Lifelong Learning in Fluid Mechanics

Fluid mechanics, as defined by books, is a branch of applied mechanics that deals

with the properties of gasses and liquids in motion and at rest. This is one of the few
subjects in my college life that I have taken three times before passing. Truly, this is one of
the subjects that I will never forget. Not just because failing this subject twice is the reason
why I haven’t taken my OJT (on the job training) yet, but because taking this subject three
times give me a lot of lifelong learning, academically and in real life application.

The first learning and somewhat correction to me that I have known in taking fluid
mechanics is the definition of fluids, which is, a fluid is a substance that deforms
continuously when acted on by a shearing stress of any magnitude. Therefore, this means
that fluids are not only liquids, which I previously thought it was, but also gasses as long as it
deforms continuously unlike the solid that does not deform continuously.

The next thing that I have learned and mastered in fluid mechanics is what I loved
the most because of its usefulness academically. In taking fluid mechanics thrice, my
instructors have discussed on me the basic property of fluids and the unit analysis involved
in fluid mechanics well enough. These basics are also usually the basic of higher major
mathematics subjects. These basics are mass, density, specific weight, specific gravity or
relative gravity, specific volume and weight. In taking higher subjects, these basics will never
be discussed again because it is assumed that the student taking these higher subjects have
already learned it on their prerequisite subjects. Also, most of the examination involves these
and having mastered the manipulation and conversion of these basic principles of fluids
gives you an edge on the exam.

I have also memorized a lot of constants that are necessary for an engineering
student to memorize. Just like density of water (1000 kg per cubic meter), specific weight of
water and air which is 9810 newton per cubic meter and 12.01 newton per cubic meter
respectively and many more in SI and BG units.

In dealing with fluids, two different fluids may have the same weight, mass or density
but flows at different speed given the applied force to be the same. This is where another
property of fluid is introduced. Viscosity is another important topic I have learned in taking
fluid mechanics. While mass, weight and density defines the heaviness property of a certain
fluid, viscosity on the other hand defines the fluidity of a certain fluid. This is very essential
property of a fluid. Especially on the mechanical engineering field where we handle
machines and as we all know that a machine is comprised of stationary parts and
mechanical parts, and this mechanical part requires lubricant. In choosing certain lubricant

Salazar, Marlou Garces

for a certain machine application its viscosity must be considered not the density. If density
is to be considered, oil and water have almost the same density but their viscosity is what
makes them more different from each other. Different machine application also requires
specific viscosity of lubricant. The fast moving mechanical parts must have less viscous
lubricant because lubricant with higher viscosity creates more tension or adds another load
the machine has to carry and fast moving mechanical parts focuses on the speed
performance and not on the strength.

There are two types of viscosity that has been discussed in fluid mechanics. First is
the kinematic viscosity where the application of lubricant with specific viscosity is on non-
moving elements while dynamic viscosity is behavior or a certain fluid in a moving object.

Fluids have a compression and expansion property. As we all know that fluids are
either liquids or gasses. Liquids are usually considered incompressible in theory and if it
does further expands it changes phase and turns into vapor. Incompressible fluid means that
the density of the fluid is constant. On the other hand, gasses are both compressible and
can be expanded. But in real life application, water, which is a liquid, is treated as a
compressible substance. Just like in the mining industry where they use water to break rocks
by compressing it or reducing its volume up to 10% to 15% and letting it expand into a fast
opening valve and let it hit the rocks and the impact produce by the water is similar to
explosive force from conventional explosives. A gas can be expanded and compressed in
two ways. It could be isothermal compression or expansion if during the whole process the
temperature remains the same and isentropic if the entropy remains the same during the
whole process or if the process is frictionless and no heat is exchange within the
surroundings

Boiling of water is a common event we can observe in our daily lives. At first I thought
that boiling directly happens when water is heated up to its boiling point which is one
hundred degrees Celsius. Yes, water boils when heated, but there is more explanation to
that and was discussed in fluid mechanics. When heating a fluid we add up pressure to its
internal pressure or absolute pressure thus raising its temperature. But it’s not the
temperature that is responsible for boiling, as we keep on heating the water its internal
pressure also keeps on increasing until it reaches the point where the internal pressure of
the water is the same with the atmospheric pressure of the place. Then the formation of
vapour bubbles occur thus boiling happens. In addition, the water molecules at the surface
have enough momentum to escape from the molecular adhesive force and now have the
ability to evaporate. In summary, boiling happens when the internal pressure of a liquid is the
same with the pressure that is exerting on its surface or atmospheric pressure and is also

Salazar, Marlou Garces

called the vapour pressure. Vapour pressure is a function of altitude which means different
place’s altitude leads to different vapour pressure, but it needs a quite amount of altitude
difference for the vapour pressure difference to vary significantly.

In high school surface tension has been discussed as the membrane-like force that
develops in the surface in the water that makes the needle to float. But in taking fluid
mechanics I learned surface tension more deeply. Surface tension is the intensity of the
molecular attraction per unit length along any line in the surface. Surface tension, which is
conventionally assigned with the Greek symbol sigma, depends on the temperature as well
as the other fluid it is in contact with at the interface.

Again as defined by books, fluid machinery is a branch of applied mechanics that

deals with the properties of gasses and liquids in motion and at rest. This gives the two
major classifications of fluid mechanics, which is the fluid statics and fluid dynamics. Fluid
statics is the study of fluids at rest while fluid dynamics is the study of fluids in motion.

In usual discussion fluid statics is first discussed because its calculation is less
complicated than the fluid dynamics based on my own observation. One of the foundations
that you should learn if you want to master fluid statics is the pressure and its behavior. The
term pressure is used in the book of fluid mechanics to indicate the normal force per unit
area at a given point acting on a given plane within the fluid mass of interest. In studying
about pressure you will encounter the Pascal’s law which means, the pressure at a point in a
fluid at rest, or in motion, is independent of direction as long as there are no shearing
stresses present. I learned that pressure only changes if we vary the distance from the
pressure point to the surface of the fluid acting on it. The change in pressure does not occur
in varying the x and y axes only on z axis. As we now know that pressures only vary when
height is altered therefore, it is also safe to say that the pressure difference between two
points can be specified by their distance ‘h’ which is called the pressure head. Pressure
head is interpreted as a height of a column of fluid of certain specific weight required to give
the pressure difference. The importance of this is much more appreciated in some real life
application just like in a hydraulic jack. We all know that pressure, as defined by pascal’s
law, is equal to force over area. In a hydraulic jack two sides have the same altitude
therefore both pistons have the same pressure no matter what area of the pistons are.
Piston one has a greater diameter than piston two. Force on piston one over area of piston
one is equal to force on piston two over area on piston two. By manipulating the equation we
can see that the force needed to be applied on the larger piston to transmit a force to piston
two gets lesser due to the difference of the area. This significant difference of both pistons
gives as a large mechanical advantage and that is the purpose of the hydraulic jack.

Salazar, Marlou Garces

 The importance of pressure is also observed in the manometry topic. In this topic we
see more clearly that the pressure is really a function of height because in this topic the
height difference of pressure point is more illustrated and is easily observed. We can also
see in inclined manometer that the amount of water does not affect the pressure only the
height. If we use incline manometer and straight manometer given with the same height we
can see that the inclined manometer will need more fluid to be filled.

In addition, pressure can be classified into two: the absolute pressure and the gage
pressure. Absolute pressure is measured relative to a perfect vacuum whereas a gage
pressure is measured relative to the local atmospheric pressure. Therefore, a zero gage
pressure corresponds that the fluid pressure is equal to the atmospheric pressure. Also, if
the atmospheric pressure is greater than the fluid pressure a negative gage pressure occurs,
also called as vacuum pressure.

In studying fluid statics and even in the whole fluid mechanics, knowing the
conventional standards that have been decided by past great persons in history is very
important. One of these conventional standards is the standard atmosphere. The currently
accepted standard atmosphere is based on a report published in 1962 and updated in 1976,
defining the so-called U.S. standard atmosphere, which is an idealized representation of
middle-latitude, year-round mean conditions of the earth’s atmosphere.

In studying fluid mechanics I’ve learned a lot of conversion or equivalent of 1atm

which is 14.7 psi, 101.325 kpa, 760 mmHg, 29.9 inHg, 760 torr and 1.01325 Bar. This all are
very significant in solving problems of my higher mathematics subjects.

Fluid statics also includes plane surfaces that is submerge in a fluid. So when a
plane surface is submerge into a fluid the resultant force of the static fluid or fluid at rest on
the plain surface is due to the hydrostatic pressure distribution in the surface. And if the
magnitude of the resultant force of the static fluid is to be calculated just multiply the
pressure acting on the centroid of the area of the submerged plain surface by the total area.

Pressure is one of the foundations of fluid mechanics. In order for us to visualize it

and understand it more the concept of pressure prism is introduced. Pressure prism is an
informative and useful graphical interpretation by the force developed by a fluid acting on a
plane rectangular area. This shows the pressure distribution along the vertical wall of a
rectangular plane surface. We can observe in the pressure prism diagram that the pressure
increases as the fluid gets deeper. This means more depth, more pressure. Whether inclined
or not the pressure distribution still remains in prism form but obviously the magnitude
differs.

Salazar, Marlou Garces

 Archimedes is a great person that contributes a lot in field of physics, mathematics,
philosophy and science. He also contributes to fluid mechanics about the buoyancy, flotation
and stability. Buoyancy and flotation is both corresponded by buoyant force. Buoyant force is
the net force of all vertical forces acting on the object that is partially submerged into a fluid.
In the book of Munson, the hot air balloon is the object and the air is the fluid. So we can see
that the hot air balloon is flying in upward direction, therefore, the buoyant force or the
summation of all forces acting on the hot air balloon is vertically upward. In other words,
when all the same magnitude forces have been cancelled the buoyant force is the resultant.

Buoyancy and surface tension can be the reason of object floating into a fluid.
Buoyancy and surface tension creates a bit of dilemma to me when I was in high school, but
when I take subjects in college that discusses buoyancy and surface tension, especially fluid
mechanics, their difference became clear to me. As stated above surface tension is a
membrane like force that occurs between two media of fluids and if an object will be placed
on the interface and if its weight doesn’t break that membrane like force that makes the
object to float. Common example of this is a needle floating in the water, insects walking on
the water and etc. On the other hand, buoyancy is the makes an object float through a
buoyant force, a far stronger force than the membrane like force of surface tension and can
make the ship floats in the ocean.

`Bernoulli’s equation is somehow related to continuity equation and is using the

concept of Newton’s second law. Newton’s second law of motion states that as a fluid
particle moves from one location to another, it usually experiences an acceleration or
deceleration. According to Newton’s second law of motion, the net force acting on the fluid
particle under consideration must equal its mass times acceleration or F=ma.

Bernoulli’s equation is very useful in engineering it has wide range application

engineering field. We can use it to solve pump problems to compute its static head, velocity
head, pressures and velocity given that the flow is continuous. We can also use Bernoulli’s
equation in piping problems and aeronautics. Bernoulli’s equation is also useful in designing
and planning a real life project.

Salazar, Marlou Garces