Chapter 6 Dimensional Analysis 6.1 Units and Dimensions The dimensions of a quantity define the physical character of that quantity, e.g, force (F), ‘mass (M), length (L), time (), temperature (7), electric charge (¢), etc. On the other hand, units identify the reference scale by which the magnitude of the respective quantity is measured. Many different units can be defined for a given dimension; for example, the dimension of length can be measured in units of miles, centimeter, meter, yards, et. Dimensions can be classified as either primary (fundamental) or derived. Xt happens that seven primary quantities are needed to completely desoribe all natural phenomena’. Primary dimensions cannot be expressed in term of other dimensions and include length (), time (1), temperature (7), mass (M), and/or force (F) (depending upon the system of dimensions used.) Derived dimensions can be expressed in terms of primary dimensions, for example, area (AD = 2), energy ([E] = ML), etc. The decision as to which quantities are primary is arbitrary. The units of the primary quantities in the SI units (Systéme International d'Unités, ‘translated Internal System of Units) and their symbols are listed in Table 6.1-1 and defined arbitrarily as follows: ‘Meter: the length of the trajectory traveled by light in a vacuum per 1/299,792,458 s, Kilogram: the mass of the platinum cylinder deposited at the Intemational Office for Weights and Measures, Sévres, France, Second: 9,192,631,770 times the period of radiation in energy level transitions in the fine spectral structure of "°Cs, Kelvin: 1/273.16 of the triple point temperature of water with naturally occurring amounts of Hand O isotopes, Amperes: the current which, on passing through two parallel infinite conducting wires of negligible cross section, separated by I m and in vacuum, induces a force (per unit length) of 2x10" Nim, Mole: the amount of a matter containing the number of particles equal to the number of atoms in 0.012 kg of the pure isotope "°C, Candela: the amount of perpendicular light (luminosity) of 1/6010" m? of the surface of an absolute black body at the melting temperature of platinum and a pressure of 101,325 Pa, ' Thompson, B. V., 4 Unified Introduction to Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics, Stillwater Press, Orono, Maine, 2000, 6-1‘Table 6.1-1 The seven primary quantities and their units in SI Primary quantity Unit Length Meter (m) Mass Kilogram (kg) Time ‘Second (s) ‘Temperature Kelvin (K) Electric current ‘Ampere (A) Amount of matter Mole (mol) Amount of light Candela (ed) Several of the derived quantities with units are listed in Table 6.1-2. A derived unit is a quantity expressed in terms of a product and/or quotient of two or more primary units, ‘Table 6.1-2 The derived quantities and their units in SI Derived quantity Unit Cp Specific heat capacity Wg E, energy IJ=Nmfs, joule F, force N= kg-mis?, newton &, thermal conductivity Wim-K Pp, pressure Pa = N/m’, pascal q, heat transfer rate W=Js=kg-m’/s’, watt g", heat flux Wim? = J/s‘m™ q", heat generation rate per unit volume | W/m? ss viscosity Nim?=kg/s-m |p, density kg/m? 6.2 Dimensional Analysis Dimensional analysis arises from the requirement that every term in an equation must have the same units. It is possible to Team a great deal about a complicated situation through dimensional analysis if you can identify the essential features of the problem, An example is the well-known story of how G. I. Taylor was able to deduce the yield of the first nuclear explosion from a series of photographs of the expanding fireball in Life magazine. The picture gave him the radius r(¢) of the fireball, which is a strong shock, expanding into an undisturbed air at various time, He suggested that the important quantities in determining r() was the initial energy released, £, time, f, and the density of undisturbed air, . In other words, the radius depends on £, ¢, and p MO) =fE, tp) He wanted to find an expression that can estimate the radius at various time based on £, t, and p. Table 6.2-1 lists the units of 7, X, t, and p. Table 6.2-1 7 E t 2 L MLE t M/L* 62The unit of ris length, therefore the combination of the quantities Z, f, and p must also have unit of length. and p must come in as E/p to cancel out the mass. /p has the dimensions L/P, so the only possible combination was noo (=) (62-1) e Taylor did a log-log plot of r versus ¢. The graph was a straight line with a slope of 2/5, which verified the theory. E/p could be obtained from the value of log r when log 1= 0. Since the air density p was known, the initial energy released E could be estimated to within a factor of order one. It is important to realize that the process of dimensional analysis in general cannot tell how the variables describing a system are related. The relationship must be determined either theoretically by application of basis scientific principles or empirically by measurements and data analysis. Equation (6.2-1) would never be confirmed without the data of r versus ¢. Dimensional analysis can be applied to arrange the variables and/or parameters that are relevant in a given situation into a set of dimensionless groups. This has two important advantages. First, the information obtained from a dimensionless relation can be applied to geometrically and dynamically similar systems of any size or scale. This allows the scale up of equipment from laboratory models to plant equipment. Second, dimensional analysis will reduce the number of variables required for a system to a relatively smaller number of groups of variables, We will consider the situation when there is no existing model or solution and we want to know the number of dimensionless groups that are important to the system, The general approach will be illustrated by a specific example of pipe flow as shown in Figure 6.2-1. We will determine an appropriate set of dimensionless groups to represent the wall shear stress Ty in pipe flow as a function of the distance x from the inlet, D, V, p, 44 and the wall roughness ¢ That is ty =f, DV, 1, 4s 8) = Figure 6.2-1 Wall shear stress for pipe flow. ‘The procedure is as follows. Step 1: Identify the important variables in the system. In this example, all the relevant variables are given. In general, this step is the most challenging step in the process and can only be done if you have @ good understanding of the system. You can use your experience, judgment, intuition or by examining the basic equations that describe the fundamental physical principles governing the system along with appropriate boundary conditions. You can only include those primary variables that are not derivable from others through basic 6-3definitions. For example, the fluid velocity (1), the pipe diameter (D), and the volumetric flow rate (Q) are related by the definition Q = aD°V/4. Therefore these three variables are not independent, it would be necessary to include only two of the three. Step 2: Create a dimensional matrix. This dimensional matrix is simply a table with each column representing the exponents of the fundamental units of the primary variable, ty x D ie L. fe & MILO L L Lit MIL’ MI/Lt L M I 0 0 0 I T 0 L -l I 1 1 3 -l 1 t -2 0 0 a1 0 -1 0 ‘The number of dimensionless groups that will be obtained is equal to the number of variables minus the rank of the dimensional matrix. The rank of a matrix is the highest order of a non zero determinant that can be obtained from the matrix. The number of dimensionless groups is usually equal to the number of variables less the minimum number of fundamental dimensions involved in these variables (7 ~ 3 = 4 groups in this example) Step 3: Choose a set of reference variables. Choose the number of reference variables equal to the number of fundamental dimensions (3 in this case). Together they form what is known as the core group. The choice of variables is arbitrary, except that the following criteria must be satisfied: (1) No two reference variables should have exactly the same dimensions, For example: x and D should not be both reference variables. 2) All the fundamental dimensions that appear in the problem variables must also appear collectively in the dimensions of the reference variables. In general, the algebra is simpler if the reference variables chosen have the least combination of dimensions, consistent with the preceding criteria. Another way to choose the core group is to exclude from it those variables whose effect one desirers to study. In the present problem it would be desirable to have the wall shear stress in only one dimensionless group, hence it will not be in the core. We choose D, V, and pas the reference variables and form the core group by raising the variables to certain exponents Core group = D*** Step 4: Form the dimensionless groups. We do this by dividing each of the remaining non- reference variables with the core group: oo eee 1 Dip a Dp m= m= DV DV 6-4Step 5: Solve for the exponents in each of the dimensionless groups. For the group 1 Dimensions of ry = Dimension of D'V°p* mu? =ay(£) (MY t) Equating the exponent on M yields: l=e Equating the exponent on L yields: ~l=atb—3c Equating the exponent on t yields: -2=-b Solving for a, b, and ¢ we obtain: 6 = 2, c= 1, anda=0, ty Therefore m= pv’ Applying similar procedure for m2, 3 , and ny we obtain. x B é m= 2% ,my= —H, andy = & RED aap tea cetdD): The relationship between the dimensionless group is not known, therefore Ati, Ma, Ms, Ma} ‘The above equation can also be written as ) Aes) You should note that the results of the foregoing procedure are not unique because the reciprocal of each group i just as valid as the initial group. In fact, any combination of these groups will be dimensionless and will be just as valid as any combination as long as all of the original variables are represented among the groups. For position far away from the entrance, the flow is fally developed so that . is not important : 7 J -s(n0-) ; Fay datos D. 6-5For scale-up problems, the two systems must possess both geometrical similarity and dynamical similarity, Geometrical similarity requires that the two systems have the same shape, and dynamical similarity requires them to have equality of the appropriate dimensionless groups. Example 6.2-1 a A classroom* demonstration on the time to drain water from a set of initially filled inverted bottles yielded the following results; Boitle volume, V (liters) 2 [15 [07 [04 [0.36 [0.18 Time to drain, #(3)_ 18.6 [173 [935 [42 [48 [29 The bottles were not geometrically similar, but the same cap size fit cach bottle. Hence the neck diameter was the same in each case. In a study of bottle emptying, Whalley [Jnt. J. Multiphase Flow, 17, 145 (1991)] presents a correlation of data of the form — Ate © constant gD where V is the filled bottle volume (L), D is the internal diameter of the bottle neck (m), g is the acceleration of gravity (9.8 m’/s), and ¢ is the time to empty (s). The constant is different for each bottle shape. a, For our experiments, how should ¢ depend on ¥, according to Whalley’s correlation? (Is the relationship linear, or does some other power relationship apply? If the latter, give the power nin t=KV") b, For geometrically similar bottles, how should 1 depend on V, according to Whalley’s correlation? (Is the relationship linear, or does some other power relationship apply? If the latter, give the power n in t= KV") ¢, Plot our data as a test of Whalley’s correlation. Do the data agree with the correlation? Solution - a, For our experiments, how should depend on V. according to Whalley’s correlation? For our experiment D = constant, therefore = as = KV, where K = 4 Const. x g'” D*" Const. x g' # depends linearly on ¥. b, For geometrically similar bottles, how should ¢ depend on V? For geometrically similar bottles we have V ~D? or V = aD® . Therefore av 4aD* apie; * Const. => rare, = Const & e g > Middleman, Stanley, An Introduction to Fiuid Mechanics, Wiley, 1998 6-6aD‘? Const.x ge” €. Plot our data as a test of Whalley’s correlation. Do the data agree with the correlation? bY", where b = constant t=KV log f= log K + nlog V Table 6.2-1 lists the Matlab program to plot and fit log V versus log ¢. The exponent m is the slope of the line, which is obtained from the program n=084~1 The slope is close to the value predicted by Whalley’s correlation. Table 6.2-1 % Example 6.2-1 V=[2 1.5 0.7 0.4 0.36 0.18]; 18.6 17.3 9.5 4.2 4.8 2.9); logV=log(V);logt=log(t); coef=polyfit(logV,logt, 1); n=coei(1); fprintf('n = slope = %g\n'n) x=log([2 0.18)};y=polyvall(coef,x); plot(logV, logt,'o'.x,y) xlabel('Log(V)');ylabel(‘Log(t)') grid on legend('Data’, Fitted’) >> e2d1 _ T n= slope = 0.837214 | Poa aa susie ae 9 s a | bee 15 1 a8 ° or 1 67 Loa)Example 6.2-2 - (520°) Consider @ gas bubble rising slowly through a viscous liquid. When the bubble reaches the surface it will burst and collapse, and under some conditions the collapse will create liquid droplets that are projected above the surface. A study of the phenomena by Takahashi et al. [Jnt, Chem. Eng., 21, 251 (1981)] led to a dimensionless correlation of the critical (minimum) bubble diameter that will yield drops on bubble collapse. Assume that the critical bubble diameter Dg depends on the viscosity 4« and density p of the liquid, on the interfacial tension c-between the liquid and the gas bubble, and on the gravitational constant g. Define a dimensionless group proportional to Dg, and state what other group(s) this dimensionless critical bubble diameter could depend on. These other groups should not include Dy. Solution — The dimensional matrix for the problem is given as Dg o 2. v2 g L L Mit | MAS M/Lt ue M 0 1 1 0 L 1 3 - 1 t 0 2 0 x1 2 ‘The reference variables are p, 0, and g. Therefore the core group is p'o’g” and we have two dimensionless groups: D, ee oe Pro'g’ pro's’ m= Dimensions of Da = Dimension of p'o"g? woe (I (8) ) Equating the exponent on M yields: O=atb Equating the exponent on L yields: l= -3ate Equating the exponent on t yields: 0=-2b-2c Solving for a, b, and ¢ we obtain: b = - 0.5, c= 0.5, and a = 0.5 Therefore Applying similar procedure for 2 we have * Middleman, Stanley, An Introduction to Fluid Mechanics, Wiley, 1998 68Dimensions of 4 = Dimension of po"g” “ee STIG Equating the exponent on M yields: l=a+b Equating the exponent on L yields: -1=-3ate 2b-2e Equating the exponent on t yields: Solving for a, b, and ¢ we obtain: a = 0.25, b= 0.75, and ¢ =- 0,25 us m= pte 172 91 4 D, Hence mr =flta) or “2 Aon) Example 6.2-3 ~ (4.21) A one-third scale model pump (impeller diameter D, = 0.5 ft) is to be tested when pumping Q) = 100 gpm of water (p, = 62.4 Ib/ft’) in order to predict the performance of a proposed full-size pump (D2 = 1.5 ft) that is intended to operate at rotational speed of N2 = 750 rpm with a flow rate of 2 = 1,000 gpm when pumping an oil density 2 = 50 Ib/f, The two important dimensional groups are: m= oe and m2 = Ge where P is the power supplied by the pump (a) Determine the rotational speed of the scale model. (©) If; = 1.20 hp, determine the power needed for the full size pump. Solution -. ‘Model Full-size pump Dy =05R Sit Qi = 100 gpm ,000 gpm Pi = 62.4 Io/f? pr =50 Ib/tt® N@=? Ny = 750 rpm. Py = 1.20 hp Po 4 Wilkes, J., Fluid Mechanics for Chemical Engineers, Prentice Hall, 1999, p. 219 69(@) Determine the rotational speed of the scale model. For dynamical similarity between the model and the full-size pump, all the pertinent dimensionless groups must have the same value, Fea model = 7 Het and Ralmodet = ala n-(@)a) 100.) (1.5) N= (2) { 22) 750= 2,025 : Ze) aa ‘The rotation speed of the scale model is 2,025 rpm (b) I£P; = 1.20 hp, determine the power needed for the full size pump. Equating the dimensionless group containing the power we have (SIRI Pas (2) (3) 3) 1.2 = 11.87 hp 62.4) 2025) (0.5. 11.87 hp is required for the full size pump. 6-10