FLUID MECHANICS-I

Lecture 5

Basics of Fluid Flow

By Dr. Fayaz A Khan

Assistant Professor, UET Bannu campus.

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 Lecture Content

 Types of Flow
 Laminar and Turbulent Flow
 Steady and Uniform Flow
 Path Lines, Streamlines, and Streak lines
 Flow Rate and Mean Velocity

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 Types of Flow.

 A fluid may be,

 Ideal fluid
 Real fluid
 Compressible fluid
 Incompressible fluid

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 Types of Flow.

 In the flow of ideal fluid the particles moves with same velocity.
 In real fluid the particles moves with different velocities.

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 Types of Flow.

 Liquids are generally considered incompressible.

 The flow of gases where there is little pressure variation may also be
considered as incompressible.

Other types of fluid flow may be,

 Laminar or turbulent
 Steady or unsteady
 Rotational of irrotational
 Supercritical or subcritical

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 Types of Flow.
Laminar and Turbulent Flow

 Laminar Flow.

 The fluid flow in which the particles follow parallel straight lines
is called laminar flow, also known as streamline or viscous flow.
 It occurs at smaller velocities.
 During laminar flow the particles
move in definite and observable
path or streamlines, as shown.
 Laminar flow is characteristics of
a viscous flow.

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 Types of Flow.
Laminar and Turbulent Flow

 Turbulent Flow.

 The fluid flow in which the particles intersect the path of each
other is known as turbulent flow.
 It occurs at higher velocities.
 A distinguishing characteristic
of turbulence is its irregularity,
there being no definite frequency as in wave action, and no
observable pattern as in the case of large swirls.

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 Types of Flow.
Laminar and Turbulent Flow

 Turbulent Flow.

 Turbulent flow is characterized by fluctuations in velocity at all

points of the flow field.
 These fluctuations arise because the fluid
moves as many small, discrete particles
or “packets” called eddies, jostling each
other around in a random manner.
 The eddies interact with one another and
with the general flow.
 They are the cause of the effective mixing action experienced with
turbulent flow.
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 Types of Flow.
Laminar and Turbulent Flow

 Turbulent Flow.

 In turbulent flow the velocity OD will vary continuously both in

direction and in magnitude.
 Fluctuations of velocity are accompanied by fluctuations in
pressure, which is the reason why manometers or pressure gages
attached to a pipe containing flowing fluid usually show pulsations.

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 Types of Flow.
Laminar and Turbulent Flow

 The two distinctly different types of fluid flow were demonstrated by

Osborne Reynolds in 1883.
 He injected a fine, threadlike stream of colored liquid into a glass tube
through which water was flowing from a tank.
 At smaller velocity he saw the colored liquid as a straight line
throughout the length of the tube, showing that the particles of water
moved in parallel straight lines.
 As the velocity of water was gradually increased, the line first became
wavy, and then the color became uniformly diffused so that no
streamlines could be distinguished.

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 Types of Flow.
Steady Flow and uniform Flow

 A steady flow is one in which all conditions at any point in a stream

remain constant with respect to time.

 Steady flow is found only in laminar flow.

 In case of turbulent flow if the velocity and pressure fluctuate equally

on both sides of a constant average value, we call the flow steady flow
or more precisely mean steady flow.

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 Types of Flow.
Steady Flow and uniform Flow

 A truly uniform flow is one in which the velocity is the same in both
magnitude and direction at a given instant at every point in the fluid.
 When the size and shape of cross section are constant along the length
of channel under consideration, we say the flow is uniform.
 Steady (or unsteady) and uniform (or nonuniform) flow can exist
independently of each other, so that any of four combinations is
possible.
 unsteady flow is a transient phenomenon,
which may in time become either steady
flow or zero flow, an example is given in fig.

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 Types of Flow.
Path Lines, Streamlines and Streak lines

 A path line is the trace made by a single particle over a period of time.
 The path line shows the direction of the velocity of the particle at
successive instant of time.

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 Types of Flow.
Path Lines, Streamlines and Streak lines

 Stream line shows the mean direction of a number of particles at the

same instant of time.
 A series of curves drawn tangent to the means of the velocity vectors
are streamlines.
 It follows that there can be no net velocity normal to a streamline.
 For truly steady flow (in case of laminar flow or ideal fluid) the path
lines and stream lines are identical.
 In turbulent flow, however, path lines and streamlines are not
coincident.

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 Types of Flow.
Path Lines, Streamlines and Streak lines

 The lines in fig, represents both path lines and streamlines if the flow is
laminar.
 They represents only streamlines if the flow is turbulent.

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 Types of Flow.
Path Lines, Streamlines and Streak lines

 In experimental fluid mechanics, a dye or other tracer is frequently

injected into the flow to trace the motion of the fluid particles.
 If the flow is laminar, a ribbon of color results, this is called a streak
line, or filament line.
 It is an instantaneous picture of the position of all particles in the flow
that have passed through a given point (namely, the point of injection).

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 Types of Flow.
Flow Rate and Mean Velocity

 The flow rate may be expressed,

 In terms of volume of flow rate
 In terms of mass flow rate
 In terms of weight flow rate

 When dealing with incompressible fluids, we commonly use volume

flow rate.
 Whereas weight flow rate or mass flow rate is more
convenient with compressible fluid.

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 Types of Flow.
Flow Rate and Mean Velocity

 The fig, depicts, a streamline in steady flow lying in the xz plane.

 The volume flow rate passing through the element of area dA is

dQ = u.dA = (ucosθ) dA
= u(cosθdA)
= udA'

where dA' is the projection of dA on the

plane normal to the direction of u.

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 Types of Flow.
Flow Rate and Mean Velocity

 If the flow is turbulent, the instantaneous velocity component ut along

the streamline will fluctuate with time, even though the flow is
nominally steady.
 A plot of ut as a function of time is shown.
 The average value of ut over a period of time
determines the time (temporal) mean value of
velocity u at point P.
 The difference between ut and u denoted by
is u' , is called the turbulent fluctuation of this
component.

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 Types of Flow.
Flow Rate and Mean Velocity

ut = u + u'
and for any infinite time t, u = (1/t) ∫ut dt
for real fluid Q = ∫A udA = AV
or for constant-density flow,
m = ρ∫A udA = ρAV
= ρQ
or G = g m = γAV = γQ
if only an average value of V is known for each
finite subarea of the total sectional area, then
Q = Aa Va + Ab Vb + ….. + An Vn = AV

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 Types of Flow.
Flow Rate and Mean Velocity

We can write similar expressions for m and G, if we have determined the

flow rate directly by some method, then from previous eqs, we can find
the mean velocity,

V = Q/A = m/ ρA = G/γA

for flow through pipe, A = πD2/4

so for circular pipe, V = 4Q/ πD2 = 4m/ πD2ρ = 4G/ πD2γ

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 Thank You

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