Module 1

Introduction to Fluid Statics

Definition of Fluid
Concept of Continuum
Fluid Properties
Classification of Fluids
Pascal’s and Hydrostatic Law
Pressure and its Measurement
 Introduction
FLUID
A substance which is capable of flowing. It has
no definite shape.
It is a substance that continually deforms
(flows) under an applied shear stress

FLUID MECHANICS deals with behavior of fluid

(liquids or gases) when they are at rest or motion.
• FLUID STATIC - Study of fluid at rest

• FLUID KINEMATICS - Study of fluid in

motion without considering pressure
forces

FLUID DYNAMICS - Study of

fluid in motion (with considering
forces)
 Applications & modern trends
 The various applications of fluid mechanics are as follows:
Aerodynamics
Automobile and aircrafts
Hydraulic and pneumatic system
Gas dynamics
Civil engineering
Chemical industries, etc.

The recent trends/techniques in the area of fluid mechanics are:

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
Particle image velocimetry (PIV)
Continuum
• Matter is made up of atoms that are widely spaced in the
gas phase.
• 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 that the properties vary
continually in space with no jump discontinuities.
• This idealization is valid as long as the size of the system we
deal with is large relative to the space between the
molecules.
 Fluid Properties
• Density
• Specific volume
• Specific weight
• Specific gravity
• Viscosity
• Surface tension
• Capillarity
• Cohesion and adhesion
• Vapour pressure
 Fluid Properties
 DENSITY is defined at the ratio of the mass of a fluid to its
volume.
 The SI unit of density is kg/m3
 The density of liquids : constant
 The density of gases : changes w.r.t variation of pressure &
temperature
 The density of water (standard fluid) is 1000 kg/m3
 SPECIFIC WEIGHT is defined as weight per unit volume
It is denoted as w = ρg, The SI unit is N/m3
 SPECIFIC VOLUME is defined as volume per unit mass and it
is reciprocal of density. The SI unit is m3/kg
 SPECIFIC GRAVITY is defined as the ratio of density of given
liquid to the density of water
 The specific gravity of mercury is 13.6
 Viscosity
It 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.

 Shear stress is proportional to rate of change of velocity w.r.t y.

This is known as Newton’s law of viscosity
µ is called the coefficient of
viscosity or the dynamic (or
absolute) viscosity of the
fluid, whose unit is kg/m · s,
or equivalently, N · s/m2
Common viscosity unit is
poise, which is equivalent to
0.1 Pa.s
Unit of Viscosity (Dynamic Viscosity µ)

where,

1 poise = 0.1 Ns/m2 or Pa. S

Kinematic viscosity () = µ/ 

Two common units of kinematic viscosity are m2/s and stoke

(1 stoke = 1 cm2/s = 0.0001 m2/s).

S.I. Units : 2 /s
C.G.S Units : Stoke = 2 /sec

One Stoke = 10−4 2 /sec