Physics 7A Discussion Notes Chapter 13: Fluids

Aaron Alpert August 2010

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1.1

Introduction to Fluids.
Fluid Movement

Figure 1: Kinematics of a Fluid.

Kinematics. In particulate motion, each atom had the same displacement, velocity, and acceleration. In rigid body motion, the relative position of the particles was constant, so the motion of any one particle could be described by the translation of a point and the rotation of the rigid body. Here, every particle moves with dierent velocity, and the relative position of the particles is not xed. In order to better imagine uid motion, we imagine a cube of uid, as seen in gure 1. The cube of uid can translate (i.e., every particle is displaced by the same vectorial amount). The cube of uid can rotate through an angle about an axis. The rotation is referred to as the vorticity. While mathematically involved, it can be conceptually related to the circulationhow much the uid is circling around a certain point. (Imagine a rotating merry-go-round. The circulation would be analagous to how much the horses circle around the center.) You have observed vorticity many times when water spins around in a drain or a tornado swirls the air.

Figure 2: Viscosity in Couette Flow. Deformation. Unlike in a solid, our cube of uid can become deformed. It will not hold its shape if subjected to forces. Deformation that changes the side length of the cube but does not change its right angles can be referred to as elongation or stretching. Deformation that changes the angles of the cube can be called shear. Types of Flow. Flows are classied as either laminar or turbulent. With laminar ow, each particle of uid traces out a line. The particles in front and behind it lie on the same lines, and the lines do not cross. These are called stream lines. However, the ow can become chaotic, meaning the particles go everywhere, crossing paths, and so on. The classic example is a cigarette. Near the cigaratte, the smoke ows in neat orderly lines (laminar), but far away from the ow, the smoke begins to disperse (turbulent). When we get to problems, we will only consider laminar cases.

Figure 3: A Cigarette Displays Laminar and Turbulent Flow.

1.2

Fluid Forces.

Because uids can deform in so many ways, we need to consider not just in what direction a forces acts, but where it acts. Pressure and viscous forces act on the surface of the uid; body forces, like gravity and magnetic forces, act on the volume of the uid. As shown in 2

Figure 4: Forces Act in Both a Certain Direction and on a Certain Place. gure 4, the red (viscous) and blue (pressure) forces act on the surface of the box of uid in a certain direction, while the green (body, e.g., gravity) force acts on the entire volume of th box of uid. For this reason, it is very dicult to analyze fulids using forces. Pressure. The force that acts to stretch the cube of uid is called pressure. Pressure is a normal forceit can only act perpendicular to a surface. An amazing result is the pressure is the same in all directions (up, down, right, left) at a certain spatial point. We relate the force acting on a surface area with the pressure as follows. P = dF F dA A (1)

The SI units of pressure are Newtons per meter, also called Pascal and notated P a. Other commonly used units are millimeters of mercury (mmHg, also called torr, based on old mercury barometers), standard atmospheres (atm), other SI units (kP a, barwhich is 10P a), or pounds per square inch (psi). Typical atmospheric pressure is 101.3 kP a (or, if you prefer, 760 mmHg, 29.9 inHg, 1 atm, 1.013 bar, or 14.7 psi). Pressure as many important applications in driving the translation of a uid. In a pipe, for example, the pressure dierence along the pipe means that there is a force driving the uid forward. In your home, the city pressurizes the water, which reaches your home after having lost a lot of its pressure, and comes out your faucet. The reason that the water goes from the city to your home and not the other way is the pressure dierence in the water main. Also, the pressure can change the volume of the box. Since the box would have the same mass but a dierent volume, the pressure is capable of changing the density. (Think about what happens when a scuba diver exhales. The bubble increases in size as it rises.) However, in this class, we will almost exclusively consider incompressible uids. Density will be, for us, a constant. Viscosity. The force that acts to shear the cube is called viscosity. It is analagous to friction, and acts very similarly, in many ways. (For one, it removes energy from the system.) In Couette ow, a viscous uid is placed between two plates separated by H, and uid ows like sheets gliding over each other. The bottom plate is stationary, and a person applies a force to the top plate. The force divided by the area of the plate is the shear on the plate. The plate will travel at a certain speed v, and the uid at the plate boundary will match 3

Figure 5: Denition of Viscosity. the velocity of the plate. Assuming the velocity varies linearly, the velocity u at any height h above the bottom plate is y du v u= v = (2) H dy H The shearing force is proportional to the change (gradient) in velocity by in the equation = du . The constant of proportionality is called viscosity and has units of 1 poise = dy 1 P a s. Since du/dy = v/H and the shear at the top of the plate is just F/A, F v FH = = A H Av (3)

Note that this only applies to so-called Newtonian uids. Many other common uids (from paint to blood to cornstarch-water mixture) exhibit other properties.

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2.1

Hydrostatics
Hydrostatic Pressure

Imagine you are scuba diving 10 m below the surface of the water. You hold out your hand, which is about 60 cm2 , and you imagine a large, hand-shaped column of water rising above it. The cross sectional area of the water is 60 cm2 , its height is 10 m, making the volume of that column of water 10m60cm2 . If water has a constant density of 1000 kg/m3 , then the mass of the column of water is V = (1000kg/m3 )(10m)(60cm2 ). The downward force of that water is mg, or (1000kg/m3 )(10m)(60cm2 )(9.8m/s2 ). So what about the pressure on your hand? It is the force divided by the area of your hand, or (1000kg/m3 )(10m)(9.8m/s2 ) = 98 kP a. In general, the pressure on any surface submerged in a uid (near the surface of earth) is P = P0 + gy (4)

where P0 is the pressure at the surface, is the density of the uid, and y is the distance below the surface. For most of our situautions, the pressure at the surface P0 is atmospheric 4

pressure, 101.3kP a. Thus, in water, every 10 meters of descent adds roughly 1 atmosphere of pressure. Example: Hoover Dam. Hoover Damp is 221 meters tall and 379 meters wide (at the top). When it is full, what is the force (per unit width) acting on the wall? What is the torque (per unit width) acting at the base of the dam?

Figure 6: Pressure on Hoover Dam. Answer: Hoover Dam. In this case, we can ignore the air pressure, as its more or less balanced out by the air on the other side of the dam. Thus, the pressure is P = gy. If we imagine a little height y, the force is P A = gyy(379). We can integrate this to nd
221 221 2 y2 F = 379 gy dy = 379(1000)(9.8) y dy = 379(1000)(9.8) 21 = 2.39 108 N 2 0 0 0

(5)

The torque from that force is r F. The distance from the base to the little height y is actually 221 y, so the torque is actually rF = (221 y)gyy(379).
221 221 = 379 gy(221 y) dy = 379(1000)(9.8) 221y y 2 dy 0

= 379(1000)(9.8)

221y y 2 3

2
0

21 = 6.69 1014 N m

(6)

2.2

Archimedes Principle and Buoyant Force.

Consider a solid mass partially or totally submerged in uid. If that particle we removed and replaced by uid, the surrounding uid would not care that the solid had replaced. Regardless of what is there, the matter will feel the same force. When the uid is there, we assume it to be in static equilibrium. Thus, the forces must be zero. There is a gravitational force down of mg and an equal and opposite buoyant force. When the solid mass replaces the uid, the solid mass feels that same buoyant force. Thus, F B = f V g 5 (7)

where f is the uids density and V is the volume that is under the water. Example: Its Drafty in Here. A barge is a square boat. Suppose the oor of the boat is 6 meters by 8 meters. The barge is 200 kg and is carrying a load of mass m. How does the draft depend on m? (Draft is the distance below the surface of the water that the boat oats.) Answer: Its Drafty in Here. Call the draft d. The volume of the boat below the surface is (6)(8)d = 48d. Thus, the buoyant force is H2 O (48d)g. However, the loaded boat has a mass of 200 + m and experiences gravity of (200 + m)g. The boat is in static equilibrium, so the buoyant force equals the graviational force. H2 O (48d)g = (200 + m)g d = 200 + m m = .0042 + meters 48H2 O 48000

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3.1

Fluid Dynamics
Conservation of Mass

We now allow the uid to move. First of all, the mass must be conserved. Consider a pipe. Whatever ows into the pipe must either ow out of it or stay in it. We will consider steady state systems in which mass does not accumulate in the pipe. In a situation like this, we need to nd out what mass ows into the pipe per unit time (i.e., mass ux), which we will call m . First, a small mass of m moves into the pipe in some amount of time t. The amount of mass is V . Now, the small volume V has a cross-sectional area A, which moves a small distance x, making the small amount of mass A x. The rate of this mass is m = m/t = A x , which can be limited down to show t m = Av (8)

where v is the ow velocity. The quantity m is constant throughout the pipe. If the density is constant (incompressible), then Av is a constant.

3.2

Bernoullis Theorem.

Derivation. The governing F=ma equation for a uid is called the Navier-Stokes Equation. It is a dierential equation which has yet to be solved. In fact, were not even completely sure it has a solution or if that solution is unique, though we think it does.1
1

Dv = P + ( ) + f Dt

(9)

The Clay Mathematics Institute has designated it one of their seven Millenium Problems, and if you do manage to solve the Navier-Stokes equation, you can earn the $1 million prize.

Because this is a dierential equation, it describes what happens to a little box of uid, so instead of mass we have the density , which is mass per volume. Thus, the rst term acts sort of like mass times acceleration. Then, the right-hand side is a description of the forces. P is the pressure, and represents the derivative in all three directions. Its the d 3D extension of dx . The middle term is the viscous force. The is the viscosity, and describes how fast the uid is deforming. For our analysis, we will ignore viscosity, and this term is zero. This is, by the way, a very big assumption. The last term, f describes other forces, such as gravity or electromagnetic forces acting on the body of the uid. For our purposes, we will consider only the force of gravity (per unit volume): mg = g. We V obtain something that looks like this (although, this is a bit uy to be sure): a = dP g ds (10)

When we rst learned about energy, we integrated F = ma with respect to displacement: F dx = ma dx. The left side was dened as work, and the right side as the change in 1 kinetic energy: W = 2 mv 2 = KE, which is the work-kinetic energy theorem. Now, our uid is displaced along a path C, which is called the streamline. If we measure the length along the streamline s, then ds is an innitesimal distance along the path. We integrate the Navier-Stokes Equation with respect to ds. dP a ds = ds + g ds (11) ds
C

The rst term is similar to integrating ma dx, which gives us the kinetic energy. The second term is easy, using the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus. For the third term, we have to remember that gravitational energy only responds to changes in the vertical direction, z. Altogether, we obtain the following equation. 1 P + v 2 + gz = B = constant 2 (12)

P is the pressure, v is the velocity, z is the height, and is the density. This is Bernoullis Equation, which is essentially an energy equation. In order to be valid, there are several conditions. Constant density (incompressible) No viscosity (inviscid) B is only constant along a given streamline Steady ow (the ow doesnt change over timeif the ow is unsteady, then B is a function of time) Although this puts some serious limits on the types of problems we can do, it also permits a good number of problems. 7

Figure 7: Pitot Tube. Example: Pitot Tube. Modern aircraft use pitot tubes to measure the airspeed. A small tube extends from inside the aircraft, has a little uid-lled dip, and a narrowing tip that points into the direction. If the area at point 1 is half that of the area at the other labelled points, the density of air is a , the density of the uid is f , and the height dierence of the uid is h, what is the planes airspeed and what is the velocity of the air at point 2? Answer: Pitot Tube. The height dierences are small enough to neglect gz. Outside the airplane, the pressure is Patm and the velocity is v, the airspeed. The constant from Bernoullis equation is Patm + 1 a v 2 . At point 3, the air cannot move, so the velocity goes 2 to zero. However, we are along the sam streamline, so the Bernoulli term will be the same. 1 Patm + a v 2 = P3 2 Since the other end of the pitot tube opens up to the airplane, the pressure on the other end of the uid is Patm . Imagine what is happening at the dotted line shown in gure 7. That line is at the same height as point 3, so it must be experiencing the same pressure, P3 . That point feels the atmospheric pressure from the plane P3 , plus the additional pressure of the uid on top of it, f gh. Then, Patm + f gh = P3 h = We can plug in the value we know for P3 and solve.
1 Patm + 1 a v 2 Pa tm a v 2 2 h= = 2 v= f g f g

P3 Pa tm f g

2hf g a

As the ow passes from point 1 and expands to point 2, mass is conserved, so we can nd the velocity at point 2 as A1 v A1 v1 = A2 v2 v2 = v = A2 2 8

1 We just found the airspeed, so v2 = 2

2hf g . a

Example: A Problem Even Torricelli Would Find Draining. This is a variation on a classic Physics 7A problem... There is a tower of height H and radius R, which is lled with water. A small hole of diameter a is put near the bottom of the tower. What is the velocity of the water exiting the hole as a function of time t? In this example, you may not ignore the fact that the height of the water is decreasing. You may assume the density of water and the atmospheric pressure P0 are constants. [Hint: Once you nd the appropriate dierential equation, the height of the water is a quadratic function of time.]

Figure 8: Water Draining Out of a Tower. Answer: A Problem Even Torricelli Would Find Draining. We imagine a streamline beginning at the surface of the water and following along the path shown as a red line in gure 8 until it exits the tower. At the surface of the water, the Bernoulli equation tells us 1 P + v 2 + gz = P0 + gz(t) = B(t) 2 (13)

As the water exits the tower, it obtains the ambient (atmospheric) pressure, so we can equate the two points on the red streamline. 1 1 P + v 2 + gz = P + v 2 = B(t) = P0 + gz(t) 2 2 v= 2gz (14)

In other words, the speed of water leaving the tube is the same as the speed of an object that falls z. However, we must be able to express z as a function of time, and z decreases as the water drains. What is the rate at which water leaves the tower? If water leaves at a speed of 2gz through a hole of area a2 , then the rate change in volume is V = Av = (a2 )( 2gz) (15)

The volume of water in the tower is V = Ah = (R2 )z, which we can dierentiate to nd the rate at which water is lost. V = (R2 )z. We can set these two equations equal (the 9

rate at which water is leaving the tank = the rate at which the volume inside the tank is decreasing). a2 2g 2 2 2 V = a 2gz = R z z z=0 (16) R2 Since we are told that the solution is a quadratic function of time, we know that z(t) = c2 t2 + c1 t + c0 , which we plug into the dierential equation. Since we know that the water is initially at height H, z(0) = c0 = H. a2 2g 2 2 2 2 4c2 t + 4c2 c1 t + c1 c2 t + c1 t + H = 0 (17) R2 2 2g a Matching coecients tells us that c1 = R (2g)1/4 H and c2 a4R2 , giving us a nal = expression for z(t). We can plug that in to the expression v = 2gz. v(t) = 2g 1/2 a 2 a2 2g 2 a 1/4 t + (2g) Ht + H = (2)1/4 (g)5/4 t + 2g H 4R2 R R (18)

These notes 2010 by Aaron Alpert.

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