KNJ2103: Fluid Mechanics 2

Faculty of Engineering
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

Question: Characterize principles and problems associated with flow past immerse bodies and
its relationship to Reynolds number and geometry effects.

Solution:

Principle of flow past immerse body:

In general, flow past immerse bodies can be explained as a moving fluid which experiences a
resultant force due to the interacting between the body and the fluid surrounding. The immersed
body will be stationary when the fluid past the body with velocity U and the fluid will be far from
the body will be stationary and the body will move through the fluid with velocity U. Principle of
flow past immerse objects also states that when an object immersed in a flowing fluid will
generally experience a force and its magnitude and direction depend on several parameters.
Besides that, the plane of an observation determines the flow pattern around an object while the
various flow parameters such as velocity and pressure vary along any direction. Since, the flow
depends on the various dimensionless parameters, the most important of these parameters are the
Reynolds number, the Mach number and for the flow with a free surface, the Froude number. A
flow will be called as two-dimensional (2-D) or planar when an object is assumed to extend to
infinity on two opposite sides and has a uniform cross section normal to a certain axis. The two-
dimensional flow will be completed if the fluid motion is such that the flow pattern and all flow
parameters are independent of position along that axis.

Problem of flow past immerse body:

There are several problems that flow past immerse body involved with such as drag force and lift.
The drag is the component of the wall shear force in the direction of flow, and thus it depends on
the orientation of the body as well as the magnitude of the wall shear stress. The friction drag is
zero for a flat surface normal to the flow, and maximum for a flat surface parallel to the flow since
the friction drag in this case equals the total shear force on the surface. Friction drag is a strong
function of viscosity and increases with increasing viscosity. This is how, the drag force creates
the problem to immersed body.

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 In some case, lift is also affect the immerse body. Lift is practically independent of the surface
roughness since roughness affects the wall shear, not the pressure practice can be approximated as
due entirely to the pressure distribution on the surfaces of the body, and thus the shape of the body
has the primary influence on lift. The contribution of shear to lift is significant only for very small
(lightweight) bodies that fly at low velocities (and thus low Reynolds numbers).

Relationship of flow past immerse body to Reynolds number and geometry

effects:
Boundary layer analysis explains about the relationship between flow past immerse body to
Reynolds number and geometry effects. The boundary layer analysis is useful to calculate viscous
effect near solid walls and to patch them onto the outer inviscid flow. As the Reynolds number
becomes larger, the patching technique is more successful. If the Reynolds number is small, the
viscous region is very broad and extends far ahead and to the sides of the plate. The plate retards
the oncoming stream greatly and slight changes in stream flow properties cause momentous change
in the pressure distribution along the plate. Thus, although in principle it should be possible to
patch the viscous region and inviscid region in a mathematical analysis, it turns to be a complicated
analysis, due to strong nonlinearity.
To be conclude, a high Reynolds number flow is more suitable to boundary layer patching. The
viscous layer, either laminar or turbulent, is very thin and its coupling to the inviscid is almost
linear.