ENSC283

IntroductionandPropertiesof
Fluids

Spring2009

Preparedby:
M.Bahrami
MechatronicsSystemEngineering,SchoolofEngineeringandSciences,SFU

Introduction
Afluidcannotresistashearstressbyastaticdeflectionanditmovesanddeformscontinuouslyaslong
astheshearstressisapplied.
Fluid mechanics is the study of fluids either in motion (fluid dynamics) or at rest (fluid statics). Both
liquidsandgasesareclassifiedasfluids.
Thereisatheoryavailableforfluidflowproblems,butinallcasesitshouldbebackedupbyexperiment.
Itisahighlyvisualsubjectwithgoodinstrumentation.
Sincetheearthis75%coveredwithwaterand100%withair,thescopeoffluidmechanicsisvastand
has numerous applications in engineering and human activities. Examples are medical studies of
breathingandbloodflow,oceanography,hydrology,energygeneration.Otherengineeringapplications
include:fans,turbines,pumps,missiles,airplanestonameafew.
Thebasicequationsoffluidmotionaretoodifficulttoapplytoarbitrarygeometricconfigurations.Thus
mosttextbooksconcentrateonflatplates,circularpipes,andothersimplegeometries.Itispossibleto
apply numerical techniques to complex geometries, this branch of fluid mechanics is called
computationalfluidmechanics(CFD).Ourfocus,however,willbeontheoreticalapproachinthiscourse.
Viscosityisaninternalpropertyofafluidthatoffersresistancetoflow.Viscosityincreasesthedifficulty
ofthebasicequations.Italsohasadestabilizingeffectandgivesrisetodisorderly,randomphenomena
calledturbulence.

Fig.1:effectsofviscosityandshapeonthefluidflow.

Historyoffluidmechanics
Ancient civilization had enough knowledge to solve certain flow problems,e.g. sailing ships with oars,
irrigationsystems.
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Archimedes (285 212 B.C.) postulated the parallelogram law for addition of vectors and the laws of
buoyancyandappliedthemtofloatingandsubmergedobjects.
LeonardodaVinci(14521519)statedtheequationofconservationofmassinonedimensionalsteady
stateflow.Heexperimentedwithwaves,jets,hydraulicjumps,eddyformation,etc.
EdmeMariotte(16201684)builtthefirstwindtunnelandtestedmodelsinit.
IsaacNewton(16421727)postulatedhislawsofmotionandthelawofviscosityoflinearfluids,now
called newtonian. The theory first yield the frictionless assumption which led to several beautiful
mathematicalsolutions.
Leonhard Euler (1707 1783) developed both the differential equations of motion and their integral
form,nowcalledBernoulliequation.
WilliamFroude(18101879)andhissondevelopedlawsofmodeltestingandLordRayleigh(1842
1919)proposeddimensionalanalysis.
OsborneReynolds(18421912)publishedtheclassicpipeexperimentandshowedtheimportanceof
thedimensionlessReynoldsnumber,namedafterhim.
Navier (1785 1836) and Stokes (1819 1903) added newtonian viscous term to the equation of
motion,thefluidmotiongoverningequation,i.e.,NavierStokesequationisnamedafterthem.
LudwigPrandtl(18751953)pointedoutthatfluidflowswithsmallviscosity,suchaswaterflowsand
airflows,canbedividedintoathinviscouslayer(orboundarylayer)nearsolidsurfacesandinterfaces,
patchedontoanearlyinviscidouterlayer,wheretheEulerandBernoulliequationsapply.

Fig.2:Theconceptofboundarylayer.

Theconceptoffluid
Therearetwoclassesoffluids:
Liquids: are composed of relatively closepacked molecules with strong cohesive forces. Liquids have
constant volume (almost incompressible) and will form a free surface in a gravitational field if
unconfinedfromabove.

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Gases: molecules are widely spaced with negligible cohesive forces. A gas is free to expand until it
encounters confining walls. A gas has no definite volume, and it forms an atmosphere when it is not
confined.Gravitationaleffectsarerarelyconcerned.
Liquidsandgasescancoexistintwophasemixturessuchassteamwatermixtures.
Wecan definefluid propertiesand parameters,ascontinuouspointfunctions,ONLYifthe continuum
approximation is made. This requires that the physical dimensions are large compared to the fluid
molecules.
Thefluiddensityisdefinedas:
lim

isalimitingvolumeabovewhichmolecularvariationsarenotimportant,thisvolumefor
wherethe
allliquidsandgasesisabout109mm3.

Dimensionsandunits
Any physical quantity can be characterized by dimensions. The arbitrary magnitudes assigned to the
dimensionsarecalledunits.Therearetwotypesofdimensions,primaryorfundamentalandsecondary
or derived dimensions. Some primary dimensions are: mass, m; length, L; time, t; temperature, T.
Secondarydimensionsaretheonesthatcanbederivedfromprimarydimensionssuchas:velocity(m/s),
pressure(Pa=kg/m.s2).
There are two unit systems currently available SI (International System) and USCS (United States
Customary System) or English system. We, however, will use SI units exclusively in this course. The SI
system is based on 7 fundamental units: length, meter (m); mass, kilogram (kg); time, second (s);
electriccurrent,ampere(A);amountoflight,candela(cd);amountofmatter,mole(mol).
TheSIunitsarebasedondecimalrelationshipbetweenunits.Theprefixesusedtoexpressthemultiples
ofthevariousunitsarelistedinTable1.
Table1:StandardprefixesinSIunits.
MULTIPLE

1012

109

106

103

102

103

106

109

1012

PREFIX

tetra,T

giga,G

mega,M

kilo,k

centi,c

mili,m

micro,

nano,n

pico,p

Importantnote:inengineeringallequationsmustbedimensionallyhomogenous.Thismeansthatevery
terminanequationmusthavethesameunits.Itcanbeusedasasanitycheckforyoursolution.
Example1:UnitConversion
The heat dissipation rate density of an electronic device is reported as 10.72 mW/mm2 by the
manufacturer.ConvertthistoW/m2.

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10.72

mW 1000mm
1W
W
10720 2

2
mm 1m 1000mW
m

EulerianandLagrangianPointofView
Therearetwodifferentpointsofviewinanalyzingproblemsinmechanics.
IntheEulerianpointofview,thedynamicbehaviorofthefluidisstudiedfromafixedpointinspace.
Therefore, fluid properties and parameters are computed as filed functions, e.g. p(x,y,z,t). Most
measurementdevicesworkbasedonEulerianmethod.
ThesystemconceptrepresentsaLagrangianpointofviewwherethedynamicbehaviorofafluidparticle
isconsidered.TostimulateaLagrangianmeasurement,theprobewouldhavetomovedownstreamat
thefluidparticlespeed.

Fluidvelocityfield
Velocity: the rate of change of fluid position at a point in a flow field. Velocity in general is a vector
functionofpositionandtime,thushasthreecomponentsu,v,andw,eachascalarfieldinitself:
, , ,

, , ,

, , ,

, , ,

Velocityisusedtospecifyflowfiledcharacteristics,flowrate,momentum,andviscouseffectsforafluid
inmotion.Furthermore,velocityfieldmustbeknowntosolveheatandmasstransferproblems.

Thermodynamicpropertiesofafluid
Anycharacteristicofasystemiscalledaproperty.Inthiscourse,thefluidisassumedtobeacontinuum,
homogenous matter with no microscopic holes. This assumption holds as long as the volumes, and
lengthscalesarelargewithrespecttotheintermolecularspacing.
Thermodynamicpropertiesdescribethestateofasystem.
Systemisdefinedasacollectionofmatteroffixedidentitythatinteractswithitssurroundings.
For a singlephase substance such as water or oxygen, two basic (independent) properties such as
pressureandtemperaturecanidentifythestateofasystem;andthusthevalueofallotherproperties.
Note:Inthiscourse,importantnonequilibriumeffectssuchaschemical,nuclear,andmagneticeffects
areneglected.

Temperature
Temperatureisameasureoftheinternalenergy,itisalsoapointerforthedirectionofenergytransfer
asheat.

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Fig.3:Heattransferoccursinthedirectionofhighertolowertemperature.
When the temperatures of two bodies are the same, thermal equilibrium is reached. The equality of
temperatureistheonlyrequirementforthermalequilibrium.
Experimentally obtained Temperature Scales, the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales, are based on the
meltingandboilingpointsofwater.Theyarealsocalledtwopointscales.
Conventionalthermometrydependsonmaterialpropertiese.g.mercuryexpandswithtemperatureina
repeatableandpredictableway.
Thermodynamic Temperature Scales (independent of the material), the Kelvin and Rankine scales, are
determinedusingaconstantvolumegasthermometer.Therelationshipsbetweenthesescalesare:

273.15

459.67
1.8

1.8

32

Pressure
Pressureisthe(compression)forceexertedbyafluidperunitarea.

Influids,gasesandliquids,wespeakofpressure;insolidsthisisnormalstress.Forafluidatrest,the
pressureatagivenpointisthesameinalldirections.
Differencesorgradientsinpressuredriveafluidflow,especiallyinductsandpipes.

Density
Thedensityofafluidisitsmassperunitvolume:

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Liquidsareessentiallyincompressible,whereasdensityishighlyvariableingasesnearlyproportionalto
the pressure. In general, liquids are approximately 3 orders of magnitude denser than gases at
atmosphericpressure.
@20C,1atm Air

1.20

Water
998

Hydrogen
0.0838

Mercury
13,580

Note:specificvolumeisdefinedas:
1

Specificweight
Thespecific weightofafluid isitsweight,
relatedbygravity:

,perunitvolume.Densityandspecificweightare

Specificgravity
Specific gravity is the ratio of a fluid density to a standard reference fluid, typically water at 4C (for
liquids)andair(forgases):
1.205

1000

Forexample,thespecificgravityofmercuryisSGHg=13,580/1000 13.6.

Energyandspecificheats
Potentialenergyistheworkrequiredtomovethesystemofmassmfromtheorigintoapositionagainst
agravityfieldg:

KineticenergyistheworkrequiredtochangethespeedofthemassfromzerotovelocityV.
1
2

Thetotalenergy,E,ofasubstanceisthesumoftheinternal,kinetic,andpotentialenergiesatagiven
statepoint:

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Note: the molecular internal energy u is a function of temperature and pressure for the singlephase
substance,whereasKEandPEarekinematicquantities.
Specificheatcapacity,alsoknownsimplyasspecificheat,isthemeasureoftheheatenergyrequiredto
increasethetemperatureofaunitmassofasubstancebyonedegreetemperature.Therearetwotypes
ofspecificheats,constantvolumecvandconstantpressurecp.

Theidealgasequationofstate
Any equation that relates the pressure, temperature, and specific volume of a substance is called an
equationofstate.Thesimplestandbestknownequationofstateforsubstancesinthegasphaseisthe
idealgasequationofstate.
It is experimentally observed that at a low pressure the volume of a gas is proportional to its
temperature:
1

or

whereRuisthegasuniversalconstant,Ru=8.314(kJ/kmol.K).Theidealgasequationcanbewrittenas
follows:

TheconstantRisdifferentforeachgas;forair,Rair=0.287kJ/kg.K.ThemolecularweightofairM=28.97
kg/kmol.
isthegasconstantandcpandcvarespecificheatconstants.
Foranidealgas,theinternalenergyisonlyafunctionoftemperature;
specificheatisonlyafunctionoftemperature:

;thusconstantvolume

or,

Enthalpy,anotherthermodynamicproperty,isrelatedtointernalenergy:

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Theconstantpressurespecificheatcanbedefinedas:

or,

Theratioofspecificheatsofaperfectgasisanimportantdimensionlessparameterincompressibleflow
analysis:
1
Forair,kair=1.4atatmosphericconditions.

Incompressiblefluid
Liquidsare(almost)incompressibleandthushaveasingleconstantspecificheat:

Viscosity
Viscosityisameasureofafluidsresistancetoflow.Itdeterminesthefluidstrainratethatisgenerated
byagivenappliedshearstress.
y

Velocity
profile

u(y)

Noslipatwall

Fig.4:Velocityprofileandshearstress.
ANewtonianfluidhasalinearrelationshipbetweenshearstressandvelocitygradient:

Theshearstressisproportionaltotheslopeofthevelocityprofileandisgreatestatthewall.

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Thenoslipcondition:atthewallvelocityiszerorelativetothewall.Thisisacharacteristicofallviscous
fluid.
. /

Thelinearitycoefficientintheequationisthecoefficientofviscosity,

.Someexamples:
kinematicviscosity
9.0
0.20

1.8

1.0

.Wecanalsousethe

Temperaturehasastrongandpressurehasamoderateeffectonviscosity.Theviscosityofgasesand
mostliquidsincreasesslowlywithpressure.
Gasviscosityincreaseswithtemperature.Twocommonapproximationsarethepowerlawandthe
Sutherlandlaw:

where isaknownviscosityataknownabsolutetemperatureusually273K(notethatKelvin
temperaturescalemustbeusedintheformula).TheconstantnandSarefittothedata.Forairn=0.7
andS=110K.
Liquidviscositydecreaseswithtemperatureandisroughlyexponential,
followingempiricalrelationship:

.Abetterfitisthe

whereforwater

273.16 ,

0.001792

1.94,

4.80,

6.74with

accuracyabout1%.

TheReynoldsnumber
TheReynoldsnumber,Re:

is a dimensionless number that gives a measure of the ratio of inertial forces

to viscous
forces and, consequently, it quantifies the relative importance of these two types of forces for
givenflowconditions.

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VerylowReynoldsnumber Viscouscreepingmotion,i.e.inertiaeffectsarenegligible
Moderate
number

Reynolds Smoothlyvaryinglaminarflow,bothinertiaandviscousforcesimportant

HighReynoldsnumber

Turbulentflow,withstronglyrandomhighfrequencyfluctuations

Fig.5:LHS,verylowRenumber,creepingflowaroundtwocylindricalbodies.RHS:airflowaroundan
airfoil,frommoderateRenumber,laminarflow(topphoto)tohighRenumber,turbulentflowregime
(bottomphoto).
ExplicitnumericalvalueofRenumbersdependonflowgeometry.

Thermalconductivity
It can be observed that the rate of heat conduction through a material layer is proportional to the
temperaturedifferenceacrossthelayerandtheheattransferarea,butitisinverselyproportionaltothe
thicknessofthelayer,asshowninFig.6.

Tomakethisequality,k . thethermalconductivityofthematerial,isintroduced.Thisiscalled
theFourierslawofheatconduction.Inthelimitingcasewherethethicknessx0,theequationabove
reducestothedifferentialform:

Theminussignsatisfiestheconventionthatheatfluxispositiveinthedirectionofdecreasing
temperature.
Thiscanbewrittenforthreescalarcomponentsoftheheatflowratevector:
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The term is calledthetemperaturegradient,whichis theslopeofthe temperaturecurve,the

rateoftemperaturechangeinthexdirection.
T1
T2

Area,A
A
x

Fig.6:Heatconductionthroughalargeplanewall.
Note:Thermalconductivityisathermodynamicpropertyandvarieswithtemperatureandpressureina
similar manner to viscosity, the ratio of k/k0 can be correlated using the same abovementioned
equationforviscosity.

Flowbetweenplates
ItistheflowinducedbetweenafixedlowerplateandupperplatemovingsteadilyatvelocityV.

Withzeroaccelerationandassumingnopressurevariationintheflowdirection,onecanwriteaforce
balanceonasmallfluidelementthatleadstotheresultthattheshearstressisconstantthroughoutthe
fluid:

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.
Afterintegration:

thevelocitydistributionislinear,asshowninthefigureandtheconstantscanbefoundusingboundary
consitions(noslipvelocityatlowerandupperplates):
0

Thevelocitybecomes:

Surfacetension
Aliquid,beingunabletoexpandfreely,willformaninterfacewithasecondliquidorgas.

Fig.7:Surfacetension,liquidgassolidinterface.
The cohesive forces between liquid molecules are responsible for the phenomenon known as surface
tension. The molecules at the surface do not have other like molecules on all sides of them and
consequentlytheycoheremorestronglytothosedirectlyassociatedwiththemonthesurface.
Surfacetension(pronouncedupsilon)hasthedimensionofforceperunitlength(N/m)orofenergy
perunitarea(J/m2).

Fig.8:Pressuredropacrosscurvedinterfacesduetosurfacetension.
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PressureincreaseintheinteriorofaliquidhalfcylinderdropletoflengthLandradiusRis,Fig.8a:
2

2L

PressuredropletintheinteriorofaliquidhalfspheredropletofradiusRis,Fig.8b:

Forafullspheredroplet,e.g.soapbubble,whichhastwointerfaceswithair,thepressureincreasewill
betwice:
4

PressuredropletintheinteriorofanarbitrarilycurvedinterfaceofprincipalradiiR1andR2,Fig.8c:

) and spherical

This is a more general relationship and yields both cylindrical (

.
Contactangle :appearswhenaliquidinterfaceintersectswithasolidsurface.
90
90

Thecontactangleissensitivetoactualphysiochemicalconditionofthesolidliquidinterface.Wateris
extremelywettingtoacleanglasssurfacewith
0.Foracleanmercuryairglassinterface,
130.

Vaporpressureandcavitation
Vaporpressureisthepressureatwhichaliquidboilsandisinequilibriumwithitsownvapor.Whenthe
liquidpressureisdroppedbelowthevaporpressureduetoaflowphenomenon,wecalltheprocess
cavitation.Thedimensionlessparameterdescribingflowinducedboilingiscalledcavitationnumber:
0.5

where,paisambientpressure,pvisvaporpressureandVisthefluidvelocity.

Fig.9:Cavitationbubbles.
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Fig. 10: Spiral bubbles form from the surface of a marine propeller. When water is accelerated, its
pressure drops, this can cause cavitation. The cavitation bubbles being formed on a lowpressure
surface of a marine propeller move into a higherpressure region and collapse, creating a beautiful
image.

Fig. 11: Bubble collapse is a particularly important subject because of the noise and material damage
that can be caused by the high velocities, pressures, and temperatures that may result from that
collapse.Thefigureshowsthedamagingerosioneffectsofcollapsingcavitationbubblesonapropeller
surface(LHS)andonavalveplate(RHS).

Noslipandnotemperaturejumpcondition
When a fluid flow is bounded by a surface, molecular interactions cause the fluid in contact with the
surfacetoseekmomentumandenergyequilibriumwiththesurface.Exceptforrarefiedgasflows,we
shallassume:
noslipcondition
notemperaturejumpcondition
Theyserveasboundaryconditionsforanalysisoffluidflowpastasolidsurface.

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Turbulentflow

Velocityprofile,
Turbulentflow

Thinfixedplate

Velocityprofile,
laminarflow
Laminarflow

Fig.12:noslipconditioninwaterflowpastathinfixedplate.theupperflowisturbulent,theloweris
laminar.Thevelocityprofileismadevisibleusingalineofhydrogenbubbles.

Speedofsoundandcompressibilityeffects
When the flow velocity reaches a considerable fraction of the speed of sound of a fluid, the
compressibility effects can be important in gas flow due to significant density changes caused by the
highvelocityflow.
Speedofsound:istherateofpropagationofsmalldisturbancepressurepulses(soundwaves)through
thefluid:
,

Foranidealgas,onefinds:

Risthegasconstant,andTistheabsolutetemperature(Kelvin),forairat20C,a=343m/s.
Machnumberistheratiooftheflowtothespeedofsound:

Compressibilityeffectsarenormallyneglectedfor

0.3,i.e.,forairflowvelocityupto100m/s.

Flowpattern
Streamline:isalineeverywheretangenttothevelocityvectoratagiveninstant.
Pathline:istheactualpathtraversedbyagivenfluidparticle.
Streakline:isthelocusofparticlesthathaveearlierpassedthroughaprescribedpoint.
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Timeline:isasetoffluidparticlesthatformalineatagiveninstant.
Note:insteadyflows,streamlines,pathlines,andstreaklinesareidentical.

Fig. 13: a) streamlines are tangent to the local velocity vector, b) a streamtube is formed by a closed
collection of streamlines. By definition the fluid within the streamtube is confined there because it
cannotcrossthestreamline;thusthestreamtubewallsneednotbesolidbutmaybefluidsurface.
IftheelementalarclengthdrofastreamlineistobeparalleltoV,theirrespectivecomponentsmustbe
inproportion:
Streamline:

Thus, if velocities (u, v, w) are known functions of position and time, we can integrate the above
equationandfindthestreamlinepassingthroughtheinitialpoint(x0,y0,z0).

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