Objectives

Chapter 2
Fluid Characteristics and
Behavior

General Behavior
Weight (W)
The gravitational force applied to a body.
W = mg
Where:
m = mass of body (kg)
g = gravitational acceleration
= 9.81 m/s2 or 32.174 ft/s2

Student should be able to:

i. Define and determine the fluid properties such as:
Weight
Mass
Density
Specific Gravity
Specific Weight
Specific Volume
Absolute Viscosity
Kinematic Viscosity
ii. Determine the liquid behavior:
Surface tension
Capillary effect

General Behavior
Mass (m)
Amount of matter in an object.
Unit in kg

Unit in kg.m/ s2 or Newton (N)

General Behavior
Density ()
Mass per unit volume
m
mass
kg
= =
=
V volume m 3
Unit in kg/m3
Density of gas depends on temperature
and pressure.
Density of liquid depends more strongly on
temperature than pressure.

General Behavior
Density of ideal gases
Equation of State: equation for relationship
between pressure, temperature and density.
P = RT

or

P
RT

Where:
P = pressure (kPa)
= specific volume (m3/kg)
= density (kg/m3)
R = gas constant
= 8.314 kJ/kmol.K or 0.287 kPa.m3/kg.K

General Behavior

General Behavior

Specific gravity (SG) or relative density

The ratio of the density of a substance to
the density of some standard substance
at a specified temperature (usually water
at 4C, H20 = 1000 kg/m3).
SG =

H O
2

SG is dimensionless quantity.

General Behavior

where:
= density (kg/m3)
g = gravitational acceleration (m/s2)
Unit in N/m3.

Check your understanding

Specific volume ()
Volume per unit mass

Specific weight ()
Weight per unit volume
W Weight mg
= =
=
= g
V Volume V

Q: Determine the density, specific gravity

and mass of the air in a room whose
dimensions are 4m x 5m x 6m at 100 kPa
and 25 C. (Rconstant = 0.287 kPa.m3/kg.K)

V volume 1
=
=

m
mass

Unit in m3/kg

General Behavior

General Behavior

Shear Stress and Fluid Motion

Fluids move under influence of applied shear
The shear stress on the plate is:

F
A
y

u + du

Increasing
fluid
velocity
u

ux

Shear Stress and the concepts of Viscosity

Fluid flowing past a stationary surface consist of many
layers.
Layer of liquid at the surface is static, ux = 0 and layer
velocity increase with distance y above the surface.
Velocity gradients means fluid layers slide or move
relative to each other.
Molecular forces and random movement across layers
will produces shear stress, between layers.
Magnitude of shear stress related to rate change of
layer velocity by

Stationary surface

du
dy

General Behavior
Viscosity

General Behavior
Viscosity is a
property that
represents the
internal resistance of
a fluid to motion.
The force a flowing
fluid exerts on a body
in the flow direction is
called the drag force,
and the magnitude of
this force depends, in
part, on viscosity.

Absolute / dynamic viscosity ()

Shear force per unit area (or shear stress )
required to drag one layer of fluid with unit
velocity past another layer a unit distance
away.
shear stress

=
=
du dy

velocity gradient

Force Area
Force Time
=
Velocity Distance
Area

Units in Nsm-2 or kgm-1s-1 or Pa.s or Poise (P)

General Behavior

General Behavior

Relationship between shear stress & velocity gradient

Kinematic Viscosity ()
The ratio of absolute viscosity to density.

v=

Units in Stoke (St)

or m2/s
(velocity gradient)

Surface tension
Adhesion
The molecular attraction exerted between bodies
in contact.

Surface tension
Cohesive force
The intermolecular attraction between likemolecules.

Surface tension ()

Surface tension

Force per unit length at a

liquid-vapor or liquidliquid interface resulting
from the imbalance in
attractive forces among
like liquid molecules at
the interface (cohesion).
Unit in N/m

Surface tension
Wetting behavior
a) Liquid which wets a solid surface well, e.g.
water on a very clean copper.
b) Partial wetting.
c) Liquid which does not wet a solid surface, e.g.
water on teflon or mercury on clean glass.

Surface tension
Angle () shown is the angle between the
edge of the liquid surface and the solid
surface, measured inside the liquid.
Angle is called contact angle and is a
measure of the quality of wetting.

< 90
wets a solid surface well

Capillary effect (h)

The rise or fall of a liquid in a small-diameter
tube.
Caused by surface tension and depends on the
relative magnitude of cohesion of the liquid and
the adhesion of the liquid to the walls of the
containing vessel.

= 180
Zero wetting

Capillary effect
The curved free
surface in the tube is
call the meniscus.
Water meniscus curves
up because water is a
wetting fluid.
Mercury meniscus
curves down because
mercury is a
nonwetting fluid.

Capillary effect

Capillary effect

Weight of liquid in column

W = mg = Vg = g(R2h)
Equating vertical component of surface
tension to W
W = Fsurface
2
g(R h) = 2R cos

The capillary rise or drop is given by:

h =

2 cos
Rg

h=

2 cos
Rg

Where:

= surface tension, N/m

= contact angle
= density of a liquid, kg/m3
g = gravitational acceleration, 9.81 m/s2
R = radius of tube, m
Unit in m.

Check your understanding

Q: A 0.6 mm diameter
glass tube is inserted into
water at 20 C in a cup.
Determine the capillary
rise of water in the
tube.(H2O at 20 C =
0.073 N/m)