Fluid Mechanics

A uid is a substance that deforms continuously when Chapter 5: Dierential Analysis of Fluid Flow
subjected to a tangential or shear stress, however small
the shear stress may be. Such a continuous deforma- Chapter 6: Flow Fields with More than One Inde-
tion under the stress constitutes a ow. Fluid mechanics pendent Variable
is therefore the study of mechanics of such matter. As Chapter 7: Exact Solutions to Navier Stokes Equa-
such, it pertains mostly to the study of liquids and gases, tions: Special Conditions
however the general theories may be applied to the study
of amorphous solids, colloidal suspensions and gelatinous Chapter 8: Incompressible Flow
materials.
Chapter 9: Compressible Flow
Fluid mechanics is a subdivision of continuum mechan-
ics. Consequentially, uids are considered continuous Chapter 10: Turbulent Flow
media for analysis, and their discrete nature is of no con-
sequence for most applications. This assumption is valid Chapter 11: Geophysical Fluid Dynamics
mostly on length scales much larger than intramolecu- Appendix: Fluid Properties
lar distances. The departure from continuum is charac-
terised by a dimensionless parameter, the Knudsen Num- Appendix:Formulas and Glossary
ber, dened by Kn = /L , where L is a characteris-
tic length scale of the ow. The continuum hypothesis
holds good if Kn < 0.01. However, recent applications
in nanotechnology and biotechnology are demonstrating
that the governing equations are still relevant on smaller
scales, specically when they are modied to include the
eects of electrostatic, magnetic, colloidal and surface-
tension driven forces.
Some uid mechanics problems can be solved by apply-
ing conservation laws (mass, momentum, energy) of me-
chanics to a nite control volume. However, in general,
it is necessary to apply those laws to an innitesimal con-
trol volume, then use the resulting dierential equations.
Additionally, boundary values, initial conditions and ther-
modynamic state equations are generally necessary to ob-
tain numeric or analytic solutions.

0.1 Brief History

1 Chapters
Fluid Mechanics/Fluid Statics

Methods of Analysis

Kinematics: Motion without Friction

Chapter 2: Vector/Tensor Algebra and Calculus

Chapter 3: Conservation Equations: Control Vol-

ume Analysis

Chapter 4: Dimensional Analysis

1
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