Viscosity

Quick
Viscosity represents the internal resistance of a fluid to motion. Thicker
fluids have a higher viscosity. For example, the viscosity of oil is higher
than that of water, the oil is more viscous than the water. Viscosity may be
known as either dynamic (absolute) viscosity or kinematic viscosity. This
discussion is limited to dynamic viscosity. The symbol is used to represent
the coefficient of viscosity, also called the viscous coefficient, dynamic
viscosity of a fluid, and absolute viscosity of a fluid. The coefficient of
viscosity is a proportionality constant that is unique for each material.
Nomenclature

coefficient of viscosity

shear stress acting on fluid layer

force

area

u( y)

velocity profile

Details
The magnitude of the drag force depends, in part, on viscosity.
To obtain a relation for viscosity, consider a fluid layer between two very
large parallel plates (or equivalently, two parallel plates immersed in a large
body of a fluid) separated by a distanceL. Now a constant parallel force F is
applied to the upper plate while the lower plate is held fixed. After the initial
transients, it is observed that the upper plate moves continuously under the
influence of this force at a constant velocity V. The fluid in contact with the
upper plate sticks to the plate surface and moves with it at the same velocity,
and the shear stress acting on this fluid layer is:
=

F
A

where A is the contact area between the plate and the fluid. Note that the
fluid layer deforms continuously under the influence of shear stress.
The fluid in contact with the lower plate assumes the velocity of that plate,
which is zero (because of the no-slip condition). In steady laminar flow, the
fluid velocity between the plates varies linearly between 0 and V, and thus

the velocity profile and the velocity gradient are:

y
L

u( y) =

and
du
dy

V
L

where y is the vertical distance from the lower plate.

During a differential time interval dt, the sides of fluid particles along a
vertical line MN rotate through a differential angle d while the upper plate
moves a differential distance da = V dt. The angular displacement or
deformation (or shear strain) can be expressed as:
da
L

d tan =

V dt
L

du
dy

dt

Rearranging, the rate of deformation under the influence of shear

stress becomes:
d
dt

du
dy

Thus it is concluded that the rate of deformation of a fluid element is

equivalent to the velocity gradient du/dy. Further, it can be verified
experimentally that for most fluids the rate of deformation (and thus the
velocity gradient) is directly proportional to the shear stress ,

d
dt

or:

du
dy

In one-dimensional shear flow of Newtonian fluids, shear stress can be

expressed by the linear relationship:
=

du
dy

where the constant of proportionality is called the coefficient of viscosity

or the dynamic (or absolute) viscosity of a fluid, whose unit is kg/(ms), or

equivalently, (Ns)/m2 (or Pa*s where Pa is the pressure unit pascal). A
common viscosity unit is poise, which is equivalent to 0.1 Pa*s (or
centipoise, which is one-hundredth of a poise). The viscosity of water at
20C is 1 centipoise, and thus the unit centipoise serves as a useful
reference. A plot of shear stress versus the rate of deformation (velocity
gradient) for a Newtonian fluid is a straight line whose slope is the viscosity
of the fluid, as shown. Note that viscosity is independent of the rate of
deformation.
The shear force acting on a Newtonian fluid layer (or, by Newton's third law,
the force acting on the plate) is:
F = A = A

du
dy

where again A is the contact area between the plate and the fluid. Then the
force F required to move the upper plate in the figure at a constant velocity
of V while the lower plate remains stationary is:
F = A

V
L

This relation can alternately be used to calculate when the force F is

measured. Therefore, the experimental setup just described can be used to
measure the viscosity of fluids. Note that under identical conditions, the
force F will be very different for different fluids.
For non-Newtonian fluids, the relationship between shear stress and rate of
deformation is not linear, as shown. The slope of the curve on
the versus du/dy chart is referred to as the apparent viscosity of the fluid.
Fluids for which the apparent viscosity increases with the rate of
deformation (such as solutions with suspended starch or sand) are referred to
as dilatant or shear thickening fluids, and those that exhibit the opposite
behavior (the fluid becoming less viscous as it is sheared harder, such as
some paints, polymer solutions, and fluids with suspended particles) are
referred to as pseudoplastic or shear thinning fluids. Some materials such as
toothpaste can resist a finite shear stress and thus behave as a solid, but
deform continuously when the shear stress exceeds the yield stress and thus
behave as a fluid. Such materials are referred to as Bingham plastics.
In fluid mechanics and heat transfer, the ratio of dynamic viscosity
to density appears frequently. For convenience, this ratio is given the
name kinematic viscosity.

The viscosity of a fluid is a measure of its "resistance to deformation."

Viscosity is due to the internal frictional force that develops between
different layers of fluids as they are forced to move relative to each other.
Viscosity is caused by the cohesive forces between the molecules in liquids
and by the molecular collisions in gases, and it varies greatly
with temperature. The viscosity of liquids decreases with temperature,
whereas the viscosity of gases increases with temperature, as shown. This is
because in a liquid the molecules possess more energy at higher
temperatures, and they can oppose the large cohesive intermolecular forces
more strongly. As a result, the energized liquid molecules can move more
freely.
In a gas, on the other hand, the intermolecular forces are negligible, and the
gas molecules at high temperatures move rrandomly at higher velocities.
This results in more molecular collisions per unit volume per unit time and
therefore in greater resistance to flow. The viscosity of a fluid is directly
related to the pumping power needed to transport a fluid in a pipe or to
move a body (such as a car in air or in a submarine in the sea) through a
fluid.
The kinetic theory of gases predicts the viscosity of gases to be proportional
to the square root of temperature. That is, gas T 1/2. This prediction is
confirmed by practical observations, but deviations for different gases need
to be accounted for by incorporating some correction factors. The viscosity
of gases is expressed as a function of temperature by the Sutherland
correlation (from the U.S. Standard Atmosphere) as:
For gases:
aT 1/2
1 + b/T

where T is absolute temperature and a and b are experimentally determined

constants. Note that measuring viscosities at two different temperatures is
sufficient to determine these constants. For air, the values of these constants
are a = 1.458 10-6 kg/(m*s*K1/2) and b = 110.4 K at atmospheric
conditions. The viscosity of gases is independent of pressure at low to
moderate pressures (from a few percent of 1 atm to several atm). But
viscosity increases at high pressures due to the increase in density.
For liquids, the viscosity is approximated as:

= a10b/(T c)
where again T is absolute temperature and a, b, and c are experimentally

determined constants. For water, using the values a = 2.414 105

Ns/m2, b = 247.8 K, and c = 140 K results in less than 2.5 percent error in
viscosity in the temperature range of 0C to 370C.
Consider a fluid layer of thickness L within a small gap between two
concentric cylinders, such as the thin layer of oil in a journal bearing. The
gap between the cylinders can be modeled as two parallel flat plates
separated by a fliud. Noting that torque is T = FR (force times the moment
arm, which is the radius R of the inner cylinder in this case), the tangential
velocity is V = R(angular velocity times the radius), and taking the
wetted surface area of the inner cylinder to be A = 2RL by disregarding the
shear stress acting on the two ends of the inner cylinder, torque can be
expressed as:

T = FR =

2R3L
L

4 2R3nL
L

where L is the length of the cylinder and n is the number of revolutions per
unit time, which is usually expressed in rpm (revolutions per minute). Note
that the angular distance traveled during one rotation is 2 rad, and thus the
relation between the angular velocity in rad/min and the rpm is = 2n. The
above equation can be used to calculate the viscosity of a fluid by measuring
torque at a specified angular velocity. Therefore, two concentric cylinders
can be used as a viscometer, a device that measures viscosity.
The viscosities of different fluids may differ by several orders of magnitude.
Also note that it is more difficult to move an object in a higher-viscosity
fluid such as engine oil than it is in a lower-viscosity fluid such as water.
Liquids, in general, are much more viscous than gases.
Viscosity is a quantitative measure of a fluid's resistance to flow. More
specifically, it determines the fluid strain rate that is generated by a given
applied shear stress. Air can be easily moved throughit has a low
viscosity. Movement is more difficult in water, which has 50 times higher
viscosity. Still more resistance is found in SAE 30 oil, which is 300 times
more viscous than water. Glycerin is five times more viscous than SAE 30
oil, or blackstrap molasses, another factor of five higher than glycerin.
Fluids may have a vast range of viscosities.
Consider a fluid element sheared in one plane by a single shear stress , as in
the figure. The shear strain angle will continuously grow with time as
long as the stress is maintained, the upper surface moving at
speed u larger than the lower. Such common fluids as water, oil, and air
show a linear relation between the applied shear and resulting strain rate:

From the geometry of the figure:

(Eq1)

u t
y

tan =

In the limit of infinitesimal changes, this becomes a relation between shear

strain rate and velocity gradient:
d
dt

du
dy

From Eq1, then, the applied shear is also proportional to the velocity
gradient for the common linear fluids. The constant of proportionality is the
viscous coefficient :
(Eq2)

d
dt

du
dy

Eq2 is dimensionally consistent; therefore has dimensions of stresstime.

The British unit is slugs per foot-second, and the SI unit is kilograms per
meter-second. The linear fluids that follow Eq2 are called newtonian fluids.
The strain angle (t) is not of much concern in fluid mechanics,
concentration is instead focused on the velocity distribution u( y), as in the
figure. Eq2 can be used to derive a differential equation for finding the
velocity distribution u( y)and, more generally, V(x, y, z, t)in a viscous
fluid. The figure illustrates a shear layer, or boundary layer, near a solid
wall. The shear stress is proportional to the slope of the velocity profile and
is greatest at the wall. Further, at the wall, the velocity u is zero relative to
the wall: This is called the no-slip condition and is characteristic of all
viscous fluid flows.
The viscosity of newtonian fluids is a true thermodynamic property and
varies with temperature and pressure. At a given state ( p, T) there is a vast
range of values among the common fluids.
Generally speaking, the viscosity of a fluid increases only weakly with
pressure. Temperature, however, has a strong effect, with increasing
with T for gases and decreasing for liquids. It is customary in most
engineering work to neglect the pressure variation.

Variation of Viscosity with Temperature

Temperature has a strong effect and pressure a moderate effect on viscosity.
The viscosity of gases and most liquids increases slowly with pressure.
Water is anomalous in showing a very slight decrease below 30C. Since the
change in viscosity is only a few percent up to 100 atm, pressure effects may
be neglected, depending on the application.
Gas viscosity increases with temperature. Two common approximations are
the power law and the Sutherland law. The power law is:

T
T0

and the Sutherland law is:

(T/T0)3/2(T0 + S)
T+S

where 0 is a known viscosity at a known absolute temperature T0 (usually

273 K). The constants n and S are fit to the data, and both formulas are
adequate over a wide range of temperatures. For air, n 0.7 and S 110 K =
199R.
Liquid viscosity decreases with temperature and is roughly
exponential, aebT; but a better fit is the empirical result that ln is
quadratic in 1/T, where T is absolute temperature:
ln

a+b

T0
T

+c

T0
T

For water, with T0 = 273.16 K, 0 = 0.001792 kg/(m*s), suggested values

are a = 1.94, b = 4.80, and c = 6.74, with accuracy about 1%.

Related
L - Viscosity and Flow Between Plates
L - Viscous and Inviscid Flow