Fluid Mechanics in Civil/ Structural Engineering

Every civil/structural engineering graduate needs to have

a thorough understanding of fuids.
Drainage for developments;
Attenuation of surface water for city centre sites;
Sea and river (food defences;
!ater distri"ution/sewerage (sanitation networ#s;
$ydraulic design of water/sewage treatment wor#s;
Dams;
%rrigation;
&umps and 'ur"ines;
!ater retaining structures.
(low of air in / around "uildings;
)ridge piers in rivers;
*round+water fow.
As these mostly involve water, we will mostly e-amine
fuid mechanics with this in mind.
.emem"er/ it is estimated that drainage and sewage
systems 0 as designed "y civil engineers 0 have saved
more lives than all of medical science. (luid mechanics is
integral to our wor#.
Introduction to Fluids
Background and Definition
Background
'here are three states of matter/ solids, li1uids and
gases.
)oth li1uids and gases are classi2ed as fuids.
(luids do not resist a change in shape. 'herefore fuids
assume the shape of the container they occupy.
3i1uids may "e considered to have a 2-ed volume and
therefore can have a free surface. 3i1uids are almost
incompressi"le.
4onversely, gases are easily compressed and will
e-pand to 2ll a container they occupy.
!e will usually "e interested in li1uids, either at rest or
in motion.
'he strict de2nition of a fuid is/
A fluid is a substance which conforms continuously under the action of
shearing forces.
'o understand this, remind ourselves of what a shear force
is/
Application and effect of shear force on a book
Definition Applied to Static Fluids
According to this de2nition, if we apply a shear force to a
fuid it will deform and ta#e up a state in which no shear
force e-ists. 'herefore, we can say/
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 in which they act.
5ote here that we specify that the fuid must "e at rest.
'his is "ecause, it is found e-perimentally that fuids in
motion can have slight resistance to shear force. 'his is
the source of viscosity.
Definition Applied to Fluids in Motion
(or e-ample, consider the fuid shown fowing along a
2-ed surface. At the surface there will "e little movement
of the fuid (it will 6stic#7 to the surface, whilst further
away from the surface the fuid fows faster (has greater
velocity/
%f one layer of is moving faster than another layer of fuid,
there must "e shear forces acting "etween them. (or
e-ample, if we have fuid in contact with a conveyor "elt
that is moving we will get the "ehaviour shown/
Ideal fluid Real (Viscous) Fluid
!hen fuid is in motion, any di8erence in velocity "etween
ad9acent layers has the same e8ect as the conveyor "elt
does. 'herefore, to represent real fuids in motion we must
consider the action of shear
forces.
4onsider the small element of fuid shown, which is
su"9ect to shear force and has a dimension s into the page.
'he force F acts over an area A : )4;s. $ence we have a
shear stress applied/

Any stress causes a deformation, or strain, and a shear
stress causes a shear strain. 'his shear strain is measured
"y the angle <. .emem"er that a fuid continuously deforms
when under the action of shear. 'his is
di8erent to a solid/ a solid has a single value of < for each
value of = . So the longer a shear stress is applied to a
fuid, the more shear strain occurs. $owever, what is
#nown from e-periments is that the rate of shear strain
(shear strain per unit time is related to the shear stress/
!e need to #now the rate of shear strain. (rom the
diagram, the shear strain is/
: -/y
%f we suppose that the particle of fuid at E moves a
distance x in time t, then, using S : R> for small angles,
the rate of shear strain is/

!here u is the velocity of the fuid. 'his term is also the
change in velocity with height. !hen we consider
in2nitesimally small changes in height we can write this in
di8erential form, du / dy .
'herefore we have/
'his constant is a property of the fuid called its dynamic
viscosity (dynamic "ecause the fuid is in motion, and
viscosity "ecause it is resisting shear stress. %t is denoted
"y? which then gives us/
ewton!s "aw of #iscosity/
Newton's Law of Viscosity
How can we make use of these observations? We can start by considering a 3d
rectangular element of fluid, like that in the figure below.
Fluid element under a shear force
The shearing force F acts on the area on the to of the element. This area is
given by . We can thus calculate the shear stress which is e!ual to
force er unit area i.e.
The deformation which this shear stress causes is measured by the si"e of the
angle and is know as shear strain.
#n a solid shear strain, , is constant for a fi$ed shear stress .
#n a fluid increases for as long as is alied % the fluid flows.
#t has been found e$erimentally that the rate of shear stress &shear stress er
unit time, 'time( is directly roortional to the shear stress.
#f the article at oint ) &in the above figure( moves under the shear stress to
oint )* and it takes time t to get there, it has moved the distance x. For small
deformations we can write
shear strain
where is the velocity of the article at ).
+sing the e$erimental result that shear stress is roortional to rate of shear
strain then
The term is the change in velocity with y, or the velocity gradient, and may
be written in the differential form . The constant of roortionality is
known as the dynamic viscosity, , of the fluid, giving
This is known as Newton's law of viscosity.
,. Fluids vs. Solids
#n the above we have discussed the differences between the behaviour of
solids and fluids under an alied force. -ummarising, we have.
,. For a solid the strain is a function of the alied stress &roviding that
the elastic limit has not been reached(. For a fluid, the rate of strain is
roortional to the alied stress.
/. The strain in a solid is indeendent of the time over which the force is
alied and &if the elastic limit is not reached( the deformation
disaears when the force is removed. 0 fluid continues to flow for as
long as the force is alied and will not recover its original form when
the force is removed.
#t is usually !uite simle to classify substances as either solid or li!uid. -ome
substances, however, &e.g. itch or glass( aear solid under their own weight.
1itch will, although aearing solid at room temerature, deform and sread
out over days % rather than the fraction of a second it would take water.
0s you will have seen when looking at roerties of solids, when the elastic
limit is reached they seem to flow. They become lastic. They still do not
meet the definition of true fluids as they will only flow after a certain
minimum shear stress is attained.
/. Newtonian / Non-Newtonian Fluids
)ven among fluids which are acceted as fluids there can be wide differences
in behaviour under stress. Fluids obeying 2ewton*s law where the value of is
constant are known as Newtonian fluids. #f is constant the shear stress is
linearly deendent on velocity gradient. This is true for most common fluids.
Fluids in which the value of is not constant are known as non-Newtonian
fluids. There are several categories of these, and they are outlined briefly
below.
These categories are based on the relationshi between shear stress and the
velocity gradient &rate of shear strain( in the fluid. These relationshis can be
seen in the grah below for several categories
-hear stress vs. 3ate of shear strain u'y
)ach of these lines can be reresented by the e!uation
where 0, 4 and n are constants. For 2ewtonian fluids 0 5 6, 4 5 and n 5 ,.
4elow are brief descrition of the hysical roerties of the several categories7
o $lastic% -hear stress must reach a certain minimum before flow
commences.
o &ingham plastic% 0s with the lastic above a minimum shear stress
must be achieved. With this classification n 5 ,. 0n e$amle is sewage
sludge.
o $seudo'plastic% 2o minimum shear stress necessary and the viscosity
decreases with rate of shear, e.g. colloidial substances like clay, milk
and cement.
o (ilatant substances) 8iscosity increases with rate of shear e.g.
!uicksand.
o *hixotropic substances% 8iscosity decreases with length of time shear
force is alied e.g. thi$otroic 9elly aints.
o Rheopectic substances% 8iscosity increases with length of time shear
force is alied
o #iscoelastic materials% -imilar to 2ewtonian but if there is a sudden
large change in shear they behave like lastic.
There is also one more % which is not real, it does not e$ist % known as the
ideal fluid. This is a fluid which is assumed to have no viscosity. This is a
useful concet when theoretical solutions are being considered % it does hel
achieve some ractically useful solutions.
Liquids vs. Gasses
0lthough li!uids and gasses behave in much the same way and share many
similar characteristics, they also ossess distinct characteristics of their own.
-ecifically
o 0 li!uid is difficult to comress and often regarded as being
incomressible.
0 gas is easily to comress and usually treated as such % it changes
volume with ressure.
o 0 given mass of li!uid occuies a given volume and will occuy the
container it is in and form a free surface &if the container is of a larger
volume(.
0 gas has no fi$ed volume, it changes volume to e$and to fill the
containing vessel. #t will comletely fill the vessel so no free surface is
formed.
Causes of Viscosity in Fluids
Viscosity in Gasses
The molecules of gasses are only weakly ket in osition by molecular
cohesion &as they are so far aart(. 0s ad9acent layers move by each
other there is a continuous e$change of molecules. :olecules of a
slower layer move to faster layers causing a drag, while molecules
moving the other way e$ert an acceleration force. :athematical
considerations of this momentum e$change can lead to 2ewton law of
viscosity.
#f temerature of a gas increases the momentum e$change between
layers will increase thus increasing viscosity.
8iscosity will also change with ressure % but under normal conditions
this change is negligible in gasses.
Viscosity in Liquids
There is some molecular interchange between ad9acent layers in li!uids
% but as the molecules are so much closer than in gasses the cohesive
forces hold the molecules in lace much more rigidly. This cohesion
lays an imortant roll in the viscosity of li!uids.
#ncreasing the temerature of a fluid reduces the cohesive forces and
increases the molecular interchange. 3educing cohesive forces reduces
shear stress, while increasing molecular interchange increases shear
stress. 4ecause of this comle$ interrelation the effect of temerature
on viscosity has something of the form7
where is the viscosity at temerature T;, and is the viscosity at
temerature 6;. 0 and 4 are constants for a articular fluid.
High ressure can also change the viscosity of a li!uid. 0s ressure
increases the relative movement of molecules re!uires more energy
hence viscosity increases.