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Viscosity Lab Report

Fluid Mechanics (Háskólinn í Reykjavík)

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Viscosity Experiment
Halldór Einarsson<halldore17@ru.is>
Halldór Jóhannson<halldorj13@ru.is>
Mariana Monteiro Maia<mariana18@ru.is>

Fluid Mechanics, T-536-RENN

RU Science and Engineering

October 5, 2019

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Viscosity Experiment 2 INTRODUCTION

1 Abstract
The purpose of this experiment was to find the viscosity of three different fluids, glycerin, castor oil and motor
oil. Each fluid was placed in a cylindrical container. Ball bearings of various sizes were then dropped into
container and the time it took the ball to drop a certain length was measured. Using the measurements and
applying the appropriate equations the viscosity of the fluid was determined. Lastly, the Reynolds number was
calculated and analyzed. The results indicated that although the viscosity was within an acceptable range of
what was expected, the Reynolds number suggests that the premise and assumption of laminar flow was a
somewhat optimistic one.

2 Introduction
The viscosity of a fluid describes its resistance to movement or deformation, an easy way of conceptualizing
this is to look at the flow of water versus the flow of syrup. Obviously the syrup will flow slower than the water in
the same circumstance, this is because syrup has a higher viscosity than water.The reason for this resistance
to deformation, can be understood by looking at two layers of the same fluid traveling at different speeds and
the frictional shear forces between them. When a molecule from a slower moving layer moves up in to a faster
moving layer it gets dragged along thereby slowing down the faster moving layer. The rate of this momentum
exchange determines the viscosity of the fluid and contributes to its total resultant force or inertia. [1]
In our case, to determine the viscosity of the different fluids, first we need to assume that the flow is laminate
meaning that the ball bearing does not create turbulence in its wake. Given this we are able to determine the
forces acting on the ball bearing and calculate the viscosity’s of the fluids by applying Stoke’s law. The free
body diagram shown in figure 1 shows the forces acting on the ball as it descends down the fluid column. As
the ball bearing reaches its terminal velocity, the forces acting on the ball will have reached equilibrium, as
shown in the equation below
Fweight = Fdrag + Fbuoyancy (1)

We calculate the drag force acting on the ball by using the Stoke’s law equation

Fdrag = 6πµRv (2)

where µ is the viscosity, R is the radius of the ball bearing and v is the velocity of the ball. The force of the
buoyancy is given by the following equation

Fbuoyancy = ρf luid V g (3)

Where ρf luid is the density of the fluid, V is the volume of the sphere and g is the gravitational acceleration.
Applying equation (1) and solving for µ we can calculate the viscosity

mg − ρV g
µ= (4)
6πRv

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Viscosity Experiment 2 INTRODUCTION

Figure 1: free body diagram of ball bearing falling through a viscous liquid

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Viscosity Experiment 3 METHOD

3 Method
The experiment was conducted by releasing each ball bearing size 3 times into the fluids. Time of displacement
through a measured distance of 23.4cm was determined using a video captured at 240 frames per second. The
balls were weighted on a scale and their diameter measured with a caliper, the measurements were collected
in table 1. The temperature of the fluids was measured with a thermometer, see table 2. Data measured and
calculated can be found in the tables bellow.

Sphere Weight [g] Diameter [cm] Density [kg/m3 ]

Small 2.95 0.9 7728.512
Medium 7.02 1.2 7758.803
Large 8.35 1.3 7258.682

Table 1: Sphere Measurements and Calculated Density

Medium Temperature [◦ C]
Glycerin 21.8
Motor Oil 22.2
Castor Oil 22.0

Table 2: Medium Measured Temperature

The density of the ball bearings were calculated with the following formulas
m
ρ= (5)
V
Where m is the mass and V is the volume of the ball bearings
4
V = ∗ π ∗ r3 (6)
3
Where r is the radius of ball bearings. The actual density of steel is equal to 7800 kg/m3 , when compared to
the calculated density of the ball bearings, which have an average density of 7581.999 kg/m3 , we find that we
are off by 2.794%.

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Viscosity Experiment 3 METHOD

Apparatus:

• 3 Ball Bearings (Small, Medium and Large)

• 3 Cylindrical Containers with the same size containing: Glycerin, Motor Oil and Castor Oil

• 1 Stopwatch/Video Recorder

• 1 Scale (1 decimal)

• 1 Thermometer

• 1 Caliper

Figure 2: Ball bearings

Figure 3: Cylindrical containers - Glycerin, Motor Oil and Castor Oil

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Viscosity Experiment 4 RESULTS

4 Results
The viscosity of the liquids were calculated for every ball bearing size, using equation 4. To simplify the results,
the average speed of each respective ball bearing in the three fluids was used in the viscosity calculations.

Sphere Velocity [m/s] Viscosity [P a ∗ s]

Small 0.258 1.156
Medium 0.384 1.390
Large 0.419 1.384

Table 3: Castor oil - Calculated viscosity

Sphere Velocity [m/s] Viscosity [P a ∗ s]

Small 0.229 1.245
Medium 0.336 1.519
Large 0.346 1.597

Table 4: Glycerin - Calculated viscosity

Sphere Velocity [m/s] Viscosity [P a ∗ s]

Small 1.080 0.280
Medium 1.306 0.414
Large 1.327 0.443

Table 5: Motor oil - Calculated viscosity

Medium Viscosity [P a ∗ s] Standard deviation

Castor oil 1.310 0.133
Glycerin 1.454 0.185
Motor oil 0.379 0.087

Table 6: The average calculated viscosity’s of mediums

Results in table 6 are the average viscosity’s for the three respective liquids. To determine the final viscosity
values, we first need to estimate the uncertainty in the measurements. The uncertainty is divided into two
parts: Random uncertainty and Systematic deviation. The systematic deviation is the resultant of inaccuracies
present in the scale and video capture device while the random uncertainty accounts for the various outside
influences affecting the experiment by evaluating the ratio of the standard deviation to the square of the number
of measurements taken. The following equation represents the largest systematic deviation of each liquid
calculated from the measurements of the three ball bearings.

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Viscosity Experiment 4 RESULTS

s 2  2
∆m ∆t
Wsystem = + (7)
m t
Where Wsystem is the systematic deviation, ∆m is the advertised inaccuracy of the scale estimated to be
0.005g and m is the weight of each individual bearing size. ∆t is the inaccuracy of the time measurement
1
240 sec and t is the average fall time in frames for each bearing size. The random uncertainty is calculated with
the following equation
Sr
Wrandom = √ (8)
n
where Wrandom is the random uncertainty, Sr is the standard deviation of calculated viscosity’s for each liquid
and bearing size and lastly n is the number of results reached from the different bearing sizes. Having deter-
mined both the random uncertainty and the systematic deviation we’re able analyse the propagation of error
through our mathematical operations and estimate the total uncertainty of our final calculated viscosity’s.
q
Wtotal = 2
Wrandom 2
+ Wsystem (9)

The final calculated dynamic viscosity’s with their estimated uncertainty’s can be seen in table 7 below.

Medium Final viscosity [P a ∗ s]

Castor oil 1.310 ± 7.83%
Glycerin 1.454 ± 10.9%
Motor oil 0.379 ± 5.53%

Table 7: Final results

For result analysis and evaluation we calculated the average Reynolds number for each fluid with the
following formula

inertial forces u0 L
Re = = (10)
viscous forces ν
Where Re is the Reynolds Number, u0 is the terminal velocity, L is the characteristic length or diameter of
the bearing and v is the kinematic viscosity of the fluids. The results can be seen in table 8, uncertainty is
assumed to be the same as that of the viscosity.

Medium Re
Castor oil 1.933
Glycerin 3.552
Motor oil 30.243

Table 8: Mean Reynold Numbers from final results

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Viscosity Experiment 5 CONCLUSION

5 Conclusion
Although the viscosity was within an "acceptable" range of what was expected, the Reynold numbers suggest
that the premise and assumption of laminar flow was a somewhat optimistic one, especially so in the case of
the Motor oil. The only definitive conclusion we are capable of drawing is that three measurements are not
enough to determine viscosity with an acceptable degree of accuracy and that perhaps, measuring the same
bearing size fall time nine times instead of three different bearing sizes, three different times would have given
us a better estimate of the viscosity. Regardless, the results for the fluids viscosity are consistently above the
references values. This suggests there is a factor in the measurements or premise that’s causing a systematic
error in our results. Considering the fact that the Reynold numbers were consistently above one, perhaps we
can attribute a part of this systematic error to turbulence and the increased drag thereof, especially so in the
case of the Motor oil.

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Viscosity Experiment 6 APPENDIX

6 Appendix

6.1 Glycerin

Drop Frames 240/s Velocity [m/s]

Drop 1 249 0.226
Drop 2 242 0.232
Drop 3 244 0.230

Table 9: Glycerin - Small Sphere

Drop Frames 240/s Velocity [m/s]

Drop 1 171 0.328
Drop 2 164 0.342
Drop 3 167 0.336

Table 10: Glycerin - Medium Sphere

Drop Frames 240/s Velocity [m/s]

Drop 1 164 0.342
Drop 2 163 0.345
Drop 3 160 0.351

Table 11: Glycerin - Large Sphere

Sphere Average Speed [m/s] Standard deviation

Small 0.229 0.003
Medium 0.336 0.007
Large 0.346 0.004

Table 12: Glycerin - Results

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Viscosity Experiment 6 APPENDIX

6.2 Motor Oil

Drop Frames 240/s Velocity [m/s]

Drop 1 52 1.080
Drop 2 53 1.060
Drop 3 51 1.101

Table 13: Motor Oil - Small Sphere

Drop Frames 240/s Velocity [m/s]

Drop 1 43 1.306
Drop 2 44 1.276
Drop 3 42 1.337

Table 14: Motor Oil - Medium Sphere

Drop Frames 240/s Velocity [m/s]

Drop 1 43 1.306
Drop 2 42 1.337
Drop 3 42 1.337

Table 15: Motor Oil - Large Sphere

Sphere Average Speed [m/s] Standard deviation

Small 1.080 0.021
Medium 1.306 0.030
Large 1.327 0.018

Table 16: Motor Oil - Results

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Viscosity Experiment 6 APPENDIX

6.3 Castor Oil

Drop Frames 240/s Velocity [m/s]

Drop 1 214 0.262
Drop 2 218 0.258
Drop 3 220 0.255

Table 17: Castor Oil - Small Sphere

Drop Frames 240/s Velocity [m/s]

Drop 1 146 0.385
Drop 2 147 0.382
Drop 3 146 0.385

Table 18: Castor Oil - Medium Sphere

Drop Frames 240/s Velocity [m/s]

Drop 1 134 0.419
Drop 2 135 0.416
Drop 3 133 0.423

Table 19: Castor Oil - Large Sphere

Sphere Average Speed [m/s] Standard deviation

Small 0.258 0.004
Medium 0.384 0.002
Large 0.419 0.003

Table 20: Castor Oil Medium Results

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Viscosity Experiment REFERENCES

References
[1] R. Hibbeler, Fluid mechanics. Pearson, 2015.

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