9/19/2016

ESO204A,FluidMechanicsandrateProcesses

DimensionalAnalysisand
Similitude
Simpleandpowerfulqualitativetechniqueapplicableto
manyfieldsofscienceandengineering

Chapter5ofFMWhite
Chapter 7ofFoxMcDonald

RightangledtriangleABCis
uniquelydeterminedby and c
a

Areaoftriangle
ABC: Ac f1 , c

f 2 Ac , c

dimensionless

c2 a 2 b2

Rearranging:

L2

A
f3 2c
c

Ac
f
c2

Ac c 2 f

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9/19/2016

Areaoftriangle
ABC: Ac c 2 f

Similarlyarea
oftriangleABD:
Aa a f
2

Similarlyarea
oftriangleACD:
Ab b 2 f

c a b
2

: smaller of two acute angles

Ac Aa Ab

c 2 f a 2 f b 2 f c 2 a 2 b 2

Thetheoremisprovedusingdimensionrelated
argumentsonly

Forquasisteady,
incompressible,
frictionlessflow,wehave
derived(BernoulliEq.)
V 2 gh

Alternateapproach
Experiment(orthoughtexperiment)suggests
V f1 g , h V f 2 u
where u is made of g and h

u g mhn
u gh

and has the same dimension as that of V

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9/19/2016

u g mhn

LT-2

LT-1

Lm nT 2 m

m n 1; 2m 1
m n 1 2

u gh

V f2

LT 1 LT 2

gh

Thinkaboutthenatureoff2

V c gh ; c is a constant

Thesolutionmay
alsobewrittenas

Theconstantcanbe
evaluatedfromexperiments

V
c; is nondiemsnional
gh

Summary
Given f V , g , h 0

WhereV, g, andh are

dimensional,asshownbefore

Theabovesystemisequivalentto
0; is nondimensional

V
gh

Thetechniquedescribedaboveisknownas
DimensionalAnalysis

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9/19/2016

DimensionalAnalysis
Ifcertainphysicalphenomenonisgovernedby
where some/all of the

f x1 , x2 ,....xn 0

variables x are dimensional

Thentheabovephenomenacanberepresentedas
1 , 2 ,.... m 0

where all the variables

mn

are non-dimensional

Thenatureoff and maybeobtainedfrom

experiments

DimensionalAnalysis:BuckinghamPiTheorem
f x1 , x2 ,....xn 0

1 , 2 ,.... m 0

where some/all x
are dimensional

where all are

non-dimensional

where m n, m n k

Minimum numberoffundamentaldimensions
involved:k
Example: f V , g , h 0
n3

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k 2

m n k 1

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Experimentshows
f V , g , h 0 0

where is made of V , g and h and

is dimensionless

AboveEquationsuggests
L0T 0 LT 1 LT 2 L
a

V a g b hc

a b c a 2b 0

V

gh

La b cT a 2b

b c a 2

Anyarbitraryvalueofa
shouldbeok

V
0
gh

PiTheorem:Repeatingandnonrepeatingvariables

xr1 , xr 2 ,....xrk ; xnr1 , xnr 2 ,....xnrm

x1 , x2 ,....xn

Selectionofrepeating
variables:

ConstructionofPiterms
1 xnr1 xr1

a11

2 xnr 2 xr1

xr 2 xr 3

a21

a12

a13

xr 2 xr 3
a22

... xrk 1k
a

a23

... xrk

a2 k

.....
.....

m xnrm xr1

am1

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xr 2 xr 3
am 2

am 3

... xrk

amk

o They mustbe
dimensionally
independent
o Together,they
mustinclude all
fundamental
dimensions

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Experimentshows,for
viscousflow f V , g , h, 0
V
g
h

m2

k 2

n4

Wehavetoselecttwo
(02)repeatingvariables

Letstaketherepeatingvariables: g , h
Nonrepeatingvariables: V ,

V
g
h

L
1

T
1

f V , g , h, 0

n4

k 2

m2

Repeatingvariables: g , h
Nonrepeatingvariables: V ,
1 xnr1 xr1

a11

xr 2 xr 3
a12

a13

... xrk 1k
a

1 V g h L0T 0 LT 1 LT 2 a L b L1 a bT 1 2 a
a

a b 1 2

V
gh

similarly 2 g h L0T 0 L2T 1 LT 2 L

a

2 a b 0 1 2a a 1 2, b 3 2

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gh3

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V

0
f1
,
gh gh3

f V , g , h, 0

V
Fr
gh

Wemayalsowrite
Frictionlessflow:
Viscousflow:

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Froudenumber

gh3

Fr
V

gh Vh Re

f 2 Fr, Fr Re 0 Fr Fr Re
Fr constant

Fr Fr Re Experimentsare

necessarytofindthe
natureoffunction