LECTURE NOTE MEE 307

APPLIED FLUID MECHANICS (2 Units)

PRE-REQUISITE: PHY 103, AGE 204

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 Course Content
• Fluid Statics
• Newtonian and non-Newtonians fluids
• Forces on submerged surfaces
 Equations of fluid motion
 Flow measurements
 Force exerted by flowing fluids
 Reynolds number
• Flow in pipes and channels
• Dimensional analysis
• One , two and three dimensional steady flows of a compressible fluid
 Critical flow
• Small amplitude waves
• Shock waves
• Fluid machinery

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
 Basic Concepts

• Mechanics is the oldest physical science that deals with

both stationery and moving boundaries under the
influence of forces. The branch of the mechanics that deals
with bodies at rest is called statics while the branch that
deals with bodies in motion is called dynamics.

• Fluid Mechanics is the science that deals with behavior of

fluids at rest (fluid statics) or in motion (fluid dynamics)
and the interaction of fluids with solids or other fluids at
the boundaries
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 Introduction to Fluid

• Background/Introduction.
• There are three states of matter: solids, liquids and gases.
• Both liquids and gases are classified as fluids.
• Fluids do not resist a change in shape. Therefore fluids
assume the shape of the container they occupy.
• Liquids may be considered to have a fixed volume and
therefore can have a free surface. Liquids are almost
incompressible.
• Conversely, gases are easily compressed and will expand to
fill a containerthey occupy.
• In this course will be interested in studies on liquids, either
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at rest or in motion.
Definition

A fluid is a substance which conforms continuously under the action of shearing forces.
Definition Applied to Static Fluids
if we apply a shear force to a fluid it will deform and take up a state in which no
shear force exists. Therefore, we can say:
If a fluid is at rest there can be no shearing forces acting and therefore all forces
in the fluid must be perpendicular to the planes in which they act.
Definition Applied to Fluids in Motion
Consider the fluid shown flowing along a fixed surface. At the surface there will
be little movement of the fluid (it will ‘stick’ to the surface), whilst further away
from the surface the fluid flows faster (i.e has greater velocity):

If one layer of fluid is moving faster than another layer of the fluid, there must be
shear forces acting between them. 5
Consider the small element of fluid shown Fig. 1, which is
subject to shear force and has a dimension s into the page.

Fig. 1
The force F acts over an area A = BC×s. Hence we have a shear
stress applied:

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Any stress causes a deformation, or strain, and a shear stress
causes a shear strain. This shear strain is measured by the
angle . Remember that a fluid continuously deforms when under
the action of shear. This is different to a solid: a solid has a single
value of for each value of . So the longer a shear stress is
applied to a fluid, the more shear strain occurs. However, what
is known from experiments is that the rate of shear strain (shear
strain per unit time) is related to the shear stress:

We need to know the rate of shear strain. From the diagram, the shear strain is:

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 If we suppose that the particle of fluid at E moves a distance x in
time t, then, using
S = Rθ for small angles, the rate of shear strain is:

Where u is the velocity of the fluid. This term is also the change in velocity with
height. When we consider infinitesimally small changes in height we can write
this in differential form, du dy . Therefore we have:

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This constant is a property of the fluid called its dynamic
viscosity (dynamic because the fluid is in motion, and viscosity
because it is resisting shear stress). i.e. When two solid bodies in
contact, move relative to each other, a friction force develops at
the contact surface in the direction opposite to motion. It is
denoted by μ which then gives us:
Newton’s Law of Viscosity:

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 Fluid Statics
• Fluid statics: study of fluids at rest
• Different from fluid dynamics in that it concerns
pressure forces perpendicular to a plane (referred to
as hydrostatic pressure)
• If you pick any one point in a static fluid, that point is
going to have a specific pressure intensity associated
with it:
• P = F/A where
– P = pressure in Pascals (Pa)
– F = normal forces acting on an area Newtons(N)
– A = area over which the force is acting ( m2)
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 Pressure in a Fluid

From Pascal Law the pressure at a point in a fluid at rest is the

same in all directions.
To show this, let us consider a very small wedge of fluid
surrounding the point as shown Fig. 2
This wedge is unit thickness into the page

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Fig. 2
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Hence for any angle:

And so the pressure at a point is the same in any direction. Note that we
neglected the weight of the small wedge of fluid because it is infinitesimally
small. This is why Pascal’s Law is restricted to the pressure at a point.

Pressure Variation with Depth

Pressure in a static fluid does not change in the horizontal direction as the
horizontal forces balance each other out. However, pressure in a static
fluid does change with depth, due to the extra weight of fluid on top of a
layer as we move downwards. Consider a column of fluid of arbitrary
cross section of area, A as presented in Fig. 3

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 Fig. 3
Considering the weight of the column of water, we have:

Obviously the area of the column cancels out: we can just consider
pressures. If we say the height of the column is and
substitute in for the specific weight, we see the difference in
pressure from the bottom to the top of the column is:
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This difference in pressure varies linearly in h, as shown by the Area 3 of the
pressure diagram. If we let h1 = 0 and consider a gauge pressure, then p1 =
0 and we have:

To summarize:
The gauge pressure at any depth from the surface of a fluid is:

Pressure Variation with Elevation

For a static fluid, pressure varies only with elevation within the fluid. This
can be shown by consideration of equilibrium of forces on a fluid element
presented in Fig. 4

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 Fig. 4
1st order Taylor series estimate for pressure variation over dz

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 For a static fluid, the pressure only varies with elevation z and is
constant in horizontal xy planes.
Pressure Variation for a Uniform-Density Fluid

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 Pressure Measurements
• Pressure is an important variable in fluid mechanics and many
instruments have been devised for its measurement. Many
devices are based on hydrostatics such as barometers and
manometers, i.e., determine pressure through measurement
of a column (or columns) of a liquid using the pressure
variation with elevation equation for an incompressible fluid.

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• A differential manometer can also be used to calculate the
difference in pressures at two points ①and ② when the
actual pressure at any point in the system cannot be
determined as depicted in Fig. 5

Fig. 5

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 Example2

The pipe gage pressure can be determined using the following methods

step-by-step method

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Complete circuit method

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Fig. 3-15 26
Solution to short test

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