Fluid

❀ Basically, anything that flows.

❀ Liquid is hard to compress as it follows the shape of its container with an upper free surface.
❀ Gas is easy to compress as it also expands to fill its container where there is no free surface.

Why do we need to study about fluid/s?

Fluid mechanics is a very important field of study, and its applications can be found in
numerous aspects of everyday life. Fluid mechanics is crucial in manufacturing for optimizing the
design and operation of production processes such as casting, extrusion, and injection molding.
Engineers use fluid dynamics to improve the efficiency and quality of these processes. The principles
of fluid mechanics are used to design and optimize vehicles, such as airplanes, ships, and cars.
Engineers use fluid dynamics to calculate aerodynamic forces, lift, drag, and turbulence to design
more efficient and safer transportation systems. For example, the lift generated by the wings of an
airplane is a result of fluid mechanics principles. Overall, fluid mechanics is a fundamental field of
study that has a significant impact on our daily lives. It enables researchers and engineers to
understand the behavior of fluids and to develop efficient and effective solutions to complex
problems. Its principles help us understand and improve the world around us. Its impact on our daily
lives is far-reaching and essential to many aspects of modern life.

Characteristics of Fluid
❀ Compressibility
↬ Applying pressure to a fluid in order to put greater mass into a small container
↬ Gases and liquids vary in this characteristic
↬ Gas is more compressible than liquid
↬ Some liquids are considered incompressible.
❀ Density
↬ very common and important property of matter.
↬ Density is defined as the mass contained in a unit volume. The more precise name for
density is volumetric mass density
↬ density of a liquid equals the mass of the liquid divided by its volume
SI Unit: kg/m3
 = density
𝑚 English Unit: slug/ft3
𝜌=
𝑉 m = mass

V = volume

❀ Pressure
↬ measurement of the force per unit area on an object in the fluid or on the surface of a
closed container
↬ can be caused by gravity, acceleration, or by forces outside a closed container.
↬ defined as force divided by the area on which the force is pushing.
P = pressure
𝐹
𝑃=
𝐴 F = force

A = Area

↬ Manometer is a device used to measure pressures. A common simple manometer

consists of a U-shaped tube of glass filled with some liquid.

❀ Buoyancy
↬ tendency of a body to float or to rise when submerged in a fluid testing an object's
buoyancy
FB = buoyant force

 = fluid density
𝐹𝐵 = 𝑉𝜌𝑔
g = acceleration due to gravity

V = fluid volume

❀ Viscosity
↬ fluid’s resistance to flow, more viscous a fluid is, the harder it is to make a fluid flow.
↬ The thicker the fluid the greater its viscosity, less viscous fluids are easier to flow.

𝜏 τ = shear stress
𝜇=
𝑑𝑢
𝑑𝑦 du/dy = shear strain or rate of
shear deformation or velocity
gradient
↬ High viscosity = Less flow, Low viscosity = More flow
↬
Types of fluids
❀ Ideal Fluid
↬ incompressible and it is an imaginary fluid that doesn’t exist in reality.
↬ it doesn’t have viscosity.

❀ Real Fluid
↬ fluid which possesses at least some viscosity is termed as real fluid.
↬ Actually, all the fluids existing or present in the environment are called real fluids.
↬ Some of its examples are petrol, air etc.

❀ Newtonian Fluid
↬ fluid whose viscosity remains constant is known as the Newtonian fluid.
↬ fluids are independent of the amount of shear stress applied to them with respect to
time
↬ relationship between the viscosity and shear stress of these fluids is linear.
↬ Some of its examples are water, air, alcohol, glycerol, thin motor oil etc.

❀ Non-Newtonian Fluid
↬ If the real fluid does not obey Newton’s law of viscosity i.e. if the shear stress is not
proportional to the shear strain or velocity gradient then it is called non-Newtonian fluid.
↬ Some of its example’s honey, soap solutions, cosmetics, and etc.

❀ Ideal Plastic Fluid

↬ When the shear stress becomes proportional to the velocity gradient and more than
the yield value, the fluid is said to be the ideal plastic fluid.

❀ Incompressible Fluid
↬ When the density of the fluid remains invariant with the application of external force, it
is said to be incompressible fluid.

❀ Compressible Fluid
↬ When the density of the fluid varies with the application of external force, it is a
compressible fluid.