APL107 Tutorial Sheet 1

Instructor: Amitabh Bhattacharya

These problems are for your practice. You do NOT have to submit the solved sheets as assignments.
Selected problems will be discussed during the tutorials.

1. A fluid flowing along a plate with speed V causes a shear stress at a distance from the start
of the plate. After some experiments, the following formula is proposed:
. What is the dimension of the constant 0.332 ? Here is the
dynamic viscosity and is the fluid density.

2. A block of weight W slides down a slope which makes an angle with respect to the horizontal.
A film with contact area A and thickness h is present between the block and the slope, as shown
below. Derive an expression for the steady velocity V reached by the block in terms of the other
parameters. The acceleration due to gravity is .

Figure for problem 2

3. The device shown in the figure below is called as a “cone and plate” viscometer (sectional view
through axis is shown). The fluid (shaded) is placed between the axisymmetric rotating conical part
(outer radius ) and the stationary bottom plate. Derive the expression for the torque required to
rotate the conical part with angular velocity if the dynamic viscosity of the fluid is . Assume that
only the azimuthal component of fluid velocity is non-zero and that the flow is axisymmetric
between the cone and plate. Is there any advantage in using this viscometer for measuring viscosity
in power-law fluids ?
 Figure for problem 3

4. Consider two immiscible fluids trapped between two infinite plates as shown below. The plates
are separated by a distance . The fluid on the upper part (blue) has dynamic viscosity while the
fluid in the lower part has dynamic viscosity . The thickness of the fluid on the lower part is
where . Balance the shear stress throughout the height of the fluid between the plates and
find the expression for the ratio as a function of .

Figure for problem 4

5. A small submersible moves at velocity , in fresh water at 20oC, at a depth where ambient
pressure is 131 kPa. Its critical cavitation number is known to be Ca=0.25. At what velocity of the
submersible will cavitation bubbles begin to form on the body ? You may use the graph for vapor
pressure presented in class.

6. For an inviscid fluid having a 2-dimensional velocity field

with density field and pressure field , we can write down the component of the
momentum equation as . Is this equation dimensionally homogeneous ?
7. Suppose at some point in 2 dimensional fluid flow, the two-dimensional stress state of the fluid at
is given by

where is a constant. Does the fluid undergo any shear stress at this point ? (Hint: You may use
Mohr’s circle or balance the forces on an infinitesimal wedge shaped material element.)

Figure for problem 7

8. A 2-dimensional unsteady velocity field is given by

and . Find the equation for the time-varying streamline that passes through
for all time .