Basics of Fluid Mechanics

P M V Subbarao
Professor
Mechanical Engineering Department

First Level Appreciation of Fluids for Productive

Pedagogy…
Engineering View: Bountiful Nature of Fluids

Apply a Force F at time t=t for time t >t

at time t=0

A fluid continually deforms (flows) under an applied

shear force regardless of the magnitude of the
applied stress.
Continuously & Adaptively Deforming of
Fluids

A fluid Smartly/adaptively deforms (flows) under an

applied shear force regardless of the magnitude of the
applied stress.
Engineering Understanding of Fluid :
Productive Pedagogy
India : The land of flying machines

Flying machines described in many ancient texts like

Yajurveda, Mahabharata, Samarangana Sutradhara,
Rigweda, Ramayana and even older ones.
19th Century Research in Development of Air
Ships based on 250BC Ideas
19th Century Air Ships based on 250BC Ideas
The Shocking News in The New York Times

• 1 million to 10 million years they might be able to make a

plane that would fly ?!?!?!
• People had dreamed of flying for many years.
• The United States Army was trying to develop an airplane in
1903, but the plane wouldn't fly.
• The New York Times wrote that maybe in
1 million to 10 million years they might be able to make a
plane that would fly.
• Only eight days later two men were successful in flying the
first manned plane.
• Controlled, powered flight had seemed impossible until Orville
Wright took off on the 17th December 1903.
• They were Wilbur Wright and his younger brother, Orville.
Development of an Ultimate Fluid machine
Exotic Use of Continuously Deforming Fluid
 A Ship Can’t Fly
• “An airship, is a big, clumsy balloon filled with gas.”
• “A flying machine,” by Wilbur.
• “The name we prefer is ‘flyer,’” said Orville.

Right Action to generate Lift

Airship Flyer
The Strange Natural Geniuses : The Wright
Brothers
Wilbur Wright on Their Flying

"It is possible to fly without motors, but

not without knowledge and skill.“

"The desire to fly is an idea handed down

to us by our ancestors who...looked
enviously on the birds soaring freely
through space...on the infinite highway of
the air.“
Motoring of Zebrafish in Water
Motorcontrol strategies : Multiple Skills of
Natural Genius

Larva of Chinook Salman

Larval Lamprey

Northern Pike
 A Broad View of Fluids
• A First level engineering fluid mechanics problems deal with these clear cases
—that is, the common liquids, such as water, oil, mercury, gasoline, and
alcohol, and the common gases, such as air, helium, hydrogen, and steam, in
their common temperature and pressure ranges.
• There are many borderline cases:
• Apparently “solid” substances: Asphalt and lead resist shear stress for short
periods but actually deform slowly and exhibit definite fluid behavior over
long periods.
• Colloid and slurry mixtures resist small shear stresses but “yield” at large
stress and begin to flow as fluids do.
• Rheology is a specialized fluid Mechanics devoted to this study of more
general deformation and flow.
• Liquids and gases can coexist in two-phase mixtures, such as steam–water
mixtures or water with entrapped air bubbles.
• Muliti-Phase Fluid Dynamics is a specialized subject to present the analysis of
such multiphase flows.
Need for A Special View:
Continuum Hypothesis
 The Continuum Approach
• The fluid is treated as being a continuous piece of matter, referred
as the continuum approach or the continuum hypothesis.
• This continuum hypothesis believes that average values for
velocity, acceleration, entropy, or energy at any point in a fluid
domain exist and valid for design and development.
• However, averaged values are discontinuous when looking at the
atomic scale.
• On a real engineering scale, observing the effects in a continuum
gives rise to more steady and repeatable data.
• The continuum hypothesis is used in classical fluid mechanics.
 Microscopic View

Max Planck changed physics

and our understanding of the
world forever
Hermann Müller taught his receptive young
student how to visualize the laws of physics in his
mind – a vital weapon in the armory of the great
physicists
 Discussion of The Continuum Approach

Properties describes at a “point” of fluid is actually a group of many

molecules moving around randomly inside a molecular-scale
volume.
Instead of perceiving each of these molecule’s properties, we
perceive a type of average of these at a given “point”.
 Validity of The Continuum Approach

Consider a spherical molecular “net” in a fluid

 Validity of The Continuum Approach

Visualize the motion of molecules pass in and out.

Validity of The Continuum Approach
 Things to Think About

1. How can you preemptively check if the continuum

approximation is appropriate?
 Can you think of some “measure” of how good it is?
2. Can you think of all useful fluid properties you could obtain using
this hypothesis?
3. Why does it make sense to assume that the properties of many
similar, randomly-moving molecules average out to something
non-random?
 Does this arise from a physical phenomenon, or a mathematical
one?
 Things to Think About

4. How would you try to estimate the molecular energy of a group of

molecules?
Are there other concepts in physics & engineering that could help
you do that?
5. Can you make any guesses as to how some continuum properties
affect each other based on their molecular equivalents?
6. From an experimental perspective, can you think of any reason
why this definition of fluid properties is convenient?
How would you as an experimentalist measure them?