Chapter# 04

Fluid Kinematics

SESSION# 01
KEY EXTRACTS

• Its completely unrealistic to analyze fluid motion at a molecular level

o Continuum hypothesis is employed, which considers fluid comprised of
particles/continuum that interact with each other and as well as surroundings.
o The particle that is representing a fluid can now be correlated to exist at a mathematical
point in space and time.
o Certain properties can not be defined at molecular level;
▪ To define density, we require a minimum representative volume. This minimum
volume should be mathematically assigned point and can be termed the particle.

• Field Representation
o At a given instant in time, a description of any fluid property may be given as a function of
the fluid’s location. This representation of fluid parameters as functions of the spatial
coordinates is termed a field representation of the flow.

• There are two different approaches to study mechanics of continuous objects

o Lagrangian method, involves following individual fluid particles as they move about and
determining how the fluid properties associated with these particles change as a function
of time.
o Eulerian method uses the field concept introduced above. From this method we obtain
information about the flow in terms of what happens at fixed points in space as the fluid
flows through those points.
o For example; attaching a temperature-measuring device to the top of the chimney and
record the temperature at that point as a function of time is Eulerian approach.

• Classification of fluid flow based on the variation of flow parameters with time
o In steady flow, the velocity at a given point in space does not vary with time.
o The definition of steady or unsteady flow pertains to the behavior of a fluid property as
observed at a fixed point in space.

• Various concepts that can be used to help in the visualization and analysis of flow fields
o Stream lines;
▪ line that is everywhere tangent to velocity field.
▪ Streamlines are obtained analytically by integrating the equations defining lines
tangent to the velocity field.
▪ For two-dimensional flows the slope of the streamline, must be equal to the
tangent of the angle that the velocity vector makes with the x axis.

1st August 2019, Sunday

Chapter# 04
Fluid Kinematics

• To apply Newton’s second law, we must be able to describe particle’s acceleration.

o For the Eulerian description we describe the acceleration field as a function of position
and time without following any particle.
o The acceleration of a particle is the time rate of change of its velocity
o For unsteady flows the velocity at a given point in space occupied by different particles
may vary with time.
o Fluid velocity may change from one point to another being steady coherently

• Use of chain rule of differentiation to obtain the acceleration of particle

o By definition, the acceleration of a particle is the time rate of change of its velocity.
o The velocity may be a function of both position and time, thus we use the chain rule.

• Finding particle position for the given velocity field.

• Finding streamline for the given velocity field.

• Determining acceleration experienced by a fluid particle along the streamline.

• Finding acceleration from the given velocity field.

• Finding rate of change of pressure for a steady flow through a nozzle.

1st August 2019, Sunday