Fluid Mechanics CEE 3311

LECTURE 15

Flow of a Real Fluid

(External Flows)

L. Handia
Real fluid
 Forces on immersed bodies
• When bodies are completely surrounded by a flowing fluid,
as for example are airplanes, birds, automobiles, raindrops,
submarines, and fish, the flows are known as external
flows.
• Such a body, wholly immersed in a homogeneous fluid,
may be subject to two kinds of forces arising from relative
motion between the body and the fluid.
• These forces are termed the drag and the lift, depending on
whether the force is parallel to the motion or perpendicular
to it, respectively.
 Forces on immersed bodies
• Fluid mechanics draws no distinction between two cases of
relative motion, namely, when a body moves rectilinearly at
constant speed through a stationary fluid or when a fluid
travels at constant velocity past a stationary body.
• Thus it is possible to test airplane models in wind tunnels
and torpedo models in water tunnels and predict with
confidence the behavior of their prototypes when moving
through still fluid.
• For instructional purposes, it is somewhat simpler to fix our
ideas on the stationary body in the moving fluid, while the
practical result desired is more frequently associated with a
body moving through still fluid such as a flying plane &
moving vehicle.
 Forces on immersed bodies
• In this lecture we shall first consider the drag, or resistance forces. As
we shall not be concerned with wave action at a free surface, gravity
does not enter the problem, and the forces involved are those due to
inertia and viscosity.
• The drag forces on a submerged body can be viewed as having two
components: a pressure drag Fp, and a friction drag (or surface drag)
Ff .
• The pressure drag, often referred to as the form drag because it
depends on the form or shape of the body, is equal to the integration
of the components in the direction of motion of all the pressure forces
exerted on the surface of the body. It may be expressed as
𝑉2
𝐹𝑝 = 𝐶𝑝 𝜌 𝐴
2
where Cp is coefficient dependent on the geometric form of the body, A
is the projected area of the body normal to the flow
 Forces on immersed bodies
• The friction drag along a body surface is equal to the integral of the
components of the shear stress along the surface in the direction of
motion.
• For convenience, the friction drag is commonly expressed in the same
general form as for pressure drag. Thus,
𝑉2
𝐹𝑓 = 𝐶𝑓 𝜌 𝐵𝐿
2

where Cf = friction-drag coefficient, dependent on viscosity among other factors

L = length of surface parallel to flow
B = transverse width, conveniently approximated for irregular shapes by dividing
total surface area by L
 Boundary layer
• The boundary layer is a very thin layer of fluid adjacent to
surface, in which viscosity is important, while outside this layer
the fluid can be considered as frictionless or ideal.
• This concept, originated by Ludwig Prandtl in 1904, is one of the
important advances in modern fluid mechanics.
• In 1904 Ludwig Prandtl published a key paper, proposing that the
flow fields of low-viscosity fluids be divided into two Zones,
namely
❑ a thin, viscosity-dominated boundary layer near solid
surfaces, and
❑ an effectively inviscid outer zone away from the boundaries.
 Boundary layer
• It means that the mathematical theory of ideal fluid flow, including
the flow net method discussed in Lecture 14, can actually be used
to determine the streamlines in the real fluid at a short distance
from a solid boundary.
• The Bernoulli theorem may then be used to determine the normal
pressures on the surface, for such pressures are practically the same
as those outside this thin layer.
 Boundary layer
• The boundary layer may be entirely laminar, or it may be
primarily turbulent with a viscous sublayer. This is a layer where
shear is predominantly due to viscosity alone.
• The thickness δ of the boundary layer is usually defined as the
distance from the boundary to the point where the velocity is 99%
of the undisturbed velocity, i.e., to where u = 0.99U.
• δ increasing with x
 Turbulent boundary layer for
flow along a smooth flat plate
• Comparing the laminar and turbulent boundary layers in
Fig. 9.4, the velocity distribution in the turbulent boundary
layer shows a much steeper gradient near the wall and a
flatter gradient throughout the remainder of the layer.
• As would be expected, then, the wall shear stress is
greater (due to higher du/dy) in the turbulent boundary
layer than in the laminar layer at the same Reynolds
number. du
 =
dy
 Turbulent boundary layer for
flow along a smooth flat plate
 Boundary layer separation and
pressure drag
The motion of a thin stratum of fluid lying wholly inside the boundary
layer is determined by three forces:
1. The forward pull of the outer free-moving fluid, transmitted
through the laminar boundary layer by viscous shear and through
the turbulent boundary layer by momentum transfer;
2. The viscous retarding effect of the solid boundary, which must, by
definition, hold the fluid stratum immediately adjacent to it at rest;
3. The pressure gradient along the boundary: the stratum is
accelerated by a pressure gradient whose pressure decreases in the
direction of flow and is retarded by an adverse gradient.
 Boundary layer separation and
pressure drag
• The treatment of fluid resistance in the foregoing sections has been
restricted to the drag of the boundary layer along a smooth flat plate
located in an unconfined fluid, that is to say, in the absence of a
pressure gradient.
• In the presence of a favorable pressure gradient, the boundary layer
is “held” in place. This is what occurs in the accelerated flow around
the forebody, or upstream portion, of a cylinder, sphere, or other
object, such as that of Fig. 4.12.
 Boundary layer separation and
pressure drag
• If a particle enters the boundary layer near the forward stagnation
point with a low velocity and high pressure, its velocity will increase
as it flows into the lower-pressure region along the side of the body.
• But there will be some retardation from wall friction (force 2 above),
so that its total useful energy will be reduced by a corresponding
conversion into thermal energy.
 Boundary layer separation and
pressure drag
• What happens next may best be explained by reference to Fig. 9.8.
• Let A represent a point in the region of accelerated flow with a normal
velocity distribution in the boundary layer (either laminar or
turbulent), while B is the point where the velocity outside the
boundary layer reaches a maximum.
 Boundary layer separation and pressure drag
• Then C, D, and E are points downstream where the velocity outside
the boundary layer decreases, resulting in an increase in pressure in
accordance with ideal-flow theory (no friction loss).
• Thus the velocity of the layer close to the wall is reduced at C and
finally brought to a stop at D. Now the increasing pressure calls for
further retardation; but this is impossible, and so the boundary layer
actually separates from the wall.
• At E there is a backflow
next to the wall, driven in
the direction of decreasing
pressure (pressure increases
downstream)-upstream in
this case-and feeding fluid
into the boundary layer that
has left the wall at D.
 Boundary layer separation and
pressure drag
• Downstream from the point of separation, the flow is characterised by
irregular turbulent eddies, formed as the separated boundary layer
becomes rolled up in the reversed flow. This condition generally
extends for some distance downstream until the eddies are worn away
by viscous attrition. The whole disturbed region is called the turbulent
wake of the body (Fig. 9.9).

Figure 9.9 Turbulent wake behind

a flat plate held normal to the flow
 Boundary layer separation and
pressure drag
• Because the eddies cannot convert their kinetic energy of rotation into
an increased pressure, as the ideal-fluid theory would dictate, the
pressure within the wake remains close to that at the separation point.
• Since this is always less than the pressure at the forward stagnation
point, there results a net pressure difference tending to move the body
with the flow, and this force is the pressure drag.
• For a moving body such as a plane or car, the front has higher
pressure than the rear and therefore the drag is opposite to the plane or
car movement and therefore pressure drag tends to resist motion of
the plane/car. It drags/resists the plane/car.
 Drag on three –dimensional
bodies
• The total drag on a body is the sum of the friction drag and the
pressure drag:
FD = Ff +Fp
• In the case of a well-streamlined body, such as an airplane wing or
the hull of a submarine, the friction drag is the major part of the
total drag, and may be estimated by the methods of the preceding
sections on the boundary layer. Only rarely is it desired to compute
the pressure drag separately from friction drag. Usually, when the
wake resistance becomes significant, one is interested in the total
drag only. Indeed, it is customary to employ a single equation that
gives the total drag
V2
FD = CD ρ A 9.32
2
where CD is overall drag coefficient
Drag on three –dimensional bodies
Drag coefficients
 Drag on three –dimensional
bodies
• It may be pointed out here that the object of streamlining a body is to
move the point of separation as far back as possible and thus to
produce the minimum size of turbulent wake. This decreases the
pressure drag, but by making the body longer so as to promote a
gradual increase in pressure, the friction drag is increased. The
optimum amount of streamlining, then, is that for which the sum of
the friction and pressure drag is a minimum.
• Attention in streamlining must be given to the rear end, or
downstream part, of a body as well as to the front.
• The shape of the forebody is important principally to the extent that
it governs the location of the separation point(s) on the afterbody. A
rounded nose produces the least disturbance in the streamlines, and is
therefore the best for incompressible or compressible flow at
subsonic velocities (less than speed of sound (in air) 1,200km/h).
 Drag on three –dimensional
bodies
This is illustrated in Fig. 9.12, where flow about a blunt-nosed motor
vehicle is compared with that about a round-nosed vehicle.

For supersonic flow (>1200km/h), a

sharp-nosed body has less drag
than a round-nosed body (Fig.
9.27).
 Drag on three –dimensional
bodies
Subsonic vs supersonic
Drag on three –dimensional
bodies
 Drag on three –dimensional
bodies
Efforts to reduce the drag force on automobiles and trucks, and thereby
improve their fuel efficiency, have strongly influenced body design.
Examples of historical body shapes and the resulting drag coefficients
are given in the figure below

WW 1

WW 2
Drag on three –dimensional
bodies
 Drag on two –dimensional bodies
• Two dimensional bodies are also subject to friction and pressure
drag. However, the flow about a two-dimensional body exhibits
some peculiar properties that are not ordinarily found in the three-
dimensional case of flow around a sphere.
 Application to falling sphere
(Stoke’s law)
• The foregoing principles are vividly illustrated in the case of the
flow around a sphere.
• For very low Reynolds numbers (DV/ ν< 1, in which D is the
diameter of the sphere), the flow about the sphere is completely
viscous, and the friction drag is given by Stokes’ law,
𝐹𝐷 = 3𝜋𝜇𝑉𝐷
V2
• Equating this equation to Eq. (9.32: FD = CD ρ A), where A is
2
defined as πD2/4, the frontal area of the projected sphere, gives the
result that CD = 24/ R.
• This regime of the flow about a sphere is shown as the straight line
at the left of the log—log plot of CD versus R in Fig. 9.10.
 Application to falling sphere
(Stoke’s law)

Fig. 9.10

This regime of the flow about a sphere is shown as the straight line at
the left of the log—log plot of CD versus R in Fig. 9.10.
 Application to falling sphere
(Stoke’s law)
• The falling-sphere viscometer is used to measure viscosity, which is
a fluid property (Lecture 1).
• In such a device the liquid is placed in a tall transparent cylinder and
a sphere of known weight and diameter is dropped in it.
• If the sphere is small enough, Stokes’
law will prevail and the fall velocity of
the sphere will be approximately
inversely proportional to the absolute
viscosity of the liquid.
• That this is so may be seen by examining
the free-body diagram of such a falling
sphere (Fig. 11.2).
 Application to falling sphere
(Stoke’s law)
• The forces acting include gravity, buoyancy, and drag. Stokes’ law
states that if DV/ ν< 1, the drag force on a sphere is given by 𝐹𝐷 =
3𝜋𝜇𝑉𝐷 , where V is the velocity of the sphere and D is its diameter.
• When the sphere is dropped in a liquid, it will quickly accelerate to
terminal velocity, at which σ 𝐹𝑧 = 0. Then

𝜋𝐷3 𝜋𝐷3
𝑊 − 𝐹𝐵 − 𝐹𝐷 = 𝛾𝑆 −𝛾 − 3𝜋𝜇𝑉𝐷 = 0
6 6
where 𝛾𝑆 and 𝛾 represent the specific weight
of the sphere and liquid, respectively. Hence
𝐷 2 𝛾𝑠 − 𝛾
𝜇=
18𝑉
 Example

V2
F D = CD ρ A 9.32
2
Example
Example