CEE 451G ENVIRONMENTAL FLUID MECHANICS

LECTURE 1: SCALARS, VECTORS AND TENSORS

A scalar has magnitude but no direction.

An example is pressure p.
The coordinates x, y and z of Cartesian space are scalars.
A vector has both magnitude and direction
Let î, ĵ, k̂ denote unit vectors in the x, y and z direction. The hat
denotes a magnitude of unity

The position vector x (the arrow denotes a vector that is not a unit
vector) is given as


x  x î  yĵ  zk̂ z

x
k̂
ĵ y
î
x
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 LECTURE 1: SCALARS, VECTORS AND TENSORS

The velocity vector u is given as

 dx dx dy dz
u  î  ĵ  k̂
dt dt dt dt

The acceleration vector a is given as
 
 du du dv dw d2 x d2x d2 y d2z
a  î  ĵ  k̂  2  2 î  2 ĵ  2 k̂
dt dt dt dt dt dt dt dt
The units that we will use in class are length L, time T, mass M and
temperature °. The units of a parameter are denoted in brackets. Thus

[x ]  L

[u]  LT 1

[a ]  ? LT 2

Newton’s second law is a vectorial statement: where F denotes the
force vector and m denotes the mass (which is a scalar)
 
F  ma 2
 LECTURE 1: SCALARS, VECTORS AND TENSORS

The components of the force vector can be written as follows:


F  Fx î  Fy ĵ  Fzk̂

The dimensions of the force vector are the dimension of mass times
the dimension acceleration

[F]  [Fx ]  MLT 2

Pressure p, which is a scalar, has dimensions of force per unit area.

The dimensions of pressure are thus
[p]  MLT 2 /(L2 )  ML1T 2

The acceleration of gravity g is a scalar with the dimensions of (of

course) acceleration:

[g]  LT 2
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 LECTURE 1: SCALARS, VECTORS AND TENSORS

A scalar can be a function of a vector, a vector of a scalar, etc. For

example, in fluid flows pressure and velocity are both functions of
position and time:
  
p  p(x, t) , u  u( x, t)

A scalar is a zero-order tensor. A vector is a first-order tensor. A

matrix is a second order tensor. For example, consider the stress
tensor .

  xx  xy  xz 
 
    yx  yy  yz 
  zy  zz 
 zx

The stress tensor has 9 components. What do they mean? Use the
following mnemonic device: first face, second stress
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 LECTURE 1: SCALARS, VECTORS AND TENSORS
Consider the volume element below.
z

Each of the six faces has a direction.

For example, this face
and this face
are normal to the y direction

A force acting on any face can act in the x, y and z directions.

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 LECTURE 1: SCALARS, VECTORS AND TENSORS
Consider the face below.
z

yy yz
y
yx
x

The face is in the direction y.

The force per unit face area acting in the x direction on that face is the
stress yx (first face, second stress).
The forces per unit face area acting in the y and z directions on that
face are the stresses yy and yz.
Here yy is a normal stress (acts normal, or perpendicular to the face)
and yx and yz are shear stresses (act parallel to the face) 6
 LECTURE 1: SCALARS, VECTORS AND TENSORS
Some conventions are in order
z

yx
yy yz yy
yz y
yx
x

Normal stresses are defined to be positive outward, so the orientation

is reversed on the face located y from the origin
Shear stresses similarly reverse sign on the opposite face face are the
stresses yy and yz.
Thus a positive normal stress puts a body in tension, and a negative
normal stress puts the body in compression. Shear stresses always put
the body in shear.`
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 LECTURE 1: SCALARS, VECTORS AND TENSORS
Another way to write a vector is in Cartesian form:

x  x î  yĵ  zk̂  ( x, y, z)
The coordinates x, y and z can also be written as x1, x2, x3. Thus the
vector can be written as

x  ( x1, x 2 , x 3 )
or as

x  ( x i ) , i  1..3
or in index notation, simply as

x  xi
where i is understood to be a dummy variable running from 1 to 3.

Thus xi, xj and xp all refer to the same vector (x1, x2 and x3) , as the
index (subscript) always runs from 1 to 3.
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 LECTURE 1: SCALARS, VECTORS AND TENSORS

Scalar multiplication: let  be a scalar and A = Ai be a vector.
Then 
A  Ai  (Ai , A 2 , A 3 )
is a vector.
Dot or scalar product of two vectors results in a scalar:
 
A  B  A1B1  A 2B2  A 3B3  scalar
In index notation, the dot product takes the form
  3 3 3
A  B   AiBi   AkBk   ArBr 
i1 k 1 r 1

Einstein summation convention: if the same index occurs twice, always

sum over that index. So we abbreviate to
 
A  B  AiBi  AkBk  ArBr

There is no free index in the above expressions. Instead the indices

are paired (e.g. two i’s), implying summation. The result of the dot
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product is thus a scalar.
 LECTURE 1: SCALARS, VECTORS AND TENSORS
Magnitude of a vector:
2  
A  A  A  Ai Ai

A tensor can be constructed by multiplying two vectors (not scalar

product):

 A1B1 A 2B1 A 3B1 

 
AiB j  ( AiB j ) ,i  1..3, j  1..3   A1B2 A 2B2 A 3B3 
A B A 2B3 A 3B3 
 1 3
Two free indices (i, j) means the result is a second-order tensor
Now consider the expression
Ai A jB j
This is a first-order tensor, or vector because there is only one free
index, i (the j’s are paired, implying summation).
Ai A jB j  ( A1B1  A 2B2  A 3B2 )( A1, A 2 , A 3 )
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That is, scalar times vector = vector.
 LECTURE 1: SCALARS, VECTORS AND TENSORS
Kronecker delta ij

 1 0 0
1 if i  j  
ij    0 1 0
0 if i  j  
 0 0 1 
Since there are two free indices, the result is a second-order tensor, or
matrix. The Kronecker delta corresponds to the identity matrix.

Third-order Levi-Civita tensor.

 1 if i, j,k cycle clockwise: 1,2,3, 2,3,1 or 3,1,2


ijl   1 if i, j,k cycle counterclockwise: 1,3,2, 3,2,2 or 2,1,3
 0 otherwise

Vectorial cross product:
 
AxB  ijk A jBk
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One free index, so the result must be a vector.
 LECTURE 1: SCALARS, VECTORS AND TENSORS

Vectorial cross product: Let C be given as
  
C  AxB
Then

 î ĵ k̂  î ĵ k̂
  
C  det A1 A 2 A 3   A1 A 2 A3 
 
 B1 B2 B3  B1 B2 B3

 î ĵ k̂  î ĵ   î ĵ k̂  î ĵ 
     
 A1 A 2 A 3   A1 A 2    A1 A 2 A 3   A1 A2  
     
 B1 B2 B3  B1 B2   B1 B2 B3  B1 B2 

 A 2B3  A3B2  î   A3B1  A1B3  ĵ   A1B2  A 2B1 k̂

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 LECTURE 1: SCALARS, VECTORS AND TENSORS
Vectorial cross product in tensor notation:
Ci  ijk A jBk
Thus for example
=1 = -1 =0
C1  1jk A jBk  123 A 2B3  132 A3B2  111 A1B1  a lot of other terms that
all = 0
 A 2B3  A 3B2
i.e. the same result as the other slide. The same results are also
obtained for C2 and C3.

The nabla vector operator  :
   
  î  ĵ  k̂
x1 x 2 x 3
or in index notation

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x i
 LECTURE 1: SCALARS, VECTORS AND TENSORS
The gradient converts a scalar to a vector. For example, where p is
pressure,
 p p p
grad(p)  p  î  ĵ  k̂
x1 x 2 x 3
or in index notation
p
grad(p) 
x i
The single free index i (free in that it is not paired with another i) in the
above expression means that grad(p) is a vector.

The divergence converts a vector into a scalar. For example, where u
is the velocity vector,
 u1 u2 u3 ui uk
div(u)     
x1 x 2 x 3 x i x k
Note that there is no free index (two i’s or two k’s), so the result is a
scalar.
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 LECTURE 1: SCALARS, VECTORS AND TENSORS

The curl converts a vector to a vector. For example, where u is the
velocity vector,
î ĵ k̂
     
curl(u)  xu  
x1 x 2 x 3
u1 u2 u3
 u3 u2   u1 u3   u2 u1 
   î     ĵ    k̂
 x 2 x 3   x 3 x1   x1 x 2 

or in index notation,
 uk
curl(u)  ijk
x j
One free index i (the j’s and the k’s are paired) means that the result is
a vector

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 LECTURE 1: SCALARS, VECTORS AND TENSORS

A useful manipulation in tensor notation can be used to change an index

in an expression:

iju j  ui

This manipulation works because the Kronecker delta ij = 0 except when
i = j, in which case it equals 1.

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