Fluid mechanics Group 4A51

Test 1 (10%) 18 October 2018

Read carefully the problems and justify your responses.

1. (4 points) Consider a hot air balloon modelled as an sphere of diameter D = 24 m and a

cube of side d = 1.5 m. Knowing that the temperature inside the balloon remains constant at
T = 100o C and that the weight of the balloon’s material is negligible:
(a) Find the maximum weight of the cube in order to maintain a constant altitude of h =
3000 m. (1.75 points)
(b) Compute the ascend velocity if now the weight of the cube has been reduced to a 70% of
the maximum. (2.25 points)
Hint: assume that this ascend velocity is constant. Consider the drag force exerted on
the sphere but do not consider the drag force on the cube. Remember that the drag force
exerted over an object follows the expression: D = (1/2) ρ v 2 S CD where D is the drag
force, ρ is the density of the fluid that exerts the force, v is the velocity of this fluid, S
is the characteristic surface of the object (for an sphere S = π r2 ) and CD is the drag
coefficient (for an sphere CD = 0.6).

2. (3.25 points) For the following velocity field:

u = U0 + bx v = −by
where Uo and b are constants.
(a) Show that the flow is incompressible and the stream function exists. (0.5 points)
(b) Find the stream function. (1.25 points)
(c) Determine the vorticity. (0.5 points)
(d) If it exists, find the velocity potential function. (1 point)
Fluid mechanics Test 1 (10%), Page 2 of 2 18 October 2018

3. (2.75 points) A bi-dimensional flow is defined with the following velocity field:

x
u= v=k
τ +t

where τ and k are constants.

(a) Determine the flow acceleration. (1.25 points)
(b) Derive the equation of the streamline that passes through the point p(x, y) = (a, b). (1.5
points)