dimensional analysis, irrotational flow, vortex motion, cavitation, and waves. In a broader sense, their work also explored the links between fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and heat transfer. The dawn of the twentieth century brought two monumental developments. First, in 1903, the self-taught Wright brothers (Wilbur, 1867–1912; Orville, 1871–1948) invented the airplane through application of theory and determined experimentation. Their primitive invention was complete and contained all the major aspects of modern aircraft.

The Navier–Stokes equations were of little use up to this time because they were too difficult to solve. In a pioneering paper in 1904, the German Ludwig Prandtl (1875–1953) showed that fluid flows can be divided into a layer near the walls, the boundary layer, where the friction effects are significant, and an outer layer where such effects are negligible and the simplified Euler and Bernoulli equations are applicable. His students, Theodor von Kármán (1881–1963), Paul Blasius (1883–1970), Johann Nikuradse (1894–1979), and others, built on that theory in both hydraulic and aerodynamic applications.

7-CLASSIFICATION OF FLUID FLOWS

There is a wide variety of fluid flow problems encountered in practice, and it is usually convenient to classify them on the basis of some common characteristics to make it feasible to study them in groups. There are many ways to classify fluid flow problems, and here we will learn some general categories.

Viscous versus Inviscid Regions of Flow

When two fluid layers move relative to each other, a friction force develops between them and the slower layer tries to slow down the faster layer. This internal resistance to flow is quantified by the fluid property viscosity, which is a measure of internal stickiness of the fluid. Viscosity is caused by cohesive forces between the molecules in liquids and by molecular collisions in gases. There is no fluid with zero viscosity, and thus all fluid flows involve viscous effects to some degree. Flows in which the frictional effects are significant are called viscous flows. However, in many flows of practical interest, there are regions (typically regions not close to solid