FUNDAMENTALS

OF
FLUID MECHANICS
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Fluid mechanics is encountered in almost every area of our physical lives. Blood flows through our
veins and arteries, a ship moves through water and water flows through rivers, airplanes fly in the air
and air flows around wind machines, air is compressed in a compressor and steam expands around
turbine blades, a dam holds back water, air is heated and cooled in our homes, and computers
require air to cool components. All engineering disciplines require some expertise in the area of fluid
mechanics.
Fluid mechanics is a physical science dealing with the action of fluids at rest or in motion, and with
applications and devices in engineering using fluids. Fluid mechanics can be subdivided into two
major areas, Fluid Statics, which deals with fluid at rest, and Fluid Dynamics, concerned with fluids in
motion.

TYPES OF FLUID
Fluids are generally subdivided into two categories: ideal fluid and real fluid
Ideal Fluid
 Assumed to have a viscosity(and hence, no resistance to shear)
 Incompressible
 Have uniform velocity when flowing
 No friction between moving layers of fluid
 No eddy current or turbulence

Real Fluid
 Exhibit infinite viscosities
 Non uniform velocity distribution when flowing
 Compressible
 Experience friction and turbulence in flow

1.2 UNITS AND DIMENSIONS

MKS system of units
This is the system of units where the meter (m) is used for the unit of length, kilogram (kg) for the
unit of mass, and second (s) for the unit of time as the base units.
CGS system of units
This is the system of units where the centimeter (cm) is used for length, gram (g) for mass, and
second (s) for time as the base units.
International system of units (SI?
SI, the abbreviation of La Systkme International d’Unites, is the system developed from the MKS
system of units. It is a consistent and reasonable system of units which makes it a rule to adopt only
one unit for each of the various quantities used in such fields as science, education and industry.
There are seven fundamental SI units, namely: meter (m) for length, kilogram (kg) for mass, second
(s) for time, ampere (A) for electric current, Kelvin (K) for thermodynamic temperature, mole (mol)
for mass quantity and candela (cd) for intensity of light. Derived units consist of these units.
Table 1.1 Basic Dimensions and Their Units

Quantity Dimension SI Units English Units

Length L Meters m Foot ft

Mass M Kilogram kg slug slug

Time t Seconds sec second sec

Temperature T Kelvin K Rankine R

Plane angle ϴ radian rad radian rad

Table 1.2 Derived Dimensions and Their Units

Quantity SI units English units

Area, A m2 ft 2

Volume, V m3 ft 3

m ft
Velocity, v
s s
ft
Acceleration, a
s2

Force, F kg.m
s2 or N slug.ft
s2 or lb

Pressure, P N.m2 lb.ft 2

Work , W N.m ft.lb

1.3 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 density of water at 4°C
and 1 atm (101 325 Pa, standard atmospheric pressure; see Section 3.1.1) is 1000 kg/m3. The ratio
of the density of a material p to the density of water p , is called the specific gravity, which is
expressed by the symbol s:
𝜌
S₌
𝜌𝑊

The reciprocal of density, i.e. the volume per unit mass, is called the specific volume, which is
generally expressed by the symbol u:
1 𝑚3
𝜈₌ 𝜌 (
𝑘𝑔
)

Values for the density p of water and air under standard atmospheric pressure are given in Table 1.3.

Table 1.3 Density of water and air (standard atmospheric pressure)

Temperature 0 10 15 20 40 60 80 100
("C)
p (kg/m') Water 999.8 999.7 999.1 998.2 992.2 983.2 971.8 958.4
Air 1.293 1.247 1.226 1.205 1.128 1.060 1.000 0.9464

1.5 COMPRESSIBLE AND INCOMPRESSIBLE FLUIDS

If the density of a fluid varies significantly due to moderate changes in pressure or temperature,
then the fluid is called compressible fluid. Generally gases and vapours under normal conditions can
be classified as compressible fluids. In these phases the distance between atoms or molecules is
large and cohesive forces are small. So increase in pressure or temperature will change the density
by a significant value.

If the change in density of a fluid is small due to changes in temperature and or pressure, then the
fluid is called incompressible fluid. All liquids are classified under this category.

1.6 Compressibility, 𝜷

Compressibility (also as the coefficient of compressibility ) is the fractional change in the volume of a
fluid per unit change in pressure in a constant-temperature process

As shown in Fig. 2.9, assume that fluid of volume V at pressure p decreased

its volume by AV due to the further increase in pressure by Ap. In this case,
since the cubic dilatation of the fluid is AV/V, the bulk modulus K is
expressed by the following equation:
 𝚫𝑷 𝒅𝑷
k=𝚫𝑽/𝑽= -V𝒅𝑽 (2.10)

its reciprocal, 𝛽
𝜷 = 𝟏/𝑲 (2.11)

is called the compressibility, whose value directly indicates how compressible the fluid is. For water of normal
temperature/pressure K = 2.06 x 109 Pa, and for air K = 1.4 x 105 Pa assuming adiabatic change. In the case of
water, 𝛽 = 4.85 x 10−10 1/𝑃𝑎, and shrinks only by approximately 0.005% even if the atmospheric pressure is
increased by 1 atm.

Putting 𝜌 as the fluid density and M as the mass, since pV = M = constant, assume an increase in density Δ𝜌
whenever the volume has decreased by ΔV, and

𝚫𝒑 𝒅𝒑
K=𝒑 𝚫𝒑=𝒑 𝒅𝒑 (2.12)

The bulk modulus K is closely related to the velocity a of a pressure wave

propagating in a liquid, which is given by the following equation (see
Section 13.2):

𝒅𝒑 𝑲
A=√ =√ (2.13)
𝒅𝒑 𝝆

gas symbol Density (kg/m3) R (SI) 𝑪𝒑

K=𝑪𝒑
(0⁰𝑪, 760 mm 𝒎𝟐 /(𝒔𝟐 K)
Hg)
Helium He 0.1175 2078.1 1.66
Air 1.293 287.1 1.402
Carbon mon. CO 1.250 296.9 1.400
Oxygen 02 0.0899 4124.8 1.409
Hydrogen 𝑯𝟐 1.429 259.8 1.399
Cabon dioxide 𝑪𝑶𝟐 1.977 189.0 1.301
methane 𝑪𝑯𝟒 0.717 518.7 1.319

1.7 Bulk Modulus

Similar to solids (hook’s law), liquids have a property that describes the volume change
as results of pressure change for constant temperature. It can be noted that this property
is not the result of the equation of state but related to it. The bulk modulus is defined
as:

𝜕𝑃
𝐵𝑇 =−𝑣(𝜕𝑣 ) 𝑇 (2.12)

Using the identity of v = 1/½ transfers equation (2.12) into:

𝜕𝑃
𝐵𝑇 =𝑃(𝜕𝑝) 𝑇 (2.13)
The bulk modulus for several liquids is presented in Table 1.5

Table -1.5. The bulk modulus for selected material with the critical temperature and pressure
na not available and nf not found (exist but was not found in the literature).

Chemical component Bulk modulus

𝑁 𝑇𝑐 𝑃𝑐
109
𝑚
Acetic acid 2.49 593K 57.8[bar]
Acetone 0.80 508K 48[bar]
Benzene 1.10 562K 4.74[Mpa]
Carbon tetrachloride 1.32 556.4K 4.49[Mpa]
Ethyl alcohol 1.06 514K 6.3[Mpa]
Gasoline 1.3 nf nf
Glycerol 4.03-4.52 850K 7.5 [bar]
Mercury 26.2 1750K 172.00[Mpa]
Methyl alcohol 0.97 Est 513 Est78.5 [bar]
Nitrobenzene 2.20 nf nf
Olive oil 1.60 nf nf
Paraffin oil 1.62 nf nf
SAE 30 oil 1.5 na na
Seawater 2.34 na na
Toluene 1.09 591.79K 4.109[Mpa]
Turpentine 1.28 na na
Water 2.15-2.174 647.096K 22.064 [Mpa]

1.8 Inviscid and Viscous fluids

In an inviscid flow the effects of viscosity can be completely neglected with no significant effects on
the solution to a problem involving the flow. All fluids have viscosity and if the viscous effects cannot
be neglected, it is a viscous flow. Viscous effects are very important in pipe flows and many other
kinds of flows inside conduits; they lead to losses and require pumps in long pipe lines. But, are
there flows in which we can neglect the influence of viscosity? Certainly, we would not even
consider inviscid flows if no such flows could be found in our engineering problems.

Consider an external flow, flow external to a body, such as the flow around an airfoil or a
hydrofoil, as shown in Fig. 3.6. If the airfoil is moving relatively fast (faster than about 1 m=s), the
flow away from a thin layer near the boundary, a boundary layer, can be assumed to have zero
viscosity with no significant effect on the solution to the flow field (the velocity, pressure,
temperature fields). All the viscous effects are concentrated inside the boundary layer and cause the
velocity to be zero at the surface of the airfoil, the no-slip condition.
1.9 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. Surface tensions of various kinds of liquid
are given in Table 2.4.

As shown in Fig. 2.5, a dewdrop appearing on a plant leaf is spherical in shape. This is also because of
the tendency to shrink due to surface tension. Consequently its internal pressure is higher than its
peripheral pressure. Putting d as the diameter of the liquid drop, T as the surface tension, and p as
the increase in internal pressure, the following equation is obtained owing to the balance of forces
as shown in Fig. 2.6:

𝜋𝑑2
𝜋𝑑𝑇 = ∆𝑝 (2.14)
4

∆𝑝 = 4𝑇/𝑑

The same applies to the case of small bubbles in a liquid.

Table 2.4 Surface tension of liquid (20°C)

Liquid Surface tension N/m

Water Air 0.0728

Mercury Air 0.476
Mercury Water 0.373
Methyl alcohol Air 0.023