Fluid Mechanics I

Chapter 1: Basic Concepts

Fluid Mechanics: Fundamentals and Applications

2nd EDITION
Yunus A. Cengel, John M. Cimbala
McGraw-Hill, 2010

Introduction
 Mechanics is the oldest physical science that deals
with both stationary and moving bodies under the
influence of forces.
 The branch of mechanics that deals with bodies at rest
is called statics, while the branch that deals with
bodies in motion is called dynamics.
 The subcategory fluid mechanics is defined as the
science that deals with the behavior of fluids at rest
(fluid statics) or in motion (fluid dynamics), and the
interaction of fluids with solids or other fluids at the
boundaries.
 Fluid mechanics is also referred to as fluid dynamics
by considering fluids at rest as a special case of
motion with zero velocity.

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 Introduction
Fluid mechanics itself is also divided into several categories. The
study of
 Hydrodynamics: the motion of fluids that are practically
incompressible (such as liquids, especially water, and gases at
low speeds) is usually referred to as.
 A subcategory of hydrodynamics is hydraulics, which deals with
liquid flows in pipes and open channels.
 Gas dynamics deals with the flow of fluids that undergo
significant density changes, such as the flow of gases through
nozzles at high speeds.
 Aerodynamics deals with the flow of gases (especially air) over
bodies such as aircraft, rockets, and automobiles at high or low
speeds.
 Some other specialized categories such as meteorology,
oceanography, and hydrology deal with naturally occurring
flows.

What is a fluid?
 Distinction between solid and fluid?
 Solid: can resist an applied shear by deforming.
Stress is proportional to strain
 Fluid: deforms continuously under applied shear.
Stress is proportional to strain rate

Solid Fluid

F F V
   
A A h

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What is a fluid?
 Stress is defined as
the force per unit area.
 Normal component:
normal stress
 In a fluid at rest, the
normal stress is called
pressure
 Tangential
component: shear
stress

What is a fluid?
 A liquid takes the shape of
the container it is in and
forms a free surface in the
presence of gravity
 A gas expands until it
encounters the walls of
the container and fills the
entire available space.
Gases cannot form a free
surface
 Gas and vapor are often
used as synonymous
words

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What is a fluid?
Intermolecular bonds are strongest in solids and weakest in gases. One
reason is that molecules in solids are closely packed together, whereas in
gases they are separated by relatively large distances
Solid: The molecules in a solid are arranged in a pattern that is repeated
throughout.
Liquid: In liquids molecules can rotate and translate freely.
Gas: In the gas phase, the molecules are far apart from each other, and
molecular ordering is nonexistent.

solid liquid gas

Differences between liquid and gases

Liquid Gas

Difficult to compress and often Easy to compress – changes of

regarded as incompressible volume is large, cannot normally be
neglected and are related to
temperature
Occupies a fixed volume and will No fixed volume, it changes volume
take the shape of the container to expand to fill the containing
vessels

A free surface is formed if the Completely fill the vessel so that no

volume of container is greater than free surface is formed.
the liquid.

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What is a fluid?
Macroscopic or classical approach: Does not require a
knowledge of the behavior of individual molecules and
provides a direct and easy way to analyze engineering
problems.
Microscopic or statistical approach: Based on the
average behavior of large groups of individual molecules.

On a microscopic scale, pressure

is determined by the interaction of
individual gas molecules.
However, we can measure the
pressure on a macroscopic scale
with a pressure gage.

Applications of fluid mechanics

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Application Areas of Fluid Mechanics
Almost everything in our world is either in contact with a fluid
or is itself a fluid. Mechanics of fluids is extremely important in
many areas of engineering and science. Examples are:

 Biomechanics
 Blood flow through arteries and veins
 Airflow in the lungs
 Flow of cerebral fluid

 Households
 Piping systems for cold water, natural gas, and sewage
 Piping and ducting network of heating and air-conditioning systems
 Refrigerator, vacuum cleaner, dish washer, washing machine, water
meter, natural gas meter, air conditioner, radiator, etc.

Application Areas of Fluid Mechanics

 Meteorology and Ocean Engineering
 Movements of air currents and water currents
 Mechanical Engineering
 Design of pumps, turbines, air-conditioning equipment,
pollution-control equipment, etc.
 Design and analysis of aircraft, boats, submarines, rockets,
jet engines, wind turbines, biomedical devices, the cooling
of electronic components, and the transportation of water,
crude oil, and natural gas.
 Civil Engineering
 Transport of river sediments
 Pollution of air and water
 Design of piping systems
 Flood control systems

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 Application Areas of Fluid Mechanics
 Chemical Engineering
 Design of chemical processing equipment
 Turbomachines: pump, turbine, fan, blower, propeller, etc.
 Military: Missile, aircraft, ship, underwater vehicle, dispersion of
chemical agents, etc.
 Automobile: IC engine, air conditioning, fuel flow, external
aerodynamics, etc.
 Medicine: Heart assist device, artificial heart valve, glucose monitor,
controlled drug delivery, etc.
 Electronics: Convective cooling of generated heat.
 Energy: Combuster, burner, boiler, gas, hydro and wind turbine, etc.
 Oil and Gas: Pipeline, pump, valve, offshore rig, oil spill cleanup,
etc.

Application Areas of Fluid Mechanics

Fluid dynamics is used extensively in

the design of artificial hearts. Shown
here is the Penn State Electric Total
Artificial Heart.

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Application Areas of Fluid Mechanics

Application Areas of Fluid Mechanics

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Continuum hypothesis
 Fluids – appear continuous
 Made of molecules
 Empty spaces between molecules
 Quantify fluid properties
 On macroscopic length scale – micrometer
 NOT on molecular length scale – nanaometer
(important for chemical reactions etc)
 Ignore molecular details/space
 Assume fluid as continuous medium

Continuum hypothesis
 Artificial model for convenience
 Do not consider
 Motions of individual molecules
 Forces on individual molecules
 Involve fewer and fewer details
 Behavior of billions of molecules summarized in
few continuous functions
 Density, pressure, velocity, temperature, concentration
 Lost is not important
 Details of molecular arrangement and motions

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Fluid Particle Size
Molecular uncertainty Not too small Macroscopic uncertainty
Not too large Spatial variation
Discontinuous and fluctuating nature

10 Molecules : Stable measurement δ𝑉 ∗ = 10 mm Air: 10 molecules

0.1x0.1x0.1 mm (Size of a grain sand) of air contains 2.5 x 10 molecules

Continuum hypothesis
 Matter is made up of atoms that are widely spaced
in the gas phase. Yet it is very convenient to
disregard the atomic nature of a substance and
view it as a continuous, homogeneous matter with
no holes, that is, a continuum.

 The continuum idealization allows us to treat

properties as point functions and to assume the
properties vary continually in space with no jump
discontinuities.

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Continuum hypothesis
 This idealization is valid
as long as the size of the
system we deal with is
large relative to the space
between the molecules.

 This is the case in Despite the relatively large

practically all problems. gaps between molecules, a
substance can be treated as
a continuum because of the
very large number of
molecules even in an
extremely small volume.

Continuum hypothesis

 The continuum assumption is very good

provided that the flow length scale is larger
than the mean free path.
 It is characterized by the Knudsen number,
which is defined as Mean free path: average
distance that molecules travel
between successive collisions
𝐾 =
Flow length scale such
As diameter of pipe in
case pipe flow

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Continuum hypothesis

If 𝐾 ≪ 1 Continuum
If 𝐾 ≫ 1 Free molecular flow
Otherwise Transitional

Gases - 𝜆 ≃ 100 𝑛𝑚
Liquids - 𝜆 ≃ 0.3 𝑛𝑚

Continuum hypothesis
The length scale associated with most flows, such as
seagulls in flight, is orders of magnitude larger than the
mean free path of the air molecules. Therefore, here, and
for all fluid flows considered in this course, the continuum
idealization is appropriate.

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No-slip condition
 No-slip condition: A fluid in
direct contact with a solid
``sticks'‘ to the surface due to
viscous effects
 Responsible for generation of
wall shear stress w, surface
drag D= ∫w dA, and the
development of the boundary
layer
 The fluid property responsible
for the no-slip condition is
viscosity
 Important boundary condition
in formulating initial boundary
value problem (IBVP) for
analytical and computational
fluid dynamics analysis

No-slip condition
When a fluid is forced to flow over a curved surface, the
boundary layer can no longer remain attached to the
surface, and at some point it separates from the surface—
a process called flow separation. We emphasize that the
no-slip condition applies everywhere along the surface,
even downstream of the separation point.

Boundary layer:
The flow region
adjacent to the wall
in which the viscous
effects (and thus the
velocity gradients)
are significant.

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A Brief History Of Fluid Mechanics

Assignment 1

Discuss the brief history of Fluid

Mechanics.

Submit 2 pages, written in your

own words on white A4 size

Last date: 05/03/2024

Classification of Flows
There is a wide variety of fluid flow problems encountered
in practice, and it is usually convenient to classify them on
the basis of some common characteristics to make it
feasible to study them in groups. There are many ways to
classify fluid flow problems, and here we present some
general categories.

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Viscous vs. Inviscid Regions of Flow
 Regions where frictional
effects are significant
are called viscous
regions. They are
usually close to solid
surfaces.
 Regions where frictional
forces are small
compared to inertial or
pressure forces are
called inviscid

Internal vs. External Flow

 Internal flows are
dominated by the
influence of viscosity
throughout the flow
field
 For external flows,
viscous effects are
limited to the
boundary layer and
wake.

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Compressible vs. Incompressible Flow
 A flow is classified as incompressible
if the density remains nearly constant.
 Liquid flows are typically
incompressible.
 Gas flows are often compressible,
especially for high speeds.
 Mach number is a good indicator of
whether or not compressibility effects
are important.

Ma < 0.3 Incompressible flow

Ma < 1 Subsonic flow
Ma = 1 Sonic flow
Ma > 1 Supersonic flow
Ma >> 1 Hypersonic flow

Laminar vs. Turbulent Flow

 Laminar: highly ordered
fluid motion with smooth
streamlines.
 Turbulent: highly
disordered fluid motion
characterized by velocity
fluctuations and eddies.
 Transitional: a flow that
contains both laminar
and turbulent regions
 Reynolds number, Re=
rUL/ is the key
parameter in determining
whether or not a flow is
laminar or turbulent.

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Natural (or Unforced) versus Forced Flow
 A fluid flow is said to be natural
or forced, depending on how
the fluid motion is initiated.
 In forced flow, a fluid is forced
to flow over a surface or in a
pipe by external means such as
a pump or a fan.
 In natural flows, any fluid
motion is due to natural means
such as the buoyancy effect,
which manifests itself as the
rise of the warmer (and thus
lighter) fluid and the fall of
cooler (and thus denser) fluid

Steady vs. Unsteady Flow

 Steady implies no change at
a point with time. Transient
terms in N-S equations are
zero
 Unsteady is the opposite of
Instantaneous image steady.
 Transient usually describes a
starting, or developing flow.
 Periodic refers to a flow which
oscillates about a mean.
 Unsteady periodic flows may
appear steady if “time-
averaged”
Time-averaged image

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One-, Two-, and Three-Dimensional Flows

 A flow field is best characterized by its velocity

distribution.
 A flow is said to be one-, two-, or three-dimensional if the
flow velocity varies in one, two, or three dimensions,
respectively.
 However, the variation of velocity in certain directions
can be small relative to the variation in other directions
and can be ignored.
 Lower dimensional flows reduce complexity of analytical
and computational solution
 Change in coordinate system (cylindrical, spherical, etc.)
may facilitate reduction in order.

One-, Two-, and Three-Dimensional Flows

 Example: for fully-developed pipe flow, velocity V(r) is
a function of radius r and pressure p(z) is a function of
distance z along the pipe.
 The development of the velocity profile in a circular
pipe. V = V(r, z) and thus the flow is two-dimensional in
the entrance region, and becomes one-dimensional
downstream when the velocity profile fully develops
and remains unchanged in the flow direction, V = V(r).

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One-, Two-, and Three-Dimensional Flows
A flow may be approximated as two-dimensional when the aspect
ratio is large and the flow does not change appreciably along the
longer dimension.
For example, the flow of air over a car antenna can be considered
two-dimensional except near its ends since the antenna’s length is
much greater than its diameter, and the airflow hitting the antenna is
fairly uniform

System and Control Volume

 System: A quantity of matter or a
region in space chosen for study.
 Surroundings: The mass or region
outside the system
 Boundary: The real or imaginary
surface that separates the system
from its surroundings.
 The boundary of a system can be
fixed or movable.
 Systems may be considered to be
closed or open.

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System and Control Volume
 A closed system (known as
a control mass) consists of a
fixed amount of mass.
 An open system, or control
volume, is a properly
selected region in space. It
usually encloses a device
that involves mass flow such
as a compressor, turbine, or
nozzle.

System and Control Volume

 In general, any arbitrary region in space

can be selected as a control volume. There
are no concrete rules for the selection of
control volumes, but the proper choice
certainly makes the analysis much easier.

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Dimensions and Units
 Any physical quantity
can be characterized by
dimensions.
 The magnitudes
assigned to dimensions
are called units.
 Primary dimensions (or
fundamental
dimensions) include:
mass m, length L, time
t, and temperature T,
etc. By General Conference of
Weights and Measures

Dimensions and Units

 Secondary dimensions (derived dimensions) can be
expressed in terms of primary dimensions and include:
velocity V, energy E, and volume V.
 Unit systems include English system and the metric SI
(International System). We'll use both.

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Dimensions and Units
 Dimensional homogeneity In engineering, all equations
must be dimensionally homogeneous. That is, every term
in an equation must have the same unit.

 It is a valuable tool in checking for errors. Make sure

every term in an equation has the same units.

 Keep in mind that a formula that is not dimensionally

homogeneous is definitely wrong, but a dimensionally
homogeneous formula is not necessarily right.

Accuracy, Precision, and Significant Digits

Engineers must be aware of three principals that govern the proper
use of numbers.

1. Accuracy error : Value of one reading minus the true value.

Closeness of the average reading to the true value. Generally
associated with repeatable, fixed errors.
2. Precision error : Value of one reading minus the average of
readings. Is a measure of the fineness of resolution and
repeatability of the instrument. Generally associated with random
errors.
3. Significant digits : Digits that are relevant and meaningful.
When performing calculations, the final result is only as precise
as the least precise parameter in the problem. When the number
of significant digits is unknown, the accepted standard is 3. Use 3
in all homework and exams.

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Accuracy, Precision, and Significant Digits
 A measurement or calculation can be very
precise without being very accurate, and vice
versa. For example, suppose the true value of
wind speed is 25.00 m/s. Two anemometers A
and B take five wind speed readings each:
Anemometer A: 25.50, 25.69, 25.52, 25.58, and
25.61 m/s. Average of all readings = 25.58 m/s.
Anemometer B: 26.3, 24.5, 23.9, 26.8, and 23.6
m/s. Average of all readings = 25.02 m/s.

Accuracy, Precision, and Significant Digits

In engineering calculations, the supplied information is not
known to more than a certain number of significant digits,
usually three digits.

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Thank You

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