Fluid Properties

The definition of a liquid is "A state of matter in which the molecules are relatively free to change their positions with respect to each other but restricted by cohesive forces, so as to maintain a relative fixed volume". A liquid occupies the shape of the vessel. In this section several of the more common fluid properties are presented. Density Specific Weight Viscosity Surface Tension Capillary Compressibility

Density and Specific Weight

Density(Kg/m3)

Specific weight N/m3 9800

Specific gravity S Kg/m3 1

Water

1000

Viscosity
Shear stresses are developed when the fluid is in motion; if the particles of the fluid move relative to each other, so that they have different velocities, causing the original shape of the fluid to become distorted. A fluid at rest has no shearing forces. Usually we are concerned with the flow past a solid boundary. The fluid in contact with the boundary sticks to it, and therefore will have the same velocity as the boundary. Considering successive layers parallel to the boundary as shown in Fig. 1.2, the velocity of the fluid varies from layer to layer in ydirection.

For such a flow the shear stress 't in given by

..... ( 1.11)

where ' is shear stress and u is the velocity in the X direction. The quantity du/dy is called velocity gradient and is called dynamic viscosity. The units of are N/m2 or Pa and of are N .s/m2 . The kinematic viscosity is defined as ratio of dynamic viscosity to density. The units of is (m2 s-I).
...... (1.12)

Viscosity is an extremely important fluid property in the study of fluid flows. A thick liquid like honey which has high viscosity will take long time to flow than water. Thus it controls the amount of fluid that can be transported in a pipe line during a specific period of time. It accounts for pressure and energy losses in pipes.

Surface Tension
Surface tension is a force which manifests(appears) itself only in liquids at an interface, usually a liquid-gas interface. Surface tension has units of force per unit length, is N/m. The force due to surface tension is the surface tension multiplied by the length or the circumference in case of a bubble or droplet of water.

A surface tension effect can be illustrated by analysing a free-body diagram of half a droplet as shown in Fig

CAPILLARITY
Fig. 1.4 shows the rise of liquid in a clean glass capillary tube due to surface tension. The liquid makes a contact angle with the glass tube. For water and most of liquids this angle is zero whereas for mercury it is more than 90.

Such liquids have a capillary drop instead of rise. If h is capillary rise, D is the diameter of the tube, the density of liquid and the surface tension then the capillary rise h can be determined from equating the vertical component of surface tension force and the weight of liquid column. Thus we have

COMPRESSIBILITY
We discussed earlier deformation of fluids that results from shear stresses. Now we discuss deformation of fluids from pressure changes. As fluids are air or water, compress pressure increases resulting in increase in density. The coefficient of compressibility is defined as change in pressure ( p) to relative change in density while the temperature remains constant.

To cause a 1 % change in density for water a pressure of 21 M Pa is required. This is a very large pressure to cause such a small change in density and therefore water is considered incompressible whereas for gases density change is appreciable for change in pressure. The air is considered incompressible if the density variation is small, say, under 3%. From knowledge of physics, the speed of sound (C) is related to changes in pressure and density of the fluid medium through the equation

For gases undergoing an isentropic process

and making use of ideal gas, and using characteristic equation it follows.

and substituting this value in eq. we get

The speed of sound is proportional to square root of the absolute local temperature.

Vapour Pressure
All liquids have a tendency to evaporate when exposed to a gaseous atmosphere. The rate of evaporation depends upon the molecular energy of the liquid which in turn depends upon the type of liquid and its temperature. The vapour molecules exert a partial pressure in the space above the liquid, known as vapour pressure. If the space above the liquid is confined (Fig. 2.5) and the liquid is maintained at constant temperature, after sufficient time, the confined space above the liquid will contain vapour molecules to the extent that some of them will be forced to enter the liquid.
Figure 2.5 To and fro movement of liquid molecules from an interface in a confined space as a closed surrounding

Eventually an equilibrium condition will evolve when the rate at which the number of vapour molecules striking back the liquid surface and condensing is just equal to the rate at which they leave from the surface The space above the liquid then becomes saturated with vapour. The vapour pressure of a given liquid is a function of temperature only and is equal to the saturation pressure for boiling corresponding to that temperature. Hence, the vapour pressure increases with the increase in temperature. Therefore the phenomenon of boiling of a liquid is closely related to the vapour pressure.

In fact, when the vapour pressure of a liquid becomes equal to the total pressure impressed on its surface, the liquid starts boiling. This concludes that boiling can be achieved either by raising the temperature of the liquid, so that its vapour pressure is elevated to the ambient pressure, or by lowering the pressure of the ambience (surrounding gas) to the liquid's vapour pressure at the existing temperature.

Pressure Scales
In fluid mechanics the pressure results from a normal compressive force acting on an area. The pressure p is defined as force per unit area. In SI units the unit of measurement of pressure is Newtons per square meter (N/m2) or Pascal (Pa). Since Pascal is small unit, the pressure is usually referred to in kilo Pascal (kPa) or even in Mega Pascal (M Pa). The standard atmospheric pressure at sea level is 101.3 kPa.

The gauge pressure is the pressure recorded by the gauge or manometer. In engineering calculations absolute pressure is used and the conversion from gauge pressure to absolute pressure is carried out using the following equation. Absolute pressure = gauge pressure + atmospheric pressure The gauge pressure is negative whenever the absolute pressure is less than atmospheric pressure; it may be called vacuum. For negative pressures (Pabsolute = Patm - P gauge)

The absolute pressure: It is the difference between the value of the pressure and the absolute zero pressure.

Gauge pressure: It is the diference between the value of the pressure and the local atmospheric pressure(patm)

Vacuum Pressure: If p<patm then the gauge pressure becomes negative and is called the vacuum pressure. But one should always remember that hydrostatic pressure is always compressive in nature

At sea-level, the international standard atmosphere has been chosen as Patm = 101.32 kN/m2

Ideal Fluid
Consider a hypothetical fluid having a zero viscosity ( = 0). Such a fluid is called an ideal fluid and the resulting motion is called as ideal or inviscid(negligible viscosity) flow. In an ideal flow, there is no existence of shear force because of vanishing viscosity.

=0

All the fluids in reality have viscosity ( > 0) and hence they are termed as real fluid and their motion is known as viscous flow. Under certain situations of very high velocity flow of viscous fluids, an accurate analysis of flow field away from a solid surface can be made from the ideal flow theory.

Non-Newtonian Fluids
There are certain fluids where the linear relationship between the shear stress and the deformation rate (velocity gradient in parallel flow) as expressed by the is not valid. For these fluids the viscosity varies with rate of deformation. Due to the deviation from Newton's law of viscosity they are commonly termed as nonNewtonian fluids. Figure 2.1 shows the class of fluid for which this relationship is nonlinear.

 The abscissa in Fig. 2.1 represents the behaviour of ideal fluids since for the ideal fluids the resistance to shearing deformation rate is always zero, and hence they exhibit zero shear stress under any condition of flow. The ordinate represents the ideal solid for there is no deformation rate under any loading condition. The Newtonian fluids behave according to the law that shear stress is linearly proportional to velocity gradient or rate of shear strain . Thus for these fluids, the plot of shear stress against velocity gradient is a straight line through the origin. The slope of the line determines the viscosity.