Fluid mechanics is the branch of physics that studies fluids (liquids, gases, and plasmas) and the forces

on them. Fluid mechanics can be divided into fluid statics, the study of fluids at rest; fluid kinematics, the study of fluids in motion; and fluid dynamics, the study of the effect of forces on fluid motion. It is a branch of continuum mechanics, a subject which models matter without using the information that it is made out of atoms, that is, it models matter from a macroscopic viewpoint rather than from a microscopic viewpoint. Fluid mechanics, especially fluid dynamics, is an active field of research with many unsolved or partly solved problems. Fluid mechanics can be mathematically complex. Sometimes it can best be solved by numerical methods, typically using computers. A modern discipline, called computational fluid dynamics (CFD), is devoted to this approach to solving fluid mechanics problems. Also taking advantage of the highly visual nature of fluid flow is particle image velocimetry, an experimental method for visualizing and analyzing fluid flow. The study of fluid mechanics goes back at least to the days of ancient Greece, when Archimedes investigated fluid statics and buoyancy and formulated his famous law known now as the Archimedes' principle, which was published in his work On Floating Bodies - generally considered to be the first major work on fluid mechanics. Rapid advancement in fluid mechanics began with Leonardo da Vinci (observations and experiments), Evangelista Torricelli (invented the barometer), Isaac Newton (investigated viscosity) and Blaise Pascal(researched hydrostatics, formulated Pascal's law), and was continued by Daniel Bernoulli with the introduction of mathematical fluid dynamics in Hydrodynamica (1738). Inviscid flow was further analyzed by various mathematicians (Leonhard Euler, Jean le Rond d'Alembert, Joseph Louis Lagrange, Pierre-Simon Laplace, Simon Denis Poisson) and viscous flow was explored by a multitude of engineers including Jean Louis Marie Poiseuille and Gotthilf Hagen. Further mathematical justification was provided by Claude-Louis Navier and George Gabriel Stokes in the NavierStokes equations, and boundary layers were investigated (Ludwig Prandtl, Theodore von Krmn), while various scientists such asOsborne Reynolds, Andrey Kolmogorov, and Geoffrey Ingram Taylor advanced the understanding of fluid viscosity and turbulence.

Relationship to continuum mechanics[edit]

Fluid mechanics is a subdiscipline of continuum mechanics, as illustrated in the following table.

Elasticity
Describes materials that return to their rest shape after

Solid mechanics
The study of the physics of continuous materials with a defined

applied stresses are removed.

Continuum mechanics
The study of the physics of continuous materials

rest shape.

Plasticity
Describes materials that permanently deform after a sufficient applied stress.

Rheology
The study of materials with both solid and fluid

Fluid mechanics
The study of the physics of continuous materials which deform when subjected to a force.

Non-Newtonian fluids do not undergo strain rates proportional to the applied shear stress.

characteristics.

Newtonian fluids undergo strain rates proportional to

the applied shear stress. In a mechanical view, a fluid is a substance that does not support shear stress; that is why a fluid at rest has the shape of its containing vessel. A fluid at rest has no shear stress

Like any mathematical model of the real world, fluid mechanics makes some basic assumptions about the materials being studied. These assumptions are turned into equations that must be satisfied if the assumptions are to be held true. For example, consider a fluid in three dimensions. The assumption that mass is conserved means that for any fixed control volume (for example a sphere) enclosed by a control surface the rate of change of the mass contained is equal to the rate at which mass is passing from outside to inside through the surface, minus the rate at which mass is passing the other way, from inside to outside. (A special case would be when the mass inside and the mass outside remain [1] constant). This can be turned into an equation in integral formover the control volume. Fluid mechanics assumes that every fluid obeys the following: Conservation of mass Conservation of energy Conservation of momentum The continuum hypothesis, detailed below.

Further, it is often useful (at subsonic conditions) to assume a fluid is incompressible that is, the density of the fluid does not change. Similarly, it can sometimes be assumed that the viscosity of the fluid is zero (the fluid is inviscid). Gases can often be assumed to be inviscid. If a fluid is viscous, and its flow contained in some way (e.g. in a pipe), then the flow at the boundary must have zero velocity. For a viscous fluid, if the boundary is not porous, the shear forces between the fluid and the boundary results also in a zero velocity for the fluid at the boundary. This is called the no-slip condition. For a porous media otherwise, in the frontier of the containing vessel, the slip condition is not zero velocity, and the fluid has a discontinuous velocity field between the free fluid and the fluid in the porous media (this is related to the Beavers and Joseph condition).

Continuum hypothesis[edit]
Main article: Continuum mechanics Fluids are composed of molecules that collide with one another and solid objects. The continuum assumption, however, considers fluids to be continuous. That is, properties such as density, pressure, temperature, and velocity are taken to be well-defined at "infinitely" small points, defining a REV (Reference Element of Volume), at the geometric order of the distance between two adjacent molecules of fluid. Properties are assumed to vary continuously from one point to another, and are averaged values in the REV. The fact that the fluid is made up of discrete molecules is ignored. The continuum hypothesis is basically an approximation, in the same way planets are approximated by point particles when dealing with celestial mechanics, and therefore results in approximate solutions. Consequently, assumption of the continuum hypothesis can lead to results which are not of desired accuracy. That said, under the right circumstances, the continuum hypothesis produces extremely accurate results.

Those problems for which the continuum hypothesis does not allow solutions of desired accuracy are solved using statistical mechanics. To determine whether or not to use conventional fluid dynamics or statistical mechanics, the Knudsen number is evaluated for the problem. The Knudsen number is defined as the ratio of the molecular mean free pathlength to a certain representative physical length scale. This length scale could be, for example, the radius of a body in a fluid. (More simply, the Knudsen number is how many times its own diameter a particle will travel on average before hitting another particle). Problems with Knudsen numbers at or above unity are best evaluated using statistical mechanics for reliable solutions.

History

Fluid mechanics is defined as the study of the physics of continuous materials, which take the shape of their containers. Fluid comes from the French word meaning that which flows and mechanics corresponds to applied mathematics. The history behind fluid mechanics is quite extensive, dating all the way to ancient civilizations. The little knowledge of fluid mechanics understood at the time was used to solve flow problems for irrigation. It was used in the development of oars for powering ships as well. There is a long list of people who contributed to this field, but some stand out more than others. The first person to further the information about fluid mechanics was Archimedes of Syracuse. He discovered the law of buoyancy which was named The Archimedes Principle. This formula states that the buoyant force is equal to the weight of the displaced liquid. This was very important because it introduced the concept of density. Density was then able to explain how things like ships float. The ideas regarding fluid mechanics slightly improved after that, but no single, greater accomplishment came until Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. He was able to derive the equation of conservation of mass for one-dimensional steady flow. His interest in fluid mechanics also led him to design a submarine. The next person to advance the fluid mechanics understanding was Isaac Newton. He is often regarded as the most influential person in all of science. He introduced the laws of motion, which affect not only solids but fluids as well. However his main contribution to fluid mechanics was the law of viscosity for linear fluids. It states that the viscosity of a fluid is proportional to the velocity that the parts of the fluid separate. This law only applied to substances known as Newtonian fluids, which are defined as fluids that continue to flow despite the forces that are acting on them. The discovery made by Newton sparked the rise of many followers to add to his work. One person to use this information was Leonhard Euler. He is known for introducing the constants for pi, the natural log e, and the imaginary number i. In fact, the natural log e is known as Eulers

Number. He was able to derive equations that related the velocity and pressure of a liquid to its density. These equations were very complicated though but were later simplified by the Navier-Stokes equations and furthermore by writings of Ludwig Prandtl. A close friend of Eulers that also added to the field of fluid mechanics, was Daniel Bernoulli. He came up with the equation for incompressible flow. This equation is part of something known as Bernoullis Principle and was based off of the law of Conservation of Energy. The main idea is that the velocity of a fluid increases as the pressure decreases. Osborne Reynolds was another importation person in the history of fluid mechanics. He was very involved in the forces that act on fluids. His research consisted of various pipe-flow experiments which ultimately allowed him to formulate his famous equation. This equation compares two forces on a fluid, which were the inertial and viscous forces. The end result is a ratio of two forces which ends in a dimensionless number. The number that the equation produces says something very important about the fluid. If the number is greater than 4000 then the fluid is defined as turbulent, which means that is flows very chaotically. If the number is less than 2100 then the fluid is laminar. Laminar fluids flow in parallel layers and are very smooth. The last figure that will be talked about is one of the most important. He is known as the farther of modern fluid mechanics, which is quite a prestigious title. He earned this title by writing a document called Fluid Flow in Very Little Friction. This is regarded as the most important paper ever written on fluid mechanics. What made it so important was that it was able to simplify to a large degree, equations that already existed. It made nearly impossible equations able to be solved. All of the knowledge gained from this list of important people in fluid mechanics has helped us learn so much about fluids. Fluids, all types of fluids, have certain characteristics that make them up. These characteristics are pressure, velocity, density, viscosity, body force, and time. Some are vector quantities, some are scalar, but they can all change depending on the fluid being observed. The knowledge of these characteristics has greatly helped us in being able to define a fluid in its environment. Some very interesting situations having to deal with fluid mechanics are the ones that appear in nature. A good example of this is the Aurora Borealis. These are known as the northern lights to some. They are lights in the sky that glow with an almost eerie color. What happens in this event is that charged particles that come from the sun interact with gases in the earths atmosphere. Different gases from the earth produce different colors. The next occurrence is condensation, surrounding a vehicle. For example when a military jet

flies in humid air, it is lowering the air pressure around it. Lowering the air pressure lowers the temperature of the surrounding air. When that happens with the humid air, it can change the water vapor into multiple phases. This can be viewed as a man made cloud surrounding the jet. These are very interesting events to witness.