1 Behaviour of Real

Fluids

Real Fluids
Real Fluids

Tangential or shearing forces always develop whenever

there is motion relative to a solid body creating fluid
friction
Friction forces gives rise to a fluid property called
viscosity
Compressible
Viscous in nature
Certain amount of resistance is always offered by these
fluids when they move

Ideal Fluids

Ideal Fluids
A fluid with no friction
Also referred to as an inviscid (zero viscosity)
fluid
Internal forces at any section within are
normal (pressure forces)
Practical application: many flows approximate
frictionless flow away from solid boundaries

Viscous Flow

Viscous is basically referring to internal friction in a

fluid.
A true non-viscous fluid would flow along a solid wall
without any slowing down because of friction.
A viscous fluid has a lot of friction, even parts of the fluid
itself, flowing at different rates, will have friction between
them.
If a viscous fluid were flowing past a wall, the friction at
the wall would be transmitted inward. The fluid right at
the wall would not be flowing at all, as you moved away
from the wall, the fluid would be flowing faster.

Ideal & real flow around a cylinder

Viscous Flow
In Fig 2, fluids are both sandwiched between a fixed solid surface
on one side and a movable belt on the other.

Effect of shear force on fluid

If the belt is set in motion, experimental

measurements will indicate:
Ideal Fluid

The force required to move the belt is negligible

The movement of the belt has no effect whatsoever on
the ideal fluid, which remains stationary.

Real Fluid

A considerable force is required to maintain belt motion,

even at low speed.
The whole body of fluid is deforming and continues to
deform as long as belt motion continues. Closer
investigation will reveal that deformation pattern consists
in the shearing, sliding, of one layer of fluid over another.
Between the solid surface and the belt the fluid velocity
is assumed to vary linearly.

Reynolds Number

Reynolds Number

The stability of laminar flows and the

onset of turbulence

The flows examined so far involved only low

speeds.
If the speed of the belt increased, the pattern of
linearly sheared flow will continue to exist only up
to a certain belt velocity. Above that velocity a
dramatic transformation takes place in the flow
pattern. WHY?

Effects of disturbance on a viscous flow

Effects of disturbance in a sheared flow

Consider a slowly moving sheared flow. If a small

disturbance happened (a small local vibration),
the pathlines will be slightly deflected, bunching
together at A and opening out correspondingly at
B.
This implies that the local velocity at A, uA,
increases slightly compared with the upstream
velocity u, while at the same time uB reduces.
From Bernoulli equation,
2

2
A

2
B

PA u
PB u
P u

g 2 g g 2 g g 2 g

Therefore PB>PA. It can thus be reasoned

that the disturbance will produce a small
transverse resultant force acting from B
towards A. The lateral components of velocity
will also produce a corresponding component
of viscous shear force, which acts in the
opposite sense to the resultant disturbing
force.
As long as the fluid is moving slowly, the
resultant disturbing force tends to be
outweighed by the viscous force.
Disturbances are therefore damped out.

As the rate of shear increases, the effect of

the disturbance becomes more
pronounced:

1.
2.

3.

The difference between uA and uB increases

The pressure differences (PA-PB) increases with
(uA2-uB2), so the deflection of the pathline
becomes more pronounced
The greater shear results in a deformation of
the crest of the pathline pattern. When the
shear is sufficiently great, the deformation is
carried beyond the point at which the rectilinear
pattern of pathlines can cohere. The flow
disintegrates into a disorderly pattern of eddies
in place of the orderly patterns of layers.

The Boundary Layer

When a fluid enters a pipe, viscous effects due to the

pipe wall will develop.
The region where viscous effects are important is
referred to as the boundary layer.

The Boundary Layer

The velocity profile will vary due to the growth of this

boundary layer.
When the velocity profile reaches a constant (i.e.,
velocity profile no longer changes along the pipe), the
flow is said to be fully developed.
The length required for the flow to reach fully developed
conditions is called the entrance length (Le), and can be
determined from the following empirical relations:

For laminar flow: Le/D = 0.06Re

For turbulent flow: Le/D = 4.4(Re)1/6

The Boundary layer

Development of a boundary layer

To develop the boundary layer concept, it is helpful

to begin with a flow bounded on one side only.
Consider, a rectilinear flow passing over a stationary
flat plate which lies parallel to the flow. The incident
flow (i.e. the flow just upstream of the plate) has a
uniform velocity, U .

As the flow comes into contact with the plate, the layer of fluid
immediately adjacent to the plate decelerates (due to viscous
friction) and comes to rest.
This follows from the postulate that in viscous fluids a thin layer
of fluid adhere to a solid surface. There is then a considerable
shearing action between the layer of fluid on the plate surface
and the second layer of fluid.
The second layer is therefore forced to decelerate (it is not quiet
brought to rest), creating a shearing action with the third layer of
fluid and so on. As the fluid passes further along the plate, the
zone in which shearing action occurs tends to spread further
outwards.
This zone is known as a boundary layer. Outside the boundary
layer the flow remains effectively free of shear, so the fluid here
is not subjected to viscosity-related forces.

The flow within the boundary layer may be viscous or

turbulent, depending on value of Reynolds Number.

To evaluate Re we need a typical dimension and in

boundary layers this dimension is usually the distance in
the x-plane from the leading edge of the solid boundary.

The Reynolds number becomes Rex=Ux/.

The structure of the boundary layer is shown in the

following figure.

Structure of a boundary layer

A graph (distribution) of velocity variation with y may be drawn,

and will reveal that:
In laminar zone there is a smooth velocity distribution to
which a mathematical function can be fitted with good
accuracy
In the turbulent zone the mixing action produces a steeply
sheared profile near the surface of the plate, but flatter,
more uniform profile further out towards the boundary layer
edge.

Implications of the boundary layer concept

Different material exhibit different degrees of roughness. Does

this have any effect on the boundary layer?
In laminar flow, the friction is transmitted by pure shearing action.
Consequently, the roughness of the solid surface has no effect,
except to trap small pools of stationary fluid in the interstices,
and thus slightly increase the thickness of the stationary layer of
fluid.
In a turbulent flow, a laminar sub-layer forms close to the solid
surface. If the average height of the surface roughness is smaller
than the height of the laminar sub-layer, there will be little or no
effect on the overall flow.
Turbulent flow embodies a process of momentum transfer from
layer to layer. Consequently, if the surface roughness protrudes
through the laminar region into the turbulent region, then it will
cause additional eddy formation and therefore greater energy
loss in the turbulent flow. This implies that the apparent frictional
shear will be increased.