FEEG2003 – 2018/19

Lecture 3 – The deformation of a Fluid Element,

Pressure and the Stress Tensor

• Aim

The aim of this lecture is to develop an expression for the total stress tensor ij.

This tensor represents the forces that act on a fluid particle.

Once we have found an expression for ij we can go on to develop the equations
of motion for fluids.

There are two parts to ij :

– a part related to the hydrostatic pressure

– a part related to viscous forces due to (rate of) deformation

L1.3.1

• Forces on a fluid element at rest

We saw in the last lecture how stress forces acting on a fluid element can de
described using a stress tensor ij.

Consider a small cubic fluid element with it’s sides aligned to the axes. In this
case the diagonal elements of the stress tensor are perpendicular to the faces.

If the fluid is at rest the stress forces must balance the pressure forces. Thus

or

L1.3.2
 • Viscous Forces on a fluid element in motion

When the fluid is moving viscous forces are developed that are described by
the viscous stress tensor ij.

The viscous forces are related to the rate of deformation suffered by the fluid
element as it moves so we need to find a way of describing this.

For motivation we start by looking at a simple 1-d situation.

L1.3.3

• Rate of strain in 1-d

A(t)=x
A(tt)x+u(x,t)t
Suppose two points, A and B are moving
In 1-d as shown. B(t)=x+x

δ( /
Rate of strain = Limt0 B(tt)x+x+u(x+x,t)t

Length Length 

= Limt0

Length (t) = x

Length (t + t) = x+x+u(x+x,t)t – x - u(x,t)t

Change in Length = u(x+x,t)t – u(x,t)t

Change in Length / Original Length= (u(x+x,t)– u(x,t))t / x

Rate of strain = Limt0 (u(x+x,t) – u(x,t))/x =

L1.3.4
 • Rate of deformation tensor and rate of strain tensor in 3-d

• Extend above analysis to 3-d and arrive at the rate of deformation tensor:

or

The element Dij represents the rate of deformation in the xi direction of an edge of the
fluid element aligned in the xj direction.

L1.3.5

We have seen that the viscous forces should be proportional to the rate of strain.

It may be supposed therefore that the viscous stress tensor, , is related to the
rate of deformation tensor Dij by:

X
This is not the case!

To understand why consider the types of deformation that a fluid can undergo:

L1.3.6
 • Deformations of a fluid particle

No change of shape
(a) Rigid Body Translation

No viscous stress involved

(b) Rigid Body Rotation

Change of shape
(c) Shearing Motion
Viscous stress created

(d) Compression

It is easy to see that for a rotation 0 but that no viscous force is involved!

L1.3.7

• Rate of Strain Tensor

can be decomposed into a symmetric and an anti-symmetric part.

The symmetric part will be denoted and is defined as:

1
,
2

Or
1 1
2 2
1 1
2 2
1 1
2 2

While the antisymmetric part, , is defined as:

L1.3.8
 1
Ω ,
2

Or
1 1
0
2 2
1 1
0 .
2 2
1 1
0
2 2

In suffix notation we write:

Ω , where , Ω

The symmetric part, , turns out to be the ‘rate of strain tensor’ which describes
shearing and compression of the element, while the anti-symmetric part is equal
to the ‘vorticity tensor’ which describes the ‘solid-body’ rotation of the element.

L1.3.9

Can we now assume that the viscous stress tensor, , is related to the rate of
strain tensor Sij by:

No!
X
It turns out that the correct answer is:

2 ,

where is the fluid viscosity, is a viscosity coefficient which will be defined in the
next lecture and is the Kronecker delta.

Read section 1.3.2. of the notes that shows how the term Sii is related to the rate
of dilation.

Read section 1.3.3. of the notes that shows how the off diagonal elements are
related to shearing.

Read section 1.3.4. of the notes that shows how  is related to vorticity.
L1.3.10
We now develop an expression for the stress tensor.

Recall that the total stress tensor is the sum of two parts:

Where
2

We need to determine  to complete the form of the stress tensor.

If you read section 1.3.2. of the notes you will know that the term Skk is related
to the rate of dilation:
1

As a change in volume with time is normally assumed to be related to a

change in pressure, we might surmise that the Skk term is related to the
pressure.

This is the case – but it is more subtle than one might imagine!
L1.3.11

• Pressure in a static fluid

In a fluid at rest the normal stress opposes the hydrostatic pressure and the
stress due to the hydrostatic pressure acts equally in all directions (Pascall’s
Law).

0 0
0 0 ,
0 0
or

Furthermore:

1
3 L1.3.12
• Pressure in a moving fluid

In analogy to the static case define the mean mechanical pressure for a
moving fluid as:
1 2
3 3

Stokes’ Hypothesis (1895) is that the mechanical and hydrostatic (or

thermodynamic) pressures should be equal. This requires that we put:

2
3
Notice, however, that Pascall’s Law no longer holds – the normal stresses
need no longer be equal.

Stokes’ hypothesis works well for monatomic gases. For other fluids it must be
modified:
2
,
3
where is the bulk viscosity. We ignore it in this course.

L1.3.13

• Final form of the total stress tensor

We assume Stokes’ hypothesis and take the form of the total stress tensor to
be:
2
2 ,
3
or:

2
3

The last term is 0 for off-diagonal elements.

Consider 2

Term 3 says that the stress required to produce a given rate of strain /
becomes smaller as the fluid dilation is intensified.

Note: The form of stress tensor holds for Newtonian fluids that satisfy the
Stokes’ hypothesis.
L1.3.14