CHAPTER 1

Chapter 1
Some Fundamental Properties of Fluids
Fluid Mechanics is the branch of Engineering Science that is concerned with forces and
energy generated by fluids at rest and in motion. Applications of fluid mechanics can be
found in fluid transport (water services, oil industry, chemical industry and natural gas
services), energy generation (steam turbines, hydraulic plants and windmills), environment
control (refrigeration and air conditioning) and transportation (design of aeroplanes, ships and
cars).
A fluid is a substance that may flow:
(a) Its particles may continuously change their position relative to each other.
(b) It offers no lasting resistance to the displacement of one layer over another. If a fluid is at
rest, no shear force (force tangential to the surface on which it acts) can exist in it.
(c) A given amount of it owes its shape at any particular time to that of a vessel containing it.
Solids by contrast can resist shear stress and no matter how plastic a solid is, it does not flow
unless the net shear stress exceeds a certain value.
Fluids include liquids and gasses. The volume of liquids is definite and varies slightly with
temperature and pressure. A gas expands until its volume equals that of its container. The
most important difference between liquids and gases in their analysis is that under ordinary
conditions liquids are so difficult to compress that they are regarded as incompressible. Gases
are generally considered compressible unless under certain conditions.
There are many features of fluids that distinguish them from solids, both on the microscopic
and macroscopic scales. The most important are:
- Compressibility
- Viscosity
- Surface Tension
1.1 Compressibility
All fluids are to some extent compressible: their volume will decrease under the application
of a compressive stress. To illustrate this behaviour, consider the typical case of a fixed mass
of fluid, m, trapped by a piston within a cylinder as shown in Figure 1.1. Let the volume of
the fluid within the cylinder be V and the external pressure (including the pressure due to the
weight of the piston) be P (State 1).
Let us now consider what happens when the compressive stress (i.e., pressure) is increased by
a small amount, from P to P2 = P + P (State 2). Both the volume and the density will change,
such that:

and

V2 = V + V
2 = +

( V is negative)
( is positive)

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P+ P

V+ V

State 1

State 2

Figure 1.1
The bulk modulus of elasticity, k, relates the change in the fluid pressure to the corresponding
volumetric strain:
k

P2 P1
V2 V1
V1

k = V

P
V

or at the limit:

P
V

Note that the minus sign in the above expression is included to keep k positive since V is
negative.
It is customary in Fluid Mechanics to work in terms of density rather than volume. Density is
related to volume by:

m
V

d =

m
m dV
dV =
2
V
V V

or

dV
V

Substituting back in the expression for k gives:

k=

For liquids, k is considered constant for practically all applications. Experiments show that its
value only doubles if the pressure of water is raised from 1 atm. to 3500 atm. In that respect
all liquids can be taken as incompressible (that is their density remains constant).
Gases, on the other hand, are highly compressible substances. The bulk modulus of elasticity
changes very quickly with pressure and therefore cannot be taken as constant. However, there
are certain cases of gas flows in which the gas undergoes very small density changes. In these
special circumstances, one can assume that a gas is incompressible (i.e. = constant) but
extreme care should be exercised to ensure that proper conditions exist.
The reciprocal of the bulk modulus is sometimes termed the compressibility.

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1.2 Viscosity
To some extent all fluids are sticky; that is they tend to resist any force tending to cause one
layer to move over another. Unlike solids, this resistance occurs only when motion is taking
place. Furthermore, there is no tendency for the fluid to return back to its original position
once the shearing force is removed.
Relative motion between layers requires shearing forces (forces parallel to the surfaces over
which they act) and hence the resisting forces must be in exactly the opposite direction and so
they too are parallel to the surfaces.
This resistance to the movement of one layer of fluid over an adjoining layer is ascribed to the
viscosity of the fluid. The viscosity of a fluid can be considered as the fluid property that
indicates how sticky it is, in other words how resistant it is to being moved or how resistant
it is to deformation.
Illustration: Consider the arrangement shown in Fig. 1.2 where a stationary quantity of fluid
is trapped between two horizontal flat plates which are separated by a distance W. The lower
plate is fixed while the upper wall can be moved in the horizontal direction. When the upper
wall is at rest, all the fluid particles have a zero velocity in the x-direction (u(y) = 0).
Moveable plate
u (y) = 0

y
x

Stationary Plate

Figure 1.2
r
What happens when a shear force F is applied on the upper plate from left to right?

It will result in that plate moving from left to right at some velocity, U, in the x-direction. This
is seen in the figure below.

y
x

Moveable plate

u( y ) 0

Stationary Plate

Figure (1.3)
Due to viscosity (stickiness), fluid particles in direct contact with the upper plate will stick to
it and move at the same speed U. On the other hand, particles in contact with the lower plate
will also stick to it and therefore remain at rest; NO SLIP CONDITION. As the top layer
moves with velocity U, it exerts a force on the bottom layer down and so on through the cross
section of the fluid. At the same time, the bottom layer of the fluid in contact with the
stationary plate exerts a retarding force on the fluid layer just above it. Therefore, at
intermediate points, the velocity will have to increase gradually from u = 0 at y = 0 to u = U
at y = W.

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This is the same as saying that a transverse (across) velocity profile comes to exist within the
flow:
Velocity Profile: u( y ) 0
As each layer has a different velocity, the upper and faster layer tends to draw the lower layer
with a shearing force while the lower layer tends to retard the upper layer with an equal and
opposite shearing force (Newtons third law), Fig. 1.4. This force is called viscous force, and
is transmitted by the fluid. Newton showed that, the viscous shear stress (viscous force /
contact area) in the fluid is proportional to the velocity change divided by the distance over
which the change occurs (velocity gradient).
y
u+ u
F
u
x

Figure 1.4
For many fluids such as air, water and oil:

du
dy

where
F
is the shear stress
A
du/dy: is the velocity change divided by the distance over which the change
occurs, i.e., velocity gradient
u: is the fluid velocity parallel to the applied force
: is the dynamic viscosity coefficient or more simply the viscosity of the fluid
y: is the transverse distance normal to the shear force.

The SI units for are Ns/m2, kg/(ms) or Pas.

The viscosity of liquid water at 20 oC is 10-3 Pas. For air at standard conditions (stp), the
viscosity is 1.7 x 10-5 Pas.
The ratio / is called the kinematic viscosity, , and has the unit m2/s.
Although, the dynamic viscosity of air at ordinary temperatures is only about one sixtieth that
of water, because of the much smaller density of air compared to water, the kinematic
viscosity of air is approximately 13 times that of water.
The dynamic viscosity is temperature dependent, however for small variation it can be
assumed constant. For liquids, decreases with temperature while for gases increases with
temperature. The viscous forces that arise in a flowing fluid can be explained on the basis of
the change of momentum of the molecules across a layer and to the forces of attraction
between the molecules. In liquids, the intermolecular forces are dominant (due to the fact the

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molecules are closely packed together) and try to resist the shear stresses applied to move the
fluid. As the temperature increases, the intermolecular forces are weakened and so it becomes
easier to flow and the viscosity is decreased. In gases, the change of momentum is dominant
and determines how easily the gas flows. As the temperature increases, the molecules become
more excited and collide more frequently, increasing momentum and thus increasing
viscosity.
Fluids that follow Newtons formula are known as Newtonian fluids. For these fluids the
relationship between the magnitude of the applied shear stress and the resulting velocity
gradient is linear, that is is constant. Fluids such as blood, toothpaste and tar do not follow
Newton Law and thus they are called Non-Newtonian Fluids. Figure 1.5 shows the
relationship between the shear stress and the velocity gradient for Newtonian and nonNewtonian fluids:
Stress

Plastic
Pseudo-plastic
Newtonian
Dilatant
Ideal fluid (=0)
du/dy

Figure 1.5
1. Plasticity: Metals when strained beyond their elastic limit or when close to their melting
points can deform continuously under the action of a constant force, and thus in some
degree behave like liquids of high viscosity. Their behaviours, however, are nonNewtonian.
2. Pseudo-plastic: Gelatine, Clay, Milk, Blood, Liquid Cement and solutions particularly of
colloids often have a reduced viscosity when the rate of shear is large.
3. Dilatants: Fluids that have their effective viscosity increases with increasing rate of shear.
Concentrated solutions of sugar in water and aqueous suspensions of rice starch are
examples.
The fluids with which engineers most often have to deal with are Newtonian, that is their
viscosity is not dependent on either the rate of shear or its duration.

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Example
A shaft 70 mm in diameter is being pushed at a speed of 400 mm/s through a bearing sleeve
70.2 mm in diameter and 250 mm long. The clearance, assumed uniform, is filled with oil
with kinematic viscosity = 0.005 m2/s and density = 900 kg/m3. Find the force exerted by
the oil on the shaft. (ans.: 990 N)

1.3 Surface Tension

Fluids form drops and bubbles, but why??
Confining our discussion to liquids at this stage, one can say that a molecule within a body of
a liquid is, on average, attracted equally in all directions by the other molecules surrounding
it. However, at the surface between liquid and air, the forces of attraction are not balanced.
Surface molecules are being pulled inward towards the bulk of the liquid. This effect causes
the liquid surface to behave as if it were an elastic membrane under tension.
The surface tension, , is measured as the force acting across a unit length of a line drawn in
the surface of a liquid. It acts in the plane of the surface, normal to the line drawn and has the
same value at each and every point on the line.
The effect of surface tension is to reduce to a minimum the surface area of a free body of a
liquid. This is so since to expand the surface area molecules have to be brought to the surface
from the bulk of the liquid against the unbalanced attraction which pulls the surface
molecules inwards. This is against their natural tendency. For this reason, drops of liquid tend
to take a spherical shape in order to minimise the surface area. For such small droplets,
surface tension will cause a small increase in the internal pressure, p, in order to balance the
surface force.
Considering the forces acting on the diametric plane through a spherical drop of radius r, Fig.
1.6:
pr 2
2r

Figure 1.6
The force due to internal pressure is
The force due to surface tension around the perimeter is

= p r 2
= 2r

For equilibrium:

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pr 2 = 2r or

p=

2
r