low Reynolds number flows are those in

which inertia plays only a very small

part in the conditions which determine

the motion Reynolds number for a flow

which is characterized only by density

and viscosity is defined as R equals L V

Rho over mu here L is a length

characteristic of the field of flow V is

a characteristic velocity Rho and mu are

the density and viscosity of the fluid

the numerical value of R provides a

rough estimate of the relative

importance of inertia and viscosity in

any fluid flow when R is small the

importance of inertia is small compared

to that a viscosity some examples are

the flow produced by the movement of

such small creatures as these ball

sperms which L is very small or glacier

flow which V is small and mu is very

large

note the red flags across the ice field

here they are two years later

pulling a knife from a pot of honey for

which mu is very large demonstrates two

properties of viscous fluid it can

resist both tangential and tensile

stresses the honey can only be lifted by

a tangential force exerted by the knife

surface which must be transmitted

through adjacent layers of the honey the

stretching of the stream as it leaves

the knife gives rise to tensile stresses

across horizontal sections these make

the speed of falling much less than if

the honey had been falling freely though

this honey stream shows us something

about the properties of viscosity it

doesn't give us any physical insight

into the relative importance of

viscosity and inertia the similar set of

experiments done with a controlled jet

entering a quiet mass of the same fluid

can give us such an insight in defining

Reynolds number the appropriate length

and velocity to be used are the diameter

and the velocity of the jet as it enters

the fluid here the fluid is syrup and

the Reynolds number is naught point

naught 5 at this low Reynolds number the

jet hardly penetrates at all now let's

repeat the experiment using different

fluids the other three boxes contain

this arene vicereine and water and water

each jet will be driven by this piston

and the velocities will be identical

this blistering jet penetrates to a

depth of a few diameters

at this Reynolds number the jet

penetrates many diameters the tangential

force acting on the outer surface of the

jet is insufficient to reduce its

velocity very much before it reaches the

bottom of the box

this jet becomes turbulent

here for comparison are the four

situations

this experiment justifies us in living

out of consideration the effect of

inertia in situations for which R is

much less than one the geometry involved

here makes this case unsuitable for

simple mathematical analysis however the

flow of fluid through tubes of uniform

bore provides a simple case in which

inertia plays no part in the mechanics

of the flow here the tangential stress

due to viscosity is balanced only by the

driving pressure though the Reynolds

number is not necessarily small there is

no change in the inertia of the flow as

it passes through the tube so that the

results of calculations of the kind used

in thinking about low Reynolds number

flow are applicable the bore of one of

these tubes is twice as big as the other

but they have the same length and the

fluid is driven through them at the same

pressure head calculation shows that the

discharge from the launch tube should be

16 times that of the other

the receptacles are marked at one ounce

and sixteen ounces in this experiment

the pressure difference Delta P acting

over the area of cross section of

quarter pi d squared balances the

tangential stress Sigma which acts over

the wall area PI DL the pressure change

therefore is balanced by Sigma times

four L over D when L is large compared

with D as it is here a small tangential

stress can produce a large change in

pressure this is the principle on which

hydrodynamic lubrication is based

a very simple experiment can demonstrate

that the coefficient of friction which

is the ratio of the tangential to the

normal force between two bodies in

relative motion can be much reduced by

hydrodynamic lubrication holding this

sheet of paper horizontal I give it a

slight forward movement and drop it it

slides quite a distance as it settles

the air is forced out of the narrow

space between it and the table the

tangential stress so produced enables

enough pressure to be built up beneath

the note paper to support it for time

and during that time the friction

retarding sideways motion is very small

if a few holes are made in the sheet so

the air can escape without passing under

its outer edge it stops much more

quickly

to reduce the friction between

continuously moving surfaces it is

necessary to introduce the lubricant at

the place where the pressure is low and

sweep it into a place where it is high

it was only when a method for doing this

was discovered that the design of thrust

blocks capable of maintaining the large

load between a ship and its propeller

ceased to be a major difficulty in the

development of large steamers this

little device which I call a teetotum

works on the same principle each of its

blades is inclined slightly upwards if

they turn counterclockwise close to the

tabletop air is swept into the

converging space and gives rise to this

distribution of pressure under the

blades the pressure so produced by the

counter clockwise motion supports it for

some time the apparent backward motion

that you may see is a stroboscopic

effect

on the other hand when it spins in

clockwise direction the air is rapidly

swept into the wider part of the space

below the bades solid contact occurs and

the teetotum stops much more quickly so

choirs counterclockwise the action which

supports the G totem is employed in

these journal bearings in a journal a

cylindrical shaft rotates inside a

cylinder a very slightly a greater

diameter the shaft assumes an eccentric

position so that there is a narrowing

gap into which fluid is dragged this

model journal bearing has been fitted

with three manometers midway between its

ends

the shaft is fixed with its narrow

escape at the top the center manometer

is located at the narrowest part with

the other two equally distant from it

here the fluid is water and the

manometers are open to the atmosphere in

the converging channel the pressure

rises above atmospheric and then Falls

below it an equal amount on the

diverging side reversing the direction

of rotation reverses the stresses and

the pressure distribution very large

pressure differences can result from

greater eccentricities or speeds or if

the fluid is very viscous in this case

the journal has been filled with syrup

by sealing the journal from the

atmosphere such a strong negative

pressure has built up in the diverging

section that cavitation bubbles appear

the bubbles get longer as the speed

increases

low Reynolds number flows are reversible

when the direction of motion of the

boundaries which gave rise to the flow

is reversed this may lead to some

surprising situations which might almost

make one believe that the fluid has a

memory of its own

here are two concentric cylinders the

fluid can be moved by turning the inner

cylinder with this handle the any of us

between them is filled with glycerin

into this space I introduced some dye

which stays put

owing to the high viscosity of the

glycerine neut its position before I

start turning it I now turn it four

times pushing the handle clockwise the

dye seems to mix as a drop of milk mixes

when it is stirred into a cup of tea

now I reverse the direction

and after turning exacta for turns the

died area reappears in its original

position with the little fuzziness due

to molecular diffusion to see what

happens we have a second apparatus that

is filled with syrup it has a wider gap

and we can look down on it a little

colored syrup is injected to mark the

fluid

when the cylinder is turned this fluid

is stretched around the annulus

now the enou Solyndra is turned back

attracted to its starting position

during the forward motion the boundary

of the fluid follows a path determined

at each instant by the motion of the

wall at these very low Reynolds numbers

particles within the fluid move when the

boundary moves and they stop when it

stops during the reversed motion the

boundary of the flow position the motion

of a rigid body is also reversible here

is one with the gap to mark its

orientation this is set initially in the

twelve o'clock position

the motion carries the body around and

also makes it rotate on reversing the

rigid body returns to its original

position and orientation

if however a flexible body like this bit

of yarn is inserted the reversal of

stress will alter the shape of the body

so that it will not return to its

original position

in the next experiments we will look at

the resistance of solid Bali's at low

Reynolds numbers here are two brass

fairs in syrup they have diameters in

the ratio of two to one we release one

now and the other later

when the smaller ball has one more unit

to go the larger one is released they

reach the bottom mark at the same time

the drag of a falling sphere is

proportional to its diameter and to its

speed the net weight of the sphere is

proportional to the cube of its diameter

the velocity is therefore proportional

to d squared they have diameters in the

ratio of 2 to 1 so the larger one falls

in syrup four times as fast as the

smaller at low Reynolds numbers the

disturbance produced by a moving ball

extends minute amateurs

so that beads far from the ball are

moved by its passing thus the presence

of a nearby wall can be important here

are two identical balls one near a wall

and one far from it the Warner the wall

falls more slowly incidentally it

remains at a constant distance from the

wall a consequence of reversibility this

retarding effect also slows the fall of

a particle surrounded by many similar

ones so that a cloud of them falls more

slowly than a single one

when a cloud of assorted particles falls

in fluid it develops a sharply defined

top a particle which has a terminal

velocity rather lower than its neighbors

doesn't always get left behind if it did

it would find itself isolated and would

fall faster and therefore catch up the

rest the lift box has many particles

they are close together and the boundary

is sharp the right box has few particles

they fall with less influence on one

another and the boundary of this sharp

and travels faster

when the moving body is not spherical

the resistance is not the same in all

directions of motion these identical

rods are held so the bottom of the

vertical one is at the same level as the

horizontal one when released

simultaneously the horizontal one

travels half as fast as the vertical one

at low Reynolds number they have just

half as much resistance to longitudinal

motion as they have when moving

perpendicular to their axes at the same

speed this is a property common to all

long thin bodies of revolution

when a rod falls obliquely it drifts to

one side

at terminal speed the net weight is just

balanced by the drag which therefore

acts vertically the drag may be regarded

as being the resultant of two forces one

parallel to the long axis and one

perpendicular to it these two forces are

represented by CA and BC in the

triangular force ABC remember that a

force moves the cylinder one half as

fast when applied in the transverse

direction as when applied longitudinally

the triangle of velocities can therefore

be constructed by bisecting BC at the

point B AC and CD are the velocity

components ad then represents the

direction of motion when the cylinder is

falling in the incline position to find

the largest possible angle of the flight

path to the vertical this geometrical

construction can be materialized using a

draftsman square and two drawing pins

the pins are placed at C and a point F

situated vertically above C a distance

equal to a B this square can be moved

around so that it's two perpendicular

edges are in contact with the pins the

axis of the cylindrical falling body

kurd sides with the lower edge of the

square the flight path is then the line

joining the corner of the square for the

point e situated vertically below C at a

distance equal to C F is 35 degrees to

the horizontal I want to draw your

attention specially to this experiment

because it has an important bearing on

why it is that microscopic

animals can swim

all the familiar self-propelling bodies

oh they're thrust to inertial reaction

of air or water to the motion of their

propelling mechanisms the propeller of a

motorboat is an example here the water

which is thrown backwards forms a

well-defined wake the body and tail of a

fish form another example but here the

wake is not so well defined even a snake

swims by moving its body so that each

section of it is pushed forward by

inertial reaction as the waves of

bending move them oblique Li in the

water all those we have seen have

Reynolds numbers of order thousands or

even millions microscopic creatures

which may have Reynolds numbers as low

as 1 over 10,000 cannot drive any

appreciable thrust from inertia they

rely on moving their bodies in such a

way that they derive their thrust from

viscous stresses the tails of these ball

spermatozoa move like those of tadpoles

or snakes by sending waves of bending

backwards so that each section moves

oblique Li in the fluid here however the

viscous reaction to the motion pushes on

the tails in the same way that it pushed

on the oblique Li falling rod to

illustrate the difference between

inertial and viscous propulsion I have

constructed two models both operated by

the same source of power a twisted

elastic band in this model a rather like

tail oscillates about a hinge at the

rail

waving the rudder of a boat is so

well-known as a method of propulsion

that the rules of yacht racing legislate

against it putting this model in water

shows us why but when the model is put

into syrup it cannot move

I think to the reversibility of low

Reynolds number flow the forward motion

of the blade is neutralized by the

backward motion

this spiral model does swim each element

of the spiral is behaving like the

obliquely falling rod because lateral

resistance is greater than longitudinal

motion at right angles to the axis of

the spiral can contribute to a

longitudinal component the spirals are

right and left-handed to keep the model

from rotating

the last example I will show of low

Reynolds number flow is that between two

parallel plates separated by a very

small gap this arrangement known as the

hylia shawl cell has a special interest

because paradoxically it offers a means

for making visible the streamlines in

certain cases of ideal flow of a non

viscous fluid the gap between these two

thick plastic plates is formed by this

gasket when fluid is forced to flow

through the cell all particles in the

same neighborhood are subjected to the

same pressure gradient the fluid

velocity of air is being zero at each

plate and a maximum midway between them

but at all points on a line

perpendicular to the plates they are

moving in the same direction in the

Healy Shaw apparatus coloured fluid is

injected into the stream through a

number of regularly spaced holes and

since the stream lines originating in

any neighborhood

remain close to one another the lines of

color remain sharp when they are

deflected by a thin disc placed between

the sheets they assume the same form as

those of an ideal fluid when deflected

by a cylinder of the same cross-section

now instead of a solid body a source is

started in the flow here is the flow

round a half body the red dye shows the

internal stream lines when the rate of

fluid flowing from the source is

constant the stream lines are sharp but

when the flow from the source changes

the lines of color become blurred

because the faster particles midway

between the top and bottom plate no

longer find themselves close to the

lines of slow particles which started

earlier from the same neighborhood

the experiments you've seen are limited

to fluids which possess the simplest

possible relationship between stress and

rate of strain

since most fluids do in fact conform

very closely to this ideal these

experiments are a very general

application

you