FLUID MECHANICS

PROPERTIES OF FLUIDS
Unit - IA

Dr. P. Jagadeesh

FLUID: Fluid may be defined as a substance which is capable of flowing. It has

no definite shape on its own, but conforms to the shape of the containing
vessel. Further even a small amount of shear force exerted on a fluid will
cause it to undergo deformation which continues as long as the force
continues to be applied.
LIQUID: A liquid is a fluid which posses a definite volume, which varies only
slightly with temperature and pressure. Since under ordinary conditions
liquids are difficult to compress, they may be for all practical purposes
regarded as incompressible.
GAS: A gas is a fluid, which is compressible and possesses no definite volume
but it always expands until its volume is equal to that of the container. Even
a slight change in the temperature of a gas has significant effect on its
volume and pressure. However, if conditions are such that a gas
undergoes a negligible change in its volume, it may be regarded as
incompressible.
VAPOUR: A vapour is a gas whose temperature and pressure are such that it
is very near the liquid state. Ex: Steam

IDEAL FLUIDS: Ideal fluids are those fluids which have no viscosity and surface
tension and they are incompressible. As such for ideal fluids no resistance is
encountered as the fluid moves. However, in nature the ideal fluids does not exist
and therefore, these are only imaginary fluids. Fluids which have low viscosity such
as Air, Water etc. may treated as ideal fluids.
REAL/PRACTICAL FLUIDS: These fluids possess the properties such as viscosity,
surface tension and compressibility and therefore a certain amount of resistance is
always offered by these fluids when they are set in motion.
DEVELOPMENT OF FLUID MECHANICS
UNITS OF MEASUREMENT
Units may be defined as those standards in terms of which the various physical
quantities like length, mass, time, force, area, volume, velocity, acceleration etc.,
are measured. The system of units used in mechanics are based upon Newtons
second law of motion, which states that force equals mass times acceleration or
F=mxa, where F is the force, m is the mass and a acceleration. There are in general
four systems of unit, two in metric (C.G.S or M.K.S.) system and two in English
(F.P.S.) system.

The difference between the absolute or gravitational system is that in the former
the standard is the unit of mass. The unit of force is then derived.
In the gravitational system the standard is the unit of force and the unit of mass is
derived by Newtons law.
Table 1.1 Various units of measurement of some fundamental
quantities
Quantity
Metric Units
English Units
Gravitatio
nal

Absolute

Gravitationa Absolute
l

Length

Metre (m)

Metre (m)

Foot (ft)

Foot (ft)

Time

Seconds
(sec)

Seconds
(sec)

Seconds
(sec)

Seconds
(sec)

Mass

Metric
slug (msl)

Gram
[gm(mass)]

Slug (sl)

Pound
[lb(mas)]

Force

Kilogram
[kg(f)]

Dyne

Pound [lb(f)] Poundal

(pdl)

Temperature

Table 1.2 Various units of measurement of some fundamental

quantities in SI system
Quantity

Unit

Symbol

Length

metre

Mass

kilogram

kg

Time

second

Electric current

ampere

Thermodynamic
Temperature

kelvin

Luminous Intensity

candela

cd

Plane angle

radian

rad

Solid angle

steradian

sr

MASS DENSITY (): Mass density (or specific mass) of a fluid is the mass which
it possesses per unit volume. Metric gravitation system metric slug/m3, SI-kg/m3
SPECIFIC WEIGHT (): Specific weight of a fluid is the weight it possesses per
unit volume. SI- N/m3 , Metric gravitation system kg(f)/m3

g
SPECIFIC VOLUME: Specific volume of a fluid is the volume of the fluid per unit
weight. It is the reciprocal of specific weight.
SPECIFIC GRAVITY (G): Specific gravity is the ratio of specific weight of a fluid
to the specific weight of a standard fluid.

Sp. wt. of liquid

G
Sp. wt. of s tan dard liquid
VISCOSITY: Viscosity is that property of a fluid by virtue of which it offers
resistance to the movement of one layer of fluid over an adjacent layer. It is
primarily due to cohesion and molecular momentum exchange between fluid
layers, and as flow occurs, these effect appears as shearing stresses between
the moving layers of fluid. SI: N-s/m2; or kg/m-s.

AV
F
Y
F
V
dv

A
Y
dy

dv dy
Kinematic vi cos ity

Fig. Fluid motion between two

parallel plates

NOTE: Common fluids such as air, water, glycerine, kerosene etc., follows
Newtons Law of Viscosity.
Units SI: m2/s; C.G.S= cm2/s
Centistoke =1/100 stoke

Fig. Variation of shear stress with velocity gradient

Note:
Thixotropic liquid = Printers ink
The fluids with which engineers most often have to deal are Newtonian, that is,
their viscosity is not dependent on the rate of angular deformation, and the term
fluid-mechanics generally refers only to Newtonian fluids.
The study of non-Newtonian fluids is however termed as rheology.
VAPOUR PRESSURE
When the liquid is confined in a closed vessel, the ejected vapour molecules get
accumulated in the space between the free liquid surface and the top of the vessel.
This accumulated vapour of the liquid exerts a partial pressure on the liquid surface
Which is known vapour pressure of the liquid. As the molecular activity increases
with temperature, vapour pressure of the liquid also increases with temperature.
Ex: Mercury has a very low vapour pressure and hence it is an excellent fluid to
be used in barometer. On the other hand volatile liquids like benzene etc. have
high very vapour pressure.

Compressibility and Elasticity

All fluid may be compressed by the application of external force, and when the
External force is removed the compressed volumes of fluids expand to their
Original volumes. Thus fluid also possess elastic characteristics like elastic
solids. Compressibility of a fluid is quantitatively expressed as inverse of the
Bulk modulus of elasticity K of the fluid, which is defined as:

Stress Change in pressure

dp
k

dv
Strain Change in volume

V
Original volume
Note: The bulk modulus of elasticity of a fluid is not constant, but it increase with
increase in pressure. For example, the bulk modulus of water roughly doubles
as the pressure is raised from 1 atmosphere to 3500 atmosphere.

SURAFCE TENSION & CAPAILLARITY

Due to molecular attraction, liquid possess certain properties such as cohesion
and adhesion.
Cohesion means inter-molecular attraction between molecules of the same
liquid. This means it is a tendency of the liquid to remain as one assemblage of
particles.
Adhesion means attraction between the molecules of a liquid and the molecules
of a solid boundary surface in contact with the liquid.
The property of cohesion enables a liquid to resist tensile stress, while adhesion
enables it to stick to another body.
Surface tension due to cohesion between liquid particles at the surface,
whereas capillarity is due to both cohesion and adhesion.

SURFACE TENSION
i. Pressure intensity inside a droplet
Consider a spherical droplet of radius r having internal pressure intensity p in
Excess of the outside pressure intensity. If the droplet is cut into two halves, then
The forces acting on one half will be those due to pressure intensity p on the
projected area (r2) and the tensile force due to surface tension acting around the
Circumference (2 r). These two forces will be equal and opposite for equilibrium
and hence we have,

Fig. Pressure inside a droplet

p r 2 2 r
2
p
r

ii. Pressure intensity inside a soap bubble

As spherical soap bubble has two surfaces in contact with air, one inside and the
other outside, each one of which contributes the same amount of tensile force due
to surface tension. As such on a hemispherical section of a soap bubble of radius r
the tensile force due to surface tension is equal to 2(2r). However, the pressure
force acting on the hemispherical section of the soap bubble is same as in the
case of a droplet and it is equal to p(r2). Thus equating these two forces of
equilibrium, we have

Fig. Pressure inside a soap bubble

p r 2 2 2 r
4
p
r

iii. Pressure intensity inside a liquid jet

Consider a jet of liquid of radius r, length l and having internal pressure intensity
p in excess of the outside pressure intensity. If the jet is cut into two halves, then
the forces acting on one half will be those due to pressure intensity p on the
projected area (2l) and the tensile force due to surface tension acting along
the two sides (2l). These two forces will be equal and opposite for equilibrium
and hence we have,

p 2rl 2l

p
r

Fig. Pressure inside a liquid jet

CAPILLARITY
A phenomenon of rise or fall of liquid surface relative to the adjacent general level
of liquid is known as capillarity. Accordingly the rise of liquid surface is designated
as capillary rise and the lowering of liquid surface as capillary depression, and it
is expressed in terms of m or mm of liquid in SI units.

Fig. Capillarity in circular glass tubes

The capillary rise (or depression) can be determined by considering the

conditions of equilibrium in a circular tube of small diameter inserted in a liquid.
It is supported that the level of liquid has risen (or fallen) by h above (or below)
The general liquid surface when a tube of radius r is inserted in the liquid. For
the equilibrium of vertical forces acting on the mass of liquid lying above (or
below) the general liquid level, the weight of liquid column h (or the total
pressure in the case of capillary depression) must be balanced by the force, at
surface of the liquid, due to surface tension . Thus equating these two forces
we have,

s r 2 h 2 r cos
2 cos
h
s r
For water 0 & s 1
2
h
r
where is the specific weight of water, s is specific gravity of liquid, and is the
contact angle between the liquid and the tube.

If a tube of radius r is inserted in mercury (sp. gr. s1) above which a liquid of
sp. gr. S2 lies then by considering the conditions of equilibrium it can be shown
that the capillary depression h is given by,

2 cos
h
r s1 s2
Further if two vertical parallel plates t distance apart and each of width l are held
partially immersed in a liquid of surface tension and sp. gr. s, then the
capillary rise (or depression) h may be determined by equating the weight of the
liquid column h (shlt) to the force due to surface tension (2lcos). Thus we
have,

s hlt 2 l cos
2 cos
h
s t

NOTE: Capillary effect is true only in the case of small diameters (r<2.5mm).
However, for tubes of diameter 6mm or more the capillary rise (or depression) is
negligible.