Significant dimensionless groups in fluid mechanics

Forces encountered in flowing fluids include those due to inertia, viscosity, pressure, gravity, surface tension and compressibility Ratio of any two forces will be dimensionless
Inertia force = ma V2L2

Inertia forces are important in fluid mechanics problems The ratio of inertia force to each of the other forces listed above leads to five fundamental dimensionless groups Reynolds no. Re after the name of the scientist who first developed it and is thus proportional to the magnitude ratio of inertia force to viscous force

He studied the transition between laminar and turbulent flow regimes in a tube Re is the criterion by which the flow regime may be determined

Later experiments have shown that Re is a key parameter for other flow cases as well, thus in general

Where L is the characteristic length descriptive of the flow geometry Euler no. Euler is credited with being first to recognize the role of pressure in fluid motion The Euler no. is the ratio of pressure forces to inertia forces
(p is the local pressure minus free stream pressure)

Euler no. is often called the pressure coefficient, Cp

Froude no.

This is significant for flows with free stream effects Squaring the Froudes no. gives,

Which may interpreted as the ratio of inertia forces to viscous forces. The length L is the characteristic length descriptive of the flow field In case of open channel flow, L is water depth; Fr < l indicate subcritical flow, Fr > 1 indicate super critical flow

The dimensionless terms Re and Eu represent the criteria of dynamic similarity for the flows which are affected only by viscous, pressure and inertia forces. Such instances, for example, are

the full flow of fluid in a completely closed conduit, flow of air past a low-speed aircraft and the flow of water past a submarine deeply submerged to produce no waves on the surface.

Hence, for a complete dynamic similarity to exist between the prototype and the model for this class of flows, the Reynolds number, Re and Euler number, Eu have to be same for the two (prototype and model). Thus

Weber no.

Is the ratio of inertia forces to surface tension forces

(named after the German naval architect Moritz Weber who first suggested the use of this term as a relevant parameter)

Mach no.

Where V is the flow speed and c is the local sonic speed Key parameter that characterizes compressibility effects in a flow

The Mach no. may be written

It can be interpreted as the ratio of inertia forces to compressibility forces For truly incompressible flow (under some conditions even liquids are quite compressible), c= so that M=0 The effects of compressibility become important when the Mach no. exceeds 0.33 The situation arises in the flow of air past high speed aircraft, missiles, propellers and rotary compressors