UNIT 1

INTRODUCTION TO FLUID MECHANICS

1.1 Fluid Mechanics in Chemical Engineering

A knowledge of fluid mechanics is essential for chemical

engineers because the majority of chemical-processing operations
are conducted either partly or totally in the fluid phase.

There are two principal reasons for placing such an emphasis on

fluids.

 At typical operating conditions, an enormous number of

materials normally exist as gases or liquids, or can be
transformed into such phases.

 It is usually more efficient and cost-effective to work with

fluids in contrast to solids.

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 2

 1.2 General Concepts of a Fluid

What is a fluid?

 A fluid is a substance that will deform continuously when it is

subjected to a tangential or shear force.

 The rate at which the fluid deforms continuously depends on:

 The magnitude of the applied force.
 A property of the fluid called its viscosity or resistance to
deformation and flow.

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 3

 1.2 General Concepts of a Fluid cont.

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 4

 1.2 General Concepts of a Fluid cont.

There are various classes of fluids:

 Fluids that exhibit constant viscosity and virtually no elasticity

are called Newtonian fluids.
 e.g. Water, oil, air etc.

 A fluid whose viscosity is not constant (but depends, for

example, on the intensity to which it is being sheared), or
which exhibits significant elasticity, is termed non-Newtonian.
 e.g. Drilling mud, toothpaste, honey

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 5

 1.2 General Concepts of a Fluid cont.

Fluids can also be broadly classified into two main categories:

 Liquids
 Relatively high density and viscosity.
 Molecules close together.
 Constant volume, roughly independent of pressure,
temperature or size of vessel.

 Gases
 Relatively low density and viscosity.
 Molecules far apart.
 Volume dependent on pressure, temperature and size of
vessel.
Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 6
 1.2 General Concepts of a Fluid cont.

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 7

 1.2 General Concepts of a Fluid cont.

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 8

 1.3 Stresses

A stress is a force per unit area.

When considering a specific surface, there are two types of stresses that
are particular important:

 Normal stress
 This type of stress acts perpendicular to the surface.

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 9

 1.3 Stresses cont.

 Shear stress
 This type of stress acts tangentially to the surface.
 For a given rate of deformation, measured by the time
d
derivative dt of the small angle of deformation γ, the shear
stress τ is directly proportional to the viscosity of the fluid

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 10

 1.3 Pressure

Pressure is the normal compressive force per unit area of a surface.

 The value of the pressure at a point is independent of the orientation
of such a plane.

 The amount by which a certain pressure exceeds that of the

atmosphere is termed the gauge pressure.
 Pabs = Pguage + Patm
Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 11
 1.3 Velocity

Velocity is the rate of change of the position of a fluid particle with

time, thus having both magnitude and direction.
 From the macroscopic viewpoint, it sometimes suffices to ignore
variations of the velocity with position.
 From the microscopic viewpoint, it is invariably essential to
consider variations of velocity with position.

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 12

 1.3 Velocity cont.

Velocity also leads immediately to three fluxes or flow rates. If the

fluid passes through a plane of area A normal to the direction of the
velocity:
 The corresponding volumetric flow
rate of the fluid through the plane is
Q = uA.
 The corresponding mass flow rate is
m = ρQ = ρuA. Where ρ is the fluid
density.
 When velocity is multiplied by mass
it gives momentum. Therefore, The
corresponding momentum flow rate
is M = mu = ρu2A.
Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 13
 1.3 The Basic Laws

In principle, the laws of fluid mechanics amount to the conservation of

mass, energy and momentum.
When applying these laws, the procedure is:
 first, to identify a system, its boundary and its surrounding, and
 second, to identify how the system interacts with its surroundings.

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 14

 1.4 Physical Properties

There are three physical properties of fluids that are particularly

important. They are:
 Density
 Viscosity
 Surface Tension

The physical properties depend primarily on the particular fluid.

However:

 For liquids, viscosity also depends strongly on the temperature.

 For gases, density depends almost directly on the absolute pressure;

for most other cases, the effect of pressure on physical properties can
be disregarded.

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 15

 1.4 Physical Properties – Density

The density (ρ) of a fluid is defined as its mass per unit volume and
indicates its inertia or resistance to an accelerating force.
mass
  M3
volume L
 For liquids, density depends on the particular liquid and, to a much
smaller extent, on its temperature.

 For ideal gases, pV = nRT. If Mω is the molecular weight it follows:

nM  M  p
 
V RT

 For a non-ideal gas, the compressibility factor (Z) is introduced,

giving:
nM  M  p
 
V ZRT
Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 16
 1.4 Physical Properties – Density cont.

 The isothermal compressibility (β) of a gas is defined as the

isothermal fractional decrease in volume caused by a unit increase in
pressure at constant temperature.
1  V 
   
V  p T
 For an ideal gas, β = 1/p

 The coefficient of thermal expansion (α), of a material is its isobaric

fractional increase in volume per unit rise in temperature:
1  V 
  
V  T  p

 For an ideal gas, α = 1/T.

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 17

 1.4 Physical Properties – Density cont.

 The specific gravity (s) of a fluid is the ratio of the density to the
density of a reference fluid (ρsc) at some standard condition:

s
 SC

 For liquids, ρsc is usually the density of water at 4oC, which equals
1.000 g/ml or 1000 kg/m3.

 For gases, ρsc is sometimes taken as the density of air at 60 oF and

14.7 psia, which is approximately 0.0759 lb m/ft3.

 Degrees A.P.I. (American Petroleum Institute) are related to specific

gravity by the formula:
141.5
A.P.I.   131.5
s

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 18

 1.4 Physical Properties – Viscosity

The viscosity of a fluid measures its resistance to flow under an applied

shear stress.

 For Newtonian fluids, the shear stress is directly proportional to the

velocity gradient.
du V
  
dy h

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 19

 1.4 Physical Properties – Viscosity cont.

 The kinematic viscosity (v) is the ratio of the viscosity to the density:

v

 The viscosity of liquids generally vary approximately with absolute
temperature (independent of pressure) according to the formula:
ln   a  b ln T or   e ( a b lnT )

 The viscosity of many gases is approximated by the formula:

n
T 
   0  
 T0 
 In which μ0 is the viscosity at an absolute reference temperature
T0 and n is an empirical exponent determined experimentally.

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 20

 Quick Video Recap

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 21

 1.4 Physical Properties – Surface Tension

Surface tension (T) is the tendency of the surface of a liquid to behave

like a stretched elastic membrane.
There is a natural tendency for liquids to minimize their surface area.

 The gravitational effect is roughly proportional to a3, where a is the

approximate droplet radius.
 Similarly, the surface area is proportional only to a2.
 Thus, the ratio of gravitational to surface tension effects depend
roughly on the value of a3/a2 = a, and is therefore increasingly
important for larger droplets.

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 22

 1.4 Physical Properties – Surface Tension
cont.
 The surface energy (σ) is an energy attributed to a unit area of the
surface.

 Both surface tension and surface energy has units of force per unit
distance which is equivalent to energy per unit area.

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 23

 1.4 Physical Properties – Surface Tension
cont.
Finding the pressure inside a liquid droplet

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 24

 1.4 Physical Properties – Surface Tension
cont.
There are two different types of force to be considered:
1. That due to the pressure difference between the pressure inside the
droplet and the vapour outside, each acting on an area πr2:
(p1 – p2) πr2

2. That due to surface tension, which acts on the circumference of

length 2πr:
2πrσ
At equilibrium, these two forces are equated, giving:
2
p  p1  p2 
r
What would the pressure change be for a bubble instead of a droplet?

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 25

 1.4 Physical Properties – Surface Tension
cont.

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 26

 1.5 Units and Systems of Units

Covered in prerequisite modules:

 Engineering Tools
 Elementary Principles of Chemical Engineering

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 27

 1.6 Hydrostatics

Variation of pressure with elevation

Here we investigate how the pressure in a stationary fluid varies with
elevation z.

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 28

 1.6 Hydrostatics cont.

Method 1
 Applying Newton's second law of motion by equating the net upward
force to the mass times the acceleration.

 Cancellation of pA and division by Adz leads to the following

differential equation which governs the rate of change of pressure
with elevation:
dp
  g
dz

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 29

 1.6 Hydrostatics cont.

Method 2
 Application of Newton's second law of motion gives:

 Isolation of the two pressure terms on the left-hand side and division
by Adz gives:
p z  dz  p z
  g
dz
 As dz tends to zero, the left-hand side becomes the derivative dp/dz,
leading to the same result as previously:
dp
  g
dz
Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 30
 1.6 Hydrostatics cont.

Pressure in a liquid with a free surface

We wish to find the pressure p at a depth H below the free surface

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 31

 1.6 Hydrostatics cont.

Pressure in a liquid with a free surface

 Using separation of variables and integrating between the free
surface (z = H) and a depth H (z = 0) gives:
p 0

ps
dp    gdz
H

 Assuming that density and gravity are constant in the liquid, these
quantities can be taken outside the integral, yielding:

p  ps  gH

 Which predicts a linear increase of pressure with distance

downwards from the surface.

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 32

 1.6 Hydrostatics cont.

Pressure variations in a gas

For gases, the density is no longer constant, but a function of pressure
(and to a lesser extent, temperature)

 For small changes in elevation, the assumption of constant density

can still be made.

 For moderate or large changes in elevation, the density is given by:

nM  M  p
 
V ZRT

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 33

 1.6 Hydrostatics cont.

Pressure variations in a gas

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 34

 1.6 Hydrostatics cont.

Total force on a dam or lock gate

An expression is needed for the total horizontal force (F) exerted by the
liquid on the dam, so that the dam can be made of appropriate strength.

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 35

 1.6 Hydrostatics cont.

Total force on a dam or lock gate

 The differential horizontal force dF on an infinitesimally small
rectangular strip of area dA = Wdz is:

dF  pWdz  g ( D  z )Wdz

 Integrating from the bottom (z = 0) to the top (z = D) of the dam

gives the total horizontal force:
F D 1
F   dF   gW ( D  z ) dz  gWD 2
0 0 2

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 36

 1.6 Hydrostatics cont.

Horizontal pressure force on a curved surface

The local pressure force pdA on an element of surface area dA does not
act horizontally.

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 37

 1.6 Hydrostatics cont.

Horizontal pressure force on a curved surface

 The horizontal components of the force must be obtained by
projection through an angle of (π/2 - θ), by multiplying by
cos(π/2 - θ) = sin θ.

 The total horizontal force is then:

F   p sin  dA   p dA *
A A*

where dA* = dAsin θ is an element of the projection of A onto the

hypothetical vertical plane A*

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 38

 1.6 Hydrostatics cont.

Buoyancy forces
If an object is submerged in a fluid, it will experience a net upwards or
buoyant force exerted by the fluid.

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 39

 1.6 Hydrostatics cont.

Buoyancy forces
 The net upwards force due to the difference between the opposing
pressures on the bottom and top faces is:

F  ( p  gH  p ) A  HAg

 Which is exactly the weight of the displaced liquid, thus verifying

Archimedes’ law (The buoyant force equals the weight of the fluid
displaced by the cylinder).

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 40

 1.7 Pressure Change Caused by rotation

Forced vortex
In a forced vortex, the liquid spins as if it were a solid body, rotating
with a uniform angular velocity, ω, so that the velocity in the direction
of rotation at radial location r is given by v θ = rω.

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 41

 1.7 Pressure Change Caused by rotation
cont.
Forced vortex
 For uniform rotation in a circular path of radius r, the acceleration
towards the centre O of the circle is rω2.

 Equating the net pressure force towards O to the mass of the element
times its acceleration gives:

 Simplification yields the variation of pressure in the radial direction:

p
 r 2
r

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 42

 1.7 Pressure Change Caused by rotation
cont.
Forced vortex
 Integrating from point O to P (at constant z):
r
pp
 dp    r dr
2
p 0
0

1
pp   2 r 2
2
 The pressure at P can also be obtained by considering the usual
hydrostatic increase in traversing the path QP:
pp  gz
 Elimination of the intermediate pressure pp relates the elevation of
the free surface to the radial location:
 2r 2
z
2g

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 43

 1.7 Pressure Change Caused by rotation
cont.
Free vortex
 In a free vortex, the velocity in the angular direction is given by
vθ = c/r, where c is a constant,

 Therefore, vθ is inversely proportional to the radial position.

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics 44

Unit 1: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics