Chapter: 1 Physical Properties of Fluid

1.1 Definition of Fluid Mechanics, basic Concept and Application in Civil Engineering.

Fluid Mechanics:
It is the science which deals with the behavior fluid at rest (fluid Statics) or in motion (fluid
dynamics), and the interaction of the fluid with the solids and other fluid at boundaries.

Fluid mechanics is divided into several Categories.

Fluid Statics:

Study of Fluid at rest.

Fluid kinematics
The study of fluids in motion, where pressure forces are not considered, is called fluid kinematics. It
deals with velocity with considering forces and energy.
Fluid Dynamics:
It is the study of relation between velocity and accelerations and the force exerted by or upon fluid
motions. If the pressure forces are also considered for the fluids in motion, that branch of science is
called fluid dynamics.
Hydrodynamics:
The study of the motion of fluids that are practically incompressible (such as liquids, especially
water, and gases at low speeds) is usually referred to as hydrodynamics.
A subcategory of hydrodynamics is hydraulics, which deals with liquid flows in pipes and open
channels. 
Gas dynamics:
It deals with the flow of fluids that undergo significant density changes, such as the flow of gases
through nozzles at high speeds.
The category 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.

1.2 Matters as Solid liquid and gas; Shear stress in fluid and difference in shear stress
in solid and liquid.

 A substance exists in three primary phases: solid, liquid, and gas. A substance in the liquid or
gas phase is referred to as a fluid.
 Distinction between a solid and a fluid is made on the basis of the substance’s ability to
resist an applied shear (or tangential) stress that tends to change its shape.
 A solid can resist an applied shear stress by deforming, whereas a fluid deforms
continuously under the influence of shear stress, no matter how small.
 In solids stress is proportional to strain, but in fluids stress is proportional to strain rate.

 When a constant shear force is applied, a solid eventually stops deforming, at some fixed
strain angle.
  But fluid is the substance that moves under the action of the shear stress no water how
small the shear stress may be. It means even a small shear force results in motion in the
fluid so the fluid is a substance which deforms under the action of shearing forces. Fluid
never stops deforming and approaches a certain rate of strain.

 In a liquid, molecules can move relative to each other, but the volume remains relatively
constant because of the strong cohesive forces between the molecules.
 As a result, a liquid takes the shape of the container it is in, and it forms a free surface in a
larger container in a gravitational field.
 A gas, on the other hand, expands until it encounters the walls of the container and fills the
entire available space.

 This is because the gas molecules are widely spaced, and the cohesive forces between them
are very small. Unlike liquids, gases cannot form a free surface.

Application areas of Fluid Mechanics:

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
 Design of Hydraulic Structures.
 Hydropower Engineering
  Irrigation and Drainage.
 Flood control systems

 Chemical Engineering: Design of chemical processing equipment

 Turbo machines: 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, Lab-on-a- Chip device, glucose monitor,
controlled drug delivery, etc.
 Electronics: Convective cooling of generated heat.
 Energy: Combustor, burner, boiler, gas, hydro and wind turbine, etc.
 Oil and Gas: Pipeline, pump, valve, offshore rig, oil spill cleanup, etc.
 Almost everything in our world is either in contact with a fluid or is itself a fluid.
 The number of fluid engineering applications is enormous: breathing, blood flow, swimming,
pumps, fans, turbines, airplanes, ships, rivers, windmills, pipes, missiles, icebergs, engines,
filters, jets, and sprinklers, to name a few.
 When you think about it, almost everything on this planet either is a fluid or moves within
or near a fluid.

Continuum Concept and control Volume Approach:

In the microscopic level of fluid there exists a void or spaces between two molecules of fluid. But in fluid
mechanics, it is assumed that there is no voids between the fluids .i.e. it is assumed that gases and
liquids are continuously distributed throughout a region of interest and hence the fluid is treated as
continuum.

The physical properties of the fluids (mass, density) are expressed by continuous algebraic function of
space and tine coordinates. The fluid properties are treated to be same at a point and identical in all
direction.

Knudsen Number (Kn)

The Knudsen number (Kn) is a dimensionless number defined as the ratio of the molecular mean free
path length to a representative physical length scale (radius) of molecule.

The Knudsen number is a dimensionless number defined as

Where

λ= mean free path [L1].

L = representative physical length scale [L1].

Kn< 0.01 Continuum concept is valid.

The Knudsen number helps determine whether statistical mechanics or the continuum mechanics
formulation of fluid dynamics should be used to model a situation. If the Knudsen number is near or
greater than one, the mean free path of a molecule is comparable to a length scale of the problem, and
the continuum assumption of fluid mechanics is no longer a good approximation. In such cases,
statistical methods should be used.

Control Volume in fluid Mechanics:

A fluid system is both mobile and very deformable and its motion is random. So in order to
study, the fluid volume is fixed in space throughout which mass, momentum and energy can
flow.

The control volume is a fixed, identifiable region in space through which fluid flows. The
boundary of the control volume is called control surface. The fluid mass in a control volume
may vary with time. The shape and size of the control volume may be as per the requirement. It
simply represents a small part of the system to which physical laws can be easily applied It is
employed in the process of creating mathematical models of physical process.

Physical Properties of Fluid:

Some of the basic properties of fluids are discussed below-

Density: Density of a substance is its mass per unit volume. In fluid mechanic it is expressed in three
different ways-

Mass density:

ρ is the mass of the fluid per unit volume

Unit =

Dimension-  

Typical values: water- 1000 kg/ m3

Air- 1.23 kg/m3 at standard pressure and temperature (STP)

Specific weight, w: -

As we express a mass M has a weight W=Mg. The specific weight of the fluid can be defined similarly as
its weight per unit volume.
Vapor Pressure and Cavitation:

Pressure exerted by its vapor in a phase equilibrium with its liquid at a given temperature is called vapor
pressure.

It is the saturation pressure at or below which liquid gets converted into vapor or
liquid boils.

Phase equilibrium means: rate of vapor re-entering liquid state (condensation) = rate
of liquid molecules escaping (evaporation)

Condition for Boiling

Pliquid =< Pvapor

Tliq>= Tsat

Low vapor pressure means fluid is difficult to boil and viceversa for high vapor
pressure.
Cavitation:

If Pliquid < Pvapour , vapor bubbles form and these

vapor bubbles are carried away from low
pressure region to high pressure region and
their sudden collapse generate extremely high
pressure waves which leads to noise, vibration
and erosion and also reduce performance of
machine.

To avoid cavitation: Pliquid > Pvapor

Surface Tension:

 Attractive forces between molecules of the same type are called cohesive forces.
 Attractive forces between molecules of different types are called adhesive forces.

 Surface tension is defined as the tensile force acting on the surface of a liquid in contact with a
gas or on the surface between two immiscible liquids such that the contact surface behaves like
a membrane under tension.
 Surface tension is created due to the unbalanced cohesive forces acting on the liquid molecules
at the fluid surface.
 Molecules in the interior of the fluid mass are surrounded by molecules that are attracted to
each other equally. However, molecules along the surface are subjected to a net force toward
the interior. The apparent physical consequence of this unbalanced force along the surface is to
create the hypothetical skin or membrane.
 A tensile force may be considered to be acting in the plane of the
surface along any line in the surface. The intensity of the
molecular attraction per unit length along any line in the surface
is called the surface tension.
 It is denoted by Greek letter σ (called sigma).
 The SI unit is N/m.

Surface Tension on liquid Droplet and Bubble.

Consider a small spherical droplet of a liquid of radius ‘R'. On the entire surface of the droplet, the
tensile force due to surface tension will be acting.

Let σ = surface tension of the liquid

ΔP= Pressure intensity inside the droplet (in excess of the outside pressure intensity)

R= Radius of droplet.
Let the droplet is cut into two halves. The forces acting on one half (say left half) will be

(i) tensile force due to surface tension acting around the circumference of the cut portion as
shown and this is equal to = σ x Circumference = σ x 2πR
(ii) pressure force on the area (π/4)d2 = ΔP x πR2 These two forces will be equal and opposite
under equilibrium conditions, i.e.

(iii) A hollow bubble like a soap bubble in air has two surfaces in contact with air, one inside and
other outside. Thus two surfaces are subjected surface tension.

Numerical on Surface Tension:

Capillarity:

 Capillarity is defined as a phenomenon of rise or fall of a liquid surface in a small tube relative to
the adjacent general level of liquid when the tube is held vertically in the liquid.
 The attraction (adhesion) between the wall of the tube and liquid molecules is strong enough to
overcome the mutual attraction (cohesion) of the molecules and pull them up the wall. Hence,
the liquid is said to wet the solid surface.
 The rise of liquid surface is known as capillary rise while the fall of the liquid surface is known as
capillary depression.
 It is expressed in terms of cm or mm of liquid. Its value depends upon the specific weight of the

liquid, diameter of the tube and surface tension of the liquid

Expression for Capillary Rise

Consider a glass tube of small diameter‘d’ opened at both ends and is inserted in a liquid, say water.
The liquid will rise in the tube above the level of the liquid.

Let h = the height of the liquid in the tube.

Under a state of equilibrium, the weight of the liquid of height h is balanced by the force at the surface
of the liquid in the tube. But the force at the surface of the liquid in the tube is due to surface tension.

Let σ = Surface tension of liquid

θ = Angle of contact between the liquid and glass tube.

The weight of the liquid of height h in the tube = (Area of the tube x h) x ρ x g
The value of θ between water and clean glass tube is approximately equal to zero and hence cos θ is
equal to unity. Then the rise of water is given by,

 Contact angle depends on both the liquid and the solid. If θ is less than 90 o, the liquid is said to
"wet" the solid. However, if θ is greater than 90 o, the liquid is repelled by the solid, and tries not
to "wet" it
 For example, water wets glass, but not wax. Mercury on the other hand does not wet glass.
 If the diameter of tube is more than 6 mm, effect of capillary may be neglected.

Capillarity Expression for Capillary Fall

lf the glass tube is dipped in mercury, the level of mercury in the tube will be lower than the general
level of the outside liquid as shown below.
Numerical on Capillarity:

Calculate the capillary rise in a glass tube of 2.5 mm diameter when immersed vertically in (a) water
and (b) mercury. Take surface tensions σ = 0.0725 N/m for water and σ = 0.52 N/m for mercury in
contact with air. The specific gravity for mercury is given as 13.6 and angle of contact = 130 o.

Viscosity:
  Viscosity is defined as the property of a fluid which offers resistance to the movement of one
layer of fluid over another adjacent layer of the fluid.

 When two layers of a fluid, a distance 'dy' apart move one over the other at different velocities
say u and u+ du as shown in Figure , the viscosity together with relative velocity causes a shear
stress acting between the fluid layers.

 The top layer causes a shear stress on the adjacent lower layer while the lower layer causes a
shear stress on the adjacent top layer.

 This shear stress is proportional to the rate of change of velocity with respect to y. It is denoted
by symbol τ called Tau.

Mathematically,

 Where μ (called mu) is the constant of proportionality and is known as the coefficient of
dynamic viscosity or only viscosity.
 ( du/ dy ) represents the rate of shear strain or rate of shear deformation or velocity gradient.
 From above equation( 1.2 ) we have,

 Thus viscosity is also defined as the shear stress required to produce unit rate of shear strain.

Unit of Viscosity.
The unit of viscosity is obtained by putting the dimension of the quantities in equation ( 1.3)

 Unit of Viscocity in CGS is called Poise.

# Convert Unit of Viscosity from MKS to CGS Unit. ( 1kgf = 9.81 N )

Kinematic Viscosity:

It is defined as the ratio between the dynamic viscosity and density of fluid.lt is denoted by the Greek
symbol (ν) called 'nu' . Thus, mathematically,

The SI unit of kinematic viscosity is m2/s.

Newton’s law of Viscosity:

It states that the shear stress (τ) on a fluid element layer is directly proportional to the rate of shear
strain.

du
i.e τ =μ
dy
 The constant of proportionality is called coefficient of viscosity.

Proof:
Consider two solid plates separated by fluid body, the lower plate is kept stationary and force “F “is
applied on upper plate. The upper plate moves with velocity “u “in x-direction.

Experiments have shown that

i) F ∝ A , where A is the surface area of the plate∈contact with the liquid .

ii) F∝u
1
iii) F∝
y
So,

Au
F∝
y
F u
∝
A y
F μu
=
A y
If we consider an elementary liquid body between the two plates then
μ du
τ=
dy
du
Where is called velocity gradient or ratio of shear deformation.
dy

Variation of Viscosity with Temperature:

 Temperature affects the viscosity.

 The viscosity of liquids decreases with the increase of temperature while the viscosity of gases
increases with increase of temperature. This is due to reason that the viscous forces in a fluid
are due to cohesive forces and molecular momentum transfer.
  In liquids the cohesive forces predominates the molecular momentum transfer due to closely
packed molecules and with the increase in temperature, the cohesive forces decreases with the
result of decreasing viscosity.

 But in the case of gases the cohesive force are small and molecular momentum transfer
predominates. With the increase in temperature, molecular momentum transfer increases and
hence viscosity increases. The relation between viscosity and temperature for liquids and gases
are:

Types of Fluid:

1. Ideal Fluid:

A fluid, which is incompressible and is having no viscosity, is known as an ideal fluid. Ideal fluid is only an
imaginary fluid as all the fluids, which exist, have some viscosity.

2. Real fluid.

A fluid, which possesses viscosity, is known as real fluid. All the fluids: in actual practice, are real fluids.

3. Newtonian Fluid.

A real fluid, in which the shear stress is directly, proportional to the rate of shear strain (or velocity
gradient), is known as a Newtonian fluid.

4. Non-Newtonian fluid.

A real fluid, in which shear stress is not proportional to the rate of shear strain (or velocity gradient),
known as a Non-Newtonian fluid.

5. Ideal Plastic Fluid:

A fluid, in which shear stress is more than the yield value and shear stress is proportional to the rate of
shear strain (or velocity gradient), is known as ideal plastic fluid.

Figure: Types of Fluid