Fluid Mechanics

First Year Mech & Aero Programme

Lecture 2: Variation of pressure with

depth in fluid

Prof Shan Zhong

[email protected]
Phenomena due to surface tension

Soap bubbles

2
 Cause of surface tension
• The molecules at the liquid surface experiences both
an inward pull and a pulling force along the liquid-gas
interface.
– The inward pull tends to cause the liquid to form a
spherical shape to attain a minimum surface area for a
given volume.
– The liquid surface resembles a stretched elastic
membrane. A molecule on the surface

A molecule inside the

liquid experiencing a net
force of zero

3
 Surface tension
• Surface of droplet acting like a stretched elastic
membrane under tension.
• The pulling force acting parallel to surface per unit
length is called the surface tension coefficient, ss (N/m).
• ss acts along the interface between a liquid and a gas.
– It varies greatly among substances
– It decreases with increasing temperature
– It is affected greatly by impurities.
• At 20oC,
– For water-air interface: ss = 0.073 N/m
– For mercury-air interface: ss = 0.48 N/m Surface tension Surface tension

ss ss
Forces acting the
leg of an insect 4
 Excess pressure in a droplet
• Excess pressure inside a droplet, Dp, above ambient

2Rs s  R 2 Dpdroplet

2s s
Dpdroplet 
R
Free-body diagram of Dp is inversely proportional
half a liquid droplet to the radius of droplet

• Q: Does the above equation apply to a bubble?

• The study of surface tension is important in spray
and atomization process.

5
 Capillary effect
• The rise and fall of a liquid in a small-diameter
tube inserted into the liquid.
• The capillary effect is determined by the relative
strength of cohesive and adhesive forces a liquid
subjected to at a solid-liquid interface.
– Cohesive force: forces acting between like molecules
– Adhesive force: forces acting between dislike molecules

Adhesive force > Adhesive force <

Cohesive force: Cohesive force :
Colum rises above Colum falls below
the free surface the free surface

6
 Capillary effect
• The strength of capillary effect is quantified by the
contact angle, f, which a free surface intersects with
a solid surface.
– The value of f depends on the liquid and the solid
involved.
– The surface tension acts along the tangent line towards
the solid surface.

When f <90o, the When f >90o, the

level of liquid level of liquid
within the tube within the tube
rises. goes down.
f < 90o f > 90o

7
 Capillary rise
• Capillary rise h is inversely proportional to R
• In practice, h is negligible when R>1.5cm
– Use sufficiently large R to minimize this effect for
anemometers
Forces acting on a liquid column
that has risen due to capillary effect
The weight of the liquid column that
has risen is balanced by the upward
lifting force due to surface tension.

2R s s cos f    R 2 h  g

2s s cos f
h
gR

8
Checking your own understanding
• Definition of a fluid: The behaviour of fluid when subjected
to a shear force
• Fluid as a continuum: The concept and when this
assumptions breaks down
• Viscosity
– How it is produced?
– How does it change with temperature?
– What are consequence of viscosity?
• Incompressible and compressible flow
– When can a fluid flow be treated as incompressible flow?
• Behaviours of real fluid passing solid walls
– What is the no-slip condition at wall?
– How is shear force/surface friction force produced?
• Surface tension
– How surface tension is produced?
– What is the cause of capillary rise/drop?
– How to calculate the capillary rise of a liquid column? 9
 Fluid Statics
• Fluid Mechanics includes
– Fluid statics (the study of fluids at rest)
– Fluid dynamics (the study of fluids in motion).
• Fluid statics is concerned with forces that develop
within fluids which are either stationary or in relative
equilibrium.
– Equilibrium of forces acting on the fluid
– How are these forces created?
W

Stationary fluid Fluid under steady rotation 1

 Applications
• Fluid statics help determine forces exerted on
floating or submerged objects in a fluid.

Dams Submarine

Pressure vessel Hydraulic lift 11

 Objectives of this lecture
• To understand the concept of absolute and gauge
pressure
• To have a knowledge of how pressure varies in a
body of stationary fluid

12
 Pressure in a stationary fluid
• Molecular point of view
– Gas molecules imparting momentum to
the wall producing a force perpendicular
to the wall which we observe as pressure
• Pressure is a scalar quantity.
– It has a magnitude but no direction associated with it.
– Pressure acts in all directions at a point inside a fluid.
– The pressure force acts perpendicularly towards to the
surface. p

Water A
y

The direction of force acting on a surface

caused by fluid pressure is determined by
the surface orientation.
13
 Shear stress in a stationary fluid
• Consider a minute area submerged in fluid, A.
N
N
F Normal stress = lim A0
A
A
T
y
Shear stress = lim A0
T
A
• Note
or
A normal stress causes a fluid element either to elongate or contract.

A shear stress causes a fluid element to deform.

• In a stationary fluid, there is no relative motion between fluid

layers, the shear stress is zero.
– The normal stress is equal to the pressure in magnitude. 14
 Fluid pressure
• The pressure of the fluid is defined as the force
exerted per unit area.
• Commonly used units for pressure
Name of unit Unit Conversion
Pascal Pa 1 Pa = 1 N/m2

Bar bar 1 bar = 105 Pa

Standard atmospheric atm 1 atm = 101325 Pa

pressure
psi lb/in2 1 psi = 0.686 x 104 Pa

15
Absolute pressure & gauge pressure
• Absolute Pressure
– It is the actual pressure and it is Gauge
measured relative to absolute vacuum pressure
(absolute zero pressure).
– In thermodynamics relations and tables, 1 atm
absolute pressure is almost always Absolute
used. pressure

• Gauge pressure
– It is the difference between absolute
pressure and the atmospheric pressure.
A pressure gauge opens
to atmosphere reads zero. Perfect vacuum

Absolute pressure = gauge pressure + atmospheric pressure

1
 Variation of pressure in depth
• Consider a body of stationary fluid.
• Pressure is produced by the gravitational effect.
• The fluid is in force equilibrium, ∑F=0.
• To determine the variations of pressure in the fluid, we
examine the force components acting on a small fluid
element in the x- and z-direction, respectively.
z

A fluid particle occupies a point in the fluid

and has defined values of thermodynamic
properties, i.e. p(x, z), (x, z), v(x, z).

A fluid element has a finite size and sees

variations in the fluid properties on different
faces around its volume. x
17
 Variation of pressure
• Consider the force balance of a minute liquid
cylinder within a stationary fluid in the x-direction
 dp 
pA   p  x A  0
 dx 

dp
 xA  0 dp
dx p x
p dx
dp
0 A
dx

Pressure is constant at the same z

level in a body of stationary fluid

x
No acceleration in x-direction
18
 Variation of pressure with depth
• Consider the force balance of a minute liquid
cylinder in a stationary fluid in the z-direction
 dp 
pA   p  z A  W  0 dp
 dz  p z
dz
 dp 
pA   p  z A  gAz  0
 dz  z
A
dp
 zA  gAz  0 z
dz W  gAz
dp
  g  0
dz
dp z p
  g
dz
A pressure gradient exists in the z-
direction due to gravitational effect.
19
 Variation of pressure in depth
• If the fluid density is constant, integrating
z z
dp dp
dz
  g 
z
dz
dz    gdz
z
0 0

• Letting p=p0 at the free surface z=z0, we have

p  p0  g ( z  z0 ) z

• Rearranging and letting h = z0 - z,

p  p0  gh
h represents the distance of point z
below the surface.

20
 Next lecture
• Continue on variations of pressure with depth

21