Siti Mariam bte Basharie

Jabatan Kejuruteraan Mekanikal

PPD, UTHM
Room : 2.A1.2.144
H/p no : 012 7504074
mariam@uthm.edu.my

DAM 31503
FLUID MECHANICS
INTRODUCTION TO FLUID MECHANICS

Topic 1
 What is Fluid Mechanics?
 The branch of science that studies the behavior of fluids
either they are in motion or at rest.
 Divided into 3 sub-disciplines : Fluid Statics, Fluid Dynamics
and Fluid Kinematics.

 Fluid Statics : Study of fluids at rest (e.g : Calculating the

hydrostatics forces on water gate and dam.)
 E.g of fluid at rest : fluids in tank, reservoir, lake, sea etc.

 Fluid Dynamics : deals with fluid flow—the study of fluids

in motion.
 E.g : Calculating lift and drag forces on aircraft, determining
the mass flow rate of petroleum through pipelines, blood flow
analysis and predicting weather patterns.
 Fluid Kinematics : Fluid kinematics is the study of how
fluids flow and how to describe fluid motion without
considering the effect of external pressures or forces that
cause the motion.
 E.g : Study of flow fields includes streamlines,
streaklines, pathline, timelines, concepts of vorticity and
wake.
 

Study of flow fields/flow pattern through visualization

technique.
 The Application of Fluid Mechanics
Fluid Mechanics is extremely important in many areas of
engineering and science. It principles and applications can
be found in many engineering system:

 Mechanical Engineering - design and analysis of pumps,

turbines, aircraft, boats, submarines, rockets, jet engines,
wind turbines, steam power plant, refrigeration system,
hyraulic system, engine and radiator system, lubrication,
the transportation of fluid like water, crude oil and natural
gas etc.

 Civil Engineering - design of buildings, bridges and dams,

transportion of river sediments, pollution study of air and
water, design of piping systems, flood control systems etc.
The original Tacoma Narrows Bridge roadway twisted and
vibrated violently on the day of the collapse in Nov 1940
 The Application of Fluid Mechanics
 Biomechanics/ Biomedical – study on blood flow
through arteries, organ rupture under hypertension,
condition flow of cerebral fluid, designing the artificial
hearts, breathing machines, and dialysis systems.

 Meteorology and Ocean Engineering - movements of

air currents and water currents, the whether patterns.

 Chemical Engineering - design of chemical processing

equipment.

 Electrical Engineering – in the cooling of electronic

components, power generation (hydroelectric power
plant, steam power plant, gas turbines, wind turbine etc).
FLUID PROPERTIES

Topic 1
 What is Fluids?
 Fluid is a substance that can be flow or
deforms continuously under applied shear.
 A solid is “hard” and not easily deformed,
whereas a fluid is “soft” and is easily
deformed.
 So, among three types of matter : solids,
liquids and gaseous, only liquids and gaseous
are consider as fluids.
 Fluids : water, oil, lubricant, milk.
 Not fluids (solid) : steel, diamonds, rubber
bands, and paper.
 Cont…
 The
different
between
liquids and
gaseous.

 Because of
their
molecular
spacing,
liquids
normally
have higher
densities
than gases.
Compressible Vs Incompressible fluids
 A flow is classified as being compressible or
incompressible, depending on the level of
variation of density during flow.
 A fluid is said to be incompressible if the density
of fluid remains nearly constant throughout.
 The densities of liquids are essentially constant,
and thus the flow of liquids is typically
incompressible.
 Therefore, liquids are usually referred to as
incompressible substances while gaseous, on
the other hand, are highly compressible.
Newtonian Fluid and Non-Newtonian Fluid
Newtonian fluids
 Any fluids that behave in accordance with
Newton's law of viscosity are called as Newtonian
fluid.
 Most common fluids such as water, oil, gasoline,
benzene, kerosene, alcohol and glycerin are
classified as Newtonian fluids.
Newtonian Fluid and Non-Newtonian Fluid
Non-Newtonian fluids
 Fluids for which the shearing stress is not linearly
related to the rate of shearing strain or in other
word fluids which do not obey the Newton's law of
viscosity are designated as non-Newtonian fluids.
  Generally non-Newtonian fluids are complex
mixtures like slurries, pastes, gels, polymer
solutions etc.
 Although there are a variety of types of non-
Newtonian fluids, the simplest and most common
are the fluids with time-independent behaviors as
shown in following figure.
Cont…Non-Newtonian Fluid
Bingham-plastic: Resist a small
shear stress but flow easily under
larger shear stresses.
 E.g : tooth-paste, jellies, chocolate,
mustard, mayonnaise, and some
slurries.
Pseudo-plastic: The viscosity
decreases with increasing velocity
gradient, the harder the fluid is
sheared, the less viscous it
becomes.
 Other e.g: Paint, polymer solutions,
blood plasma, latexes, syrups,
adhesives and inks.
Dilatant fluids: The viscosity
increases with increasing velocity
gradient but the curve begins with
 Fluid Properties
 Q : What is the importance of knowing the fluid properties?

Different fluids can have grossly different characteristics.

For example, gases are light and compressible, whereas liquids
are heavy (by comparison) and relatively incompressible.
A syrup flows slowly from a container, but water flows rapidly
when poured from the same container.
To quantify these differences, certain fluid properties are used.

In this chapter, we will look into a several properties that play

an important role in the fluid mechanics analysis.
Density
 The density of a substance is the quantity of
matter contained in a unit volume of the
substance.
 It can be expressed in three different ways;
i.mass density
ii.specific weight
iii.specific gravity
Mass density
 Also refer as only “density”
 It describe the “heaviness” of a fluid.
  m (mass)
 Designated by the greek symbol ρ (rho). V (volume)
 The density is defined as the mass per unit
volume:
 The SI units for the density is kg/m3
 Values of density for some common liquids at Patm
= 1.013 bar and T=4 °C.
ρH2O = 1000 kg/m3 ρair = 1.23 kg/m3 ρHg =
13546 kg/m3
Mass density……cont
 There are 3 samples of water which obtained from
different sources
 sample from Nile River
 sample from Amazon River
 sample from Mekong River

 Question : Do all the samples have the same

density (i.e = 1000 kg/m3)?
Specific weight
 Designated by the greek symbol γ (gamma).
 Specific weight is defined as the weight of a
substance per unit volume and can be expressed
as   g
 
where ρ is density
and g is the gravitational acceleration (= 9.81
m/s2).
 The SI units for the specific weight is N/m3
 Some common values of γ at 4 °C ;
γ H2O = 1000 x 9.81 = 9810 N/m3
γ air = 1.23 x 9.81 = 12.07 N/m3
Specific gravity
 Also known as relative density.
 Designated by the symbol of SG.
 Specific gravity is defined as the ratio of the
density of a substance or fluid to the density  fluidof
water. SG fluid 
 H 2O

  Have no units/ dimensionless.

 E.g : SGH2O = ρH2O / ρH2O = 1000/1000 =1
SGHg = ρHg / ρwater = 13546/1000 = 13.546
 If SGfluid >1 , that means the fluid/substance is
denser than water and vice versa (SGfluid <1 = the
fluid is less denser than water).
Viscosity
 Viscosity is a measure of frictional resistance of
fluid to flow.
 It describes the “fluidity” of the fluid.
 There are two types of viscosity : dynamics and
kinematics viscosity.
 The term “viscosity” always refers to the dynamic
viscosity.
Dynamic viscosity
  Designated by the greek symbol μ (mu).
 Newton's law of viscosity is given by
   Force/Area
 
du / dy velocity/d istance

where  = viscosity of fluid

 = shear stress
du/dy = shear rate, rate of strain or velocity
gradient
 
 The SI units for dynamic viscosity is N.s/m2 or
kg/ms.
 Other unit is poise where 1 poise = 0.1 N.s/m2.
Kinematic viscosity
 Designated by the greek symbol ν (nu).
 The kinematics viscosity is defined as the ratio of
dynamic viscosity to the density of a substance.
  


  The SI unit for kinematics viscosity is m2/s.
 Other unit is Stokes, St atau centistokes, cst
where 104 St = 1 m2/s.
 
Exercises
1. A reservoir of oil has a mass of 825 kg. The reservoir
has a volume of 0.917 m3. Compute the density,
specific weight, and specific gravity of the oil.
[ Answers. oil = 900 kg/m3, oil = 8829 N/m3, SG = 0.9]
 
2. If the density of a liquid is 837 kg/m 3, find its weight
per unit volume and relative density.
[Answers. 8210 N/m3, 0.837]
 
3. The density of oil is 855 kg/m3. Calculate the specific
gravity and the kinematics viscosity if the dynamic
viscosity of the oil is 5 x 10-3 Ns/m2.
 
Exercises
4. The relative density of ethyl alcohol is 0.79. Determine
the density and specific weight of the alcohol.
 
5. Calculate the specific weight, density and specific
gravity of a liquid having a volume of 6 m 3 and weight
of 44 kN.
 
6. The oil with the volume of 5.6 m 3 have a weight equal
to
46 800 N. Determine it density and specific gravity.
 
7. A liquid has a specific gravity of 1.9 and kinematic
viscosity of 6 stokes. What is its dynamic viscosity?
Compressibility and Bulk modulus
 In thermodynamics and fluid mechanics,
compressibility is a measure of the relative
volume change of a fluid as a response to a
pressure change.
 Bulk modulus is inverse of the compressibility but
can be used to characterize the compressibility of
fluid.
 It is defined as,

 where dp is the differential change in pressure

needed to create a differential change in volume
dV, of a volume V.
 Because dV/V is dimensionless, therefore the units
of bulk modulus is in pressure unit N/m2 (Pa).
Bulk modulus
 Large values for the bulk modulus indicate that
the fluid is relatively incompressible - that is, it
takes a large pressure change to create a small
change in volume.
 For example : at atmospheric pressure and a
temperature of 288 K it would require a pressure
of 21.5 MPa to compress a unit volume of water at
1%. This result is representative of the
compressibility of liquids.
 Since such large pressures are required to effect a
change in volume, we conclude that liquids can be
considered as incompressible for most practical
engineering applications.
Vapor pressure
 The vapor pressure of a liquid is defined as the
pressure exerted by the molecules that escapes
from the liquid to form a separate vapor phase
above the liquid surface.
 If the container is closed with a small air space left
above the surface, and this space evacuated to
form a vacuum, a pressure will develop in the
space as a result of the vapor that is formed by
the escaping molecules.

30 BDA 20603 SEM 2 2015/2016

Vapor pressure
 When an equilibrium condition is reached so that
the number of molecules leaving the surface is
equal to the number entering, the vapor is said to
be saturated and the pressure that the vapor
exerts on the liquid surface is termed the vapor
pressure, Pv.
 This vapor pressure is influenced by the
temperature and the nature of the liquid.
 Some liquid consist of molecules that have very
weak attractive forces between them.
 These liquids evaporate easily (volatile) thus have
higher vapor pressure.

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Surface tension, σs
 Surface tension can be defined as the intensity of
intermolecular attraction (attraction force) per unit length
along the free surface of a fluid.
 The effect is caused by unbalanced cohesive forces at fluid
surfaces which produce a downward resultant force which
can physically seen as a skin or membrane.
 Surface tension is a fluid property and it is depends on the
temperature and also on the type of the solid interface.
 For example, a drop of water on a glass surface will have a
different coefficient from the similar amount of water on a
wood surface.
 Unit : N/m (Force per unit length)
 Values of surface tension decreases as the temperature
increases.

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Surface tension, σ
The following apparatus is usually used to measure
the surface tension of various fluids.
The thin film in the device
has two surfaces (the top
and bottom surfaces)
exposed to air, and thus the
length along which the
tension acts in this case is
2b. The force balance on the
movable wire gives F=2bσs,
and thus the surface tension
can be expressed as,

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 *In contact with air
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Example - Surface Tension
The surface tension of a liquid is to be measured
using a liquid film suspended on a U-shaped wire
frame with an 8-cm-long movable side. If the force
needed to move the wire is 0.012 N, determine the
surface tension of this liquid in air.

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Capillary Effect
 Capillary = such narrow
tubes or confined flow
channels.
 The rise or fall of a liquid in
this small-diameter tube or
channel is called capillary
effect.
38
Dimension and Units
 Dimensions: Measure of a physical quantity, e.g: length, time,
mass
 Units: Assignment of a number to a dimension, e.g : mm, m, kg,
g
 7 primary dimensions:
 Mass M (kg)
 Length L (m)
 Time t (sec)
 Temperature T (K)
 Current I (A)
 Amount of Light C (cd)
 Amount of matter N (mol)
 In Fluid Mechanics – only 3 considered (M, L & T)
 All non-primary dimensions can be formed by a combination of
the primary dimensions
E.g : {Velocity} = {Length/Time} = {L/T} = {LT -1}
{Force} = {Mass Length/Time} = {ML/T2} = {MLT-2}
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Dimensional Homogeneity
The equation can be said as dimensionally
homogeneous if the dimensions of the left side of the
equation is the same as those on the right side, or all
additive separate terms must have the same
dimensions.
For example, the equation for the velocity, V, of a
uniformly accelerated body is

Where V0 is the initial velocity, a the acceleration, and t

the time interval.
In terms of dimensions the equation is
 All terms give the same dimension, thus, the equation
can be said as dimensionally homogeneous.

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