Lecture 1: Fluid and their

properties

Lecture outcomes:
Identify important fluid properties in a complex fluid
phenomenon
Apply fluid properties to solve engineering
problems

How do I swim?

Fluids
A fluid can be classified as liquid form and gas
form.
Fluid has no definite shape but conform the
shape of containing vessel.
A fluid is a substance which deforms
continuously under the action of shearing
forces, however small they may be.
If a fluid is at rest, there can be no shearing
forces acting and, therefore, all forces in the
fluid must be perpendicular to the planes upon
which they act.

Shear stress in a moving

fluid
Shear stresses are developed when the
fluid move in such a way that the particles
of the fluid move relative to each other so
that they have different velocities.
If the velocity of the fluid is the same at
every point, no shear stresses will be
produced, since the fluid particles are at
rest relative to each other.
For the fluid at rest, there are no shear
stress.

What is the difference between force and

stress?

REVIEW

Shear layers
Considering successive layers
parallel to boundary, the velocity of
the fluid will vary from layer to layer
as y increases.

Fluid Mechanics
Fluid Mechanics
Fluid Mechanics
Table

Couette flow is fluid flow between two parallel plates

Rheometer = a device to measure viscosity

Liquid in between
the plates

Wall

Newtons law of viscosity

Liquids dynamic viscosity

Shear and dynamic viscosity

Review: What is shear?
Definition: The coefficient of dynamic
viscosity (or simply dynamic viscosity)
can be defined as the shear stress
required to drag one layer of fluid with
unit velocity past another layer a unit
distance away from it in the fluid.
Unit of : Ns/m2

Newtonian and Non-Newtonian Fluid

Fluids obeying Newtons law of
viscosity and has a constant value
for are known as Newtonian Fluids
Most common fluids fall into this
category, for which shear stress is
linearly related to velocity gradient.
Fluids which do not obey Newtons
law of viscosity are known as nonNewtonian Fluids.

Shear stress,

Plastic
Bingham plastic
Pseudo-plastic
Newtonian fluid

Dilatant

Ideal fluid = 0

Rate of shear, du/dy

Definitions of density
Mass Density is defined as the mass of the
substance per unit volume, the unit is kg/m 3.
Specific Weight w is define as weight per unit
volume, the unit is N/m3, such that w = g
Relative Density is defined as the ratio of
the mass density of a substance to some
standard mass density, such that = substance /
H2O at 4C

Specific Volume v is defined as the reciprocal

of mass density 1/, the unit is m3/kg.

Kinematic viscosity
Definition: The kinematic viscosity
is defined as the ratio of dynamic
viscosity to mass density.

= /, unit: m2/s

Quiz 1
A plate initially at rest on a flat
surface covered with 0.05mm thin
layer of oil requires a shear load of
2.2N/m2 to attain a relative speed of
1.2m/s . Find the dynamic viscosity
and kinematic viscosity.

Quiz 2
A plate having an area of 0.6m2 is
sliding down the inclined plane at 30 o
to the horizontal with a velocity of
0.36m/s. There is a cushion of fluid
1.8mm thick between the plane and
the plate. Find the viscosity of fluid if
the weight of the plate is 280N.

Surface tension

Water drippings
from a tap turn
spherical

A water Strider uses

surface tension to skim
above the pond

Cause of surface tension

Molecule I in the interior of
liquid is under attractive forces
in all directions and the vector
sum of these forces is zero.
Molecule S at the surface of a
liquid, the upward and
downward attractions are
unbalanced, the surface
molecules being pulled inward
towards the bulk of the liquid.
This effect causes the liquid
surface to behave as if it were
an elastic membrane under
tension, known as surface
tension.

Droplet surface tension

The surface tension is measured as
the force acting across the unit
length, the unit is N/m.
Conventionally, we take spherical
shape to represent the liquid droplet.
For such a small droplet, surface
tension will cause an increase of
internal pressure p in order to
balance the surface force.

Quantifying surface tension

Considering the forces acting on a
diametrical plane through a spherical
drop of radius r

Force balance
Force due to internal pressure = p
r2
Force due to surface tension around
the perimeter = 2 r
For equilibrium, p r2 = 2 r
p = 2 / r

Quiz 3
Air is introduced through a nozzle
into a tank of water to form a stream
of bubbles. If the bubbles are
intended to have a diameter of 2mm,
calculate by how much the pressure
of the air at the nozzle must exceed
that of the surrounding water.
Assume that = 72.7 10-3N/m

Capillary rise and

depression
Capillarity is important (in fluid
measurements) when using tubes
smaller than about 10mm in
diameter.

Capillarity
Rise or fall of a liquid in a capillary tube is
caused by surface tension and depends
on the relative magnitude of cohesion of
the liquid and the adhesion of the liquid
to the walls of the containing vessel.
Liquids rise in tubes if they wet (adhesion
> cohesion) and fall in tubes that do not
wet (adhesion < cohesion)

Deriving the height of capillary rise

Capillary rise (or depression) in a tube
can be calculated by making a force
balance.
The force due to surface tension (liquidsolid pull), Fs = cos d
The force opposing the surface tension is
the weight of the vertical-sided column
of liquid of height, Fg =gh ( /4)d 2
4 cos
Since Fg = Fs , therefore h gd

Quiz 4
A clean tube of diameter 2.5mm is
immersed in a liquid with a surface
tension of 0.4N/m. The angle of
contact of the liquid with the glass
can be assumed to be 135o. The
density of the liquid is 13600kg/m3.
What would be the level of the liquid
in the tube relative to the free
surface of the liquid inside the tube?

Quiz 5
Two coaxial glass tubes forming an
annulus with small gap are immersed
in water in a trough. The inner and
outer radii of the annulus are ri and ro
respectively. What is the capillary
rise if is the surface tension, is a
mass density and is a contact angle
of water with the glass tubes?

Flaming cocktail
Can fire burn in
liquid?

Exchange of molecules in constant

equilibrium
Molecules of liquid are in constant agitation.
Some of the molecules in the surface layer
have sufficient energy to escape from the
attraction of the surrounding molecules into
the space above the free surface. Other
molecules will return, condense and turn to
liquid.
If the number of molecules condensing and
evaporating are equal, the level of the free
surface remains constant.

Vapor pressure
At equilibrium, some molecules will stay in gas
phase above the free surface, taking up a
partial pressure of the space known as vapor
pressure.
The degree of molecular activity increases with
increasing temperature and therefore, the
vapor pressure will also increase.
If the vapor pressure reaches the pressure at
the surrounding, boiling occurs; for example if
the pressure is reduced sufficiently boiling of
water may occur at room temperature.

Cavitation
Under certain conditions, areas of
low pressure can occur locally in a
flowing fluid.
If the pressure in such areas falls
below the vapor pressure, there will
be local boiling and cloud of vapor
bubbles will form. This phenomenon
is known as cavitation.

Effects of cavitation
Cavitation can cause serious problems, since the
flow of liquid can sweep the cloud bubbles on
into an area of higher pressure where the
bubbles will collapse suddenly.
If this occurs in contact with solid surface, very
serious damage can result due to the very large
force with which the liquid hits the surface.
Cavitation can affect the performance of
hydraulic machinery such as pumps, turbines and
propellers, and the impact of collapsing bubbles
can cause local erosion of metal surfaces.

Bulk Modulus and Compressibility

All fluids are compressible under the
application of an external force and
when the force is removed they
expand back to their original volume
exhibiting the property that stress is
proportional to volumetric strain.

Pressure and volume in

liquid
When the liquid is compressed, the volume
V of a given mass will be reduced to V V
when a force is exerted uniformly all over its
surface. If the force per unit area of surface
Vthen
increases from p to p + p,

Negative sign for V indicates the volume

decreases as pressure increase.

Deriving the bulk modulus

Therefore,

V
p
p K
K V

V
V

Where K is bulk modulus

dp
K V

When V 0,
dV

Considering unit mass of substance,

1
dp
V K

Bulk modulus in liquid

The concept of bulk modulus is mainly
applied to liquids, since for gases the
compressibility is so great that the value
of K is not a constant.
For liquids, the changes in pressure
occurring in many fluid mechanics
problems are not sufficiently great to
cause appreciable changes in density. It is
therefore usual to ignore such changes
and consider liquids as incompressible.

Compressibility in gas
Gases may also be treated as
incompressible if the pressure
changes are very small, but usually
compressibility cannot be ignored.
In general, compressibility becomes
important when the velocity of the
fluid exceeds about one-fifth of the
velocity of a pressure wave (velocity
of sound) in the fluid.

Typical values of bulk

modulus
Typical values of Bulk Modulus for
water and oil are 2.05 109 N/m2 and
1.62 109 N/m2 , respectively.

Quiz 6
When a pressure of liquid is
increased from 3.5 MN/m2 to 6.5
MN/m2 its volume is found to
decrease by 0.08%. What is the bulk
modulus of elasticity of the liquid?