FEEG2003 – 2018/19

Lecture 4
Conservation Laws for Viscous Flow
• In this lecture we will derive the conservation laws for viscous flow.

• The lectures cover the material in sections L1.5 and L1.6 of the
course notes.

The conservation laws we wish to derive are:

1. Conservation of Mass
0
For solid particles
2. Conservation of Momentum

We want to derive the analogous equations for fluid particles – more properly
for material volumes.

L1.4.1

Part I – Reynold’s Transport Theorem

L1.4.2
 • Control Volumes and Material Volumes

A Control Volume is a fixed region of space.

CV
It can be any closed shape we please.

Fluid can move into and/or out of a control volume.

A Material Volume contains a fixed body of fluid.

It moves with the flow and deforms as necessary.

CVs are an Eulerian approach

(t+t)
(fixed frame)
M(t)

MVs are a Lagrangian frame

(frame moves with the fluid)
L1.4.3

• Eulerian and Lagrangian “rates of change”

These concepts should be familiar to you

The Eulerian time derivative is the rate of change of a

flow variable at a fixed position in space:
Time t

·
| , ,
Time tt Position (x,y,z)

The Lagrangian time derivative is the rate of change

of a flow variable measured by an observer moving
with the flow:

Time t
· ·
u· ·

Time tt
Position (x+x,y+y,z+z)
L1.4.4
• Examples of Lagrangian Derivatives

Rate of change of density

u·
or in suffix notation:

, , ,

A flow is incompressible if
0.

Rate of change of velocity

The fluid velocity, , , quantifies the velocity of a fluid ‘particle’ at location and
time . The particle acceleration, , , is thus the time rate of change of , in
a frame of reference moving with the particle i.e.

.
L1.4.5

• The Divergence Theorem

The divergence theorem states that for any vector quantity r and for a fixed volume
V bounded by a surface A

· dA div dV

or

· dA · dV

or in suffix notation

L1.4.6
 • Example of the Divergence Theorem – Conservation of Mass

Imagine a (fixed) control volume V bounded by a surface A.

If there are no sources or sinks of mass within V then:

V
A
“Rate of change of mass in V = mass flux across A”

V fixed so can put time

Rate of change of mass in
derivative inside integral

Mass flux across A Divergence Theorem

Conservation of Mass Equation 0 V is arbitrary

L1.4.7

• Notice that in deriving the conservation of mass equation we used the fact
that there are no sources or sinks of mass.

• When it comes to momentum there are ways of creating it --- i.e. forces.

• Forces do not act on control volumes – they act on the fluid.

• Thus we have to use material volumes (on which forces act) rather than
control volumes.

• This requires some further mathematical machinery – the Reynolds’

Transport Theorem.

• Reynolds’ Transport Theorem lets us work out the time rate of change of
an extensive variable associated with a material volume.

• The variable can be scalar or vector.

L1.4.8
• Extensive Variables for a Material Volume

Any material volume has a number of extensive variables associated with it

e.g. mass, momentum, internal energy, etc.

Each can be found by integrating the corresponding intensive variable over the
volume:

, , .

e.g.

, .

, ,

L1.4.9

• Reynolds’ Transport Theorem

For

, , .

we want to find an expression for

Notice that as we are dealing with material volumes, B(t) is a function of time
only and hence

L1.4.10
• Reynolds’ Transport Theorem

For

, , .

we want to find an expression for

Notice that as we are dealing with material volumes, B(t) is a function of time
only and hence

• We will not derive the most general form of RTT.

• We will derive it in 1-d and then generalise (see course notes for complete
derivation).
L1.4.11

Consider a fluid flowing as below. At time t define a control volume CV that

coincides with M(t

u M(t

At time t0 + t the material volume has moved (remember it follows the fluid)
but the CV remains fixed:

M(t
I II

At time t

At time t + t

Now

So:
L1.4.12
 M(t
I II

At time t

At time t + t

Now: and:

lim lim
→
→

lim lim
→
→

So:

L1.4.13

Fixed control volume CV = M(t)

In 3-d this becomes:
Material volume M(t+t) = CV-I+II

u·n

and as CV does not change with time:

u·n

Lastly, at time t the CV coincides with M(t) so we can write this as:

u·n

L1.4.14
• Summary

We have two forms of Reynolds’ Transport Theorem:

u·n

u·n

Remember: In each case the CV = M(t)

L1.4.15

• Example of RTT – Conservation of Mass

In the Reynolds’ Transport Theorem put b=1:

then B is equal to the mass of the material volume and:

0 for any material volume

so the RTT gives

Use the divergence theorem on the second integral:

And since this equation must apply to any material volume (including an
infinitesimally small material volume) we obtain the conservation of mass equation.

L1.4.16
 Part II – Conservation of Momentum Law for
Viscous Flow

L1.4.17

Newton’s second law applied to a small solid particle states that the time rate
of change of momentum of the particle is equal to the net forces acting on the
particle i.e.

where Mi is the particle’s momentum in the xi -direction and Fi is the net force
acting on the particle in the same direction.

The momentum is given by

We will do something similar by applying Newton’s second law to a material

volume, M, of fluid.

L1.4.18
• Newton’s Law for a Material Volume

The momentum inside the material volume at

time t is:

(t+t)
M(t)
and Newton’s law applied to the material
volume is:

Eq.(1)

Use Reynolds’ Transport Theorem to expand the LHS:

Eq.(2)

We now need to write the RHS of equation (1) as an integral over the MV.
L1.4.19

• The Force acting on a Material Volume

The forces acting on the material volume will be:

Pressure forces
Viscous forces
Body forces (such as gravity)

Note:
• Pressure and viscosity both act across the surface of the control volume.
• Body forces act over the entire volume.

Thus we write:
.

The only body force which we will consider in this course is that due to gravity:

, Eq.(3)

L1.4.20
The surface forces acting on the material volume (pressure and stress) are
described by the stress tensor

Recall that the notation σ denotes that this component of the stress tensor acts
in the xi-direction on a surface element whose normal is in the xj direction.

The surface stress per unit area is the vector:

i1

What happens when the surface is not aligned with a coordinate direction?

L1.4.21

i3 The stress per unit area is the vector

t t i i i

n where:

i2

We can write this more simple as: where we use the

i1 summation convention

If the surface has area A the stress acting on it is

So a material volume the total surface forces will be

Eq.(4)

L1.4.22
• The Navier Stokes Equations

Let’s collect together are results:

Eq.(1)

where

Eq.(2)

and

, Eq.(4) Eq.(3)

Substitute (2), (3) and (4) in (1) to give: Use the divergence
theorem

L1.4.23

Because this equation must be valid for any sized material volume, the integrand
must be equal to zero i.e. our conservation of momentum equation can be written
as follows

This equation is commonly referred to as the Navier-Stokes equation (or really the
ith component of the Navier-Stokes equations).

L1.4.24