ME 563 - Intermediate Fluid Dynamics - Su

Lecture 6 - Basic viscous flow ideas

Reading: Acheson, chapter 2 (through §2.3).

In the last lecture we introduced the concept of viscosity. The most intuitively understandable
property of viscous fluids is that they resist shear. For example, given a parallel flow of viscous
fluid with a velocity gradient perpendicular to the flow direction, viscous shear forces will be
present that act to make the flow speed uniform, by simultaneously accelerating slower fluid and
decelerating fast fluid (Fig. 1).

Figure 1: Viscous shear forces in a parallel fluid flow.

Viscosity is a diffusive property. In particular, owing to viscosity, momentum in a fluid diffuses

from regions of high momentum to regions of low momentum. (The rate of momentum loss is equal
to a negative force, and the rate of momentum increase is equal to a positive force.) As such,
viscous diffusion of momentum is analogous to the diffusion of heat or species concentration. We
will also see that viscosity is responsible for the diffusion of vorticity.
In the last lecture, viscosity arose in our discussion through the notion of the boundary layer.
Specifically, it was pointed out that while the flow around an airfoil could be treated for the most
part using ideal fluid theory, the generation of circulation around an airfoil – by which the wing
generates lift – can only be explained by considering the viscosity of the fluid. In the case of the
wing, as with many flow problems, the influence of viscosity is confined to a thin boundary layer
near the solid surface of the wing. The boundary layer arises because of the no-slip condition for
viscous flows, which states that at a solid surface, the fluid must have the same velocity as the
surface. The result is a boundary layer region in which the flow makes the adjustment from the
essentially inviscid main flow to the velocity values at the solid body. If the viscosity is small, this
boundary layer can be very thin.
Figure 1.11 in the book shows that ideal fluid theory is quite valid for a wing until its angle of
attack exceeds a critical value. The failure of the ideal fluid theory arises when the boundary layer
ceases to be thin and instead affects a substantial portion of the flow. This phenomenon is known
as boundary layer separation, and occurs when the boundary layer experiences a strong increase in
pressure along the solid boundary. Boundary layer separation is responsible for significant quali-
tative differences in flow properties between ideal fluids and those with even very small viscosity.
The classic example of drag on a sphere (e.g. why a dimpled golf ball has less drag than a smooth
ball) is fundamentally tied up with boundary layer separation. (More on this later.)

1 Equations of motion for viscous fluids

We’ll have a look at the equations of motion for viscous fluids here, go over some sample problems,
and defer the detailed derivation of the equations for later. We will restrict our attention to

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Newtonian fluids, where the viscous shear stress is directly proportional to the velocity gradient,
that is (in the coordinate system of Fig. 1)

du
τ =µ , where µ is called the coefficient of dynamic viscosity.
dy

This shear stress τ has the units of pressure (force/area), so the viscous shear force, Fµ , acting
across a surface element in a flow with area A is
du
Fµ = τ · A = µ A.
dy
The equations of motion for a Newtonian fluid with constant density, ρ, and constant viscosity,
µ, are

∇·u =0
Du ∂u 1 µ
= + (u · ∇)u = − ∇p + ∇2 u + g. (1)
Dt ∂t ρ ρ
These are known as the Navier-Stokes equations, and are the same as the Euler equations we’ve
been discussing except for the viscous term, (µ/ρ)∇2 u.
We showed earlier that the Laplacian operator, ∇2 , could be interpreted in light of our under-
standing of the divergence, because the Laplacian is just the divergence of a gradient. That is,
given a scalar quantity, φ,

∇2 φ = ∇ · (∇φ).

To interpret the viscous term in the Navier-Stokes equations, first observe that the second equation
in (1) is really three equations, one for each of the velocity components. Let’s consider Cartesian
coordinates, so u = (u, v, w), and write the equation for the u-component:

∂u 1 ∂p µ 2
+ (u · ∇)u = − + ∇ u, (2)
∂t ρ ∂x ρ
where particular care has to be taken with the second term on the left hand side. The gravitational
term has been assumed to lie in the z-direction, as is conventional in Cartesian coordinates.
Let’s now take a (somewhat crude) look at the Laplacian in (2), ∇2 u = ∂ 2 u/∂x2 + ∂ 2 u/∂y 2 +
∂ 2 u/∂z 2 . As with our discussions of the divergence, start with the familiar infinitesimal cubic
volume element V (Fig. 2). We want to calculate the viscous forces on each face. Consider first the

Figure 2: Our usual cubic volume element.

shear forces. To evaluate these, we need the velocity derivatives ∂u/∂y and ∂u/∂z, since the fluid

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is Newtonian. Specifically, on faces 2 and 5, where the normal vector is parallel to the y-axis, we
need ∂u/∂y, and on faces 3 and 6, where the normal is parallel to the z-axis, we need ∂u/∂z. As
usual, on each of these faces the derivative components of interest will be assumed to be constant.
Figure 3 shows us how to interpret the shear terms in the Laplacian, ∂ 2 u/∂y 2 and ∂ 2 u/∂z 2 .
Fig. 3a illustrates the variation of the u-component of the velocity in the y-direction, which is

Figure 3: Interpretation of the viscous shear terms.

relevant to faces 2 and 5. Consider face 2, i.e. the y = dy surface of V . The faster fluid at y > dy
imposes a force in the positive x-direction on the fluid inside V , represented by
 
∂u
Viscous shear force on face 2 = µ (y = dy) dx dz.
∂y

Meanwhile, on face 5 (y = 0), the slower fluid at y < 0 imposes a force in the negative x direction
on the fluid inside V :
 
∂u
Viscous shear force on face 5 = −µ (y = 0) dx dz.
∂y

The net viscous shear force on faces 2 and 5 is thus, with some manipulation,
 
∂u ∂u
Net viscous shear force on faces 2 and 5 = µ (y = dy) − (y = 0) dx dz
∂y ∂y
∂u ∂u
∂y (y = dy) − ∂y (y = 0)
=µ dx dy dz
dy
∂2u
=µ dV (3)
∂y 2

Since (2) describes the rate of change of the velocity component u, we need to divide the mass out
of (3). The mass contained in V is just mV = ρdV , so, dividing this out of (3), we get the term

µ ∂2u
ρ ∂y 2

consistent with (2). The variation of the u-component of the velocity in the z-direction (Fig. 3b)
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can be described similarly, and gives rise to the term µρ ∂∂zu2 .
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The variation of the u-component in the x-direction leads to a similar term, µ ∂∂xu2 , but in this
case the viscous effect is not a shear effect, but instead a normal effect. This arises because viscous

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 Figure 4: Interpretation of the normal shear term.

fluids resist not only resist shearing, but also resist expansion and compression (think of pulling
apart or squeezing, say, a blob of caramel). An expansion is represented by (∂u/∂x) > 0, while
a compression would have ∂u/∂x < 0 (Fig. 4). It is somewhat unintuitive that compressions and
expansions should be described mathematically in a similar fashion to shearing, but this turns out
to be the case. That is, µ ∂u ∂u
∂x describes a normal viscous force on a face, just as µ ∂y and µ ∂z
∂u

described shear viscous forces.

Consider face 1 of our volume V , corresponding to the x = dx surface in Fig. 4. In the expansion
case, ∂u/∂x > 0 across x = dx, and the faster fluid at x > dx will act to pull on, or accelerate, the
slower fluid in V . On face 4, in the expansion case, the slow fluid at x < 0 imposes a drag on the
fluid in V . The net result is (skipping some steps that are exactly analogous to the development
of (3)):

∂ 2u
Net normal force on faces 1 and 4 = µ dV.
∂x2
So, the viscous term in (2) breaks down as
Normal force on faces 1,4 Shear force on faces 2,5 Shear force on faces 3,6
 z}|{ z}|{ z}|{ 
µ 2 µ ∂2u ∂2u ∂2u
∇ u= + + . (4)
ρ ρ ∂x2 ∂y 2 ∂z 2