Fluid Kinematic

Dr. Yuan Jing, Assistant Professor

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore

1. Method to describe flow properties

We can conceptualize a fluid domain as a collection of fluid particles, and each particle may
have its own velocity. Thus, a natural way to describe a flow is observing velocities of a
collection of fluid particles with fixed identities:

flow at time t  {qn (t )}, n  1, 2,3, 4,5,6,....? (1)

where qn (t ) is the velocity of n-th particle at time t. We call this way of description:

“Lagrangian description: following individual fluid particles as they move about and determine
how the fluid properties (e.g. velocity) associated with these particles change as a function of
time.”

The Lagrangian description requires us to identify a fluid particle and always follow it. This is
very difficult to do, since we have to track a huge number of particles simultaneously to describe
the entire flow.

Alternatively, we can observe velocity at a fixed point (x,y,z) in space as a function of time t.
Namely, if a fluid particle A is located at (x,y,z) at the instant t1, its velocity is the observation at
t1. At another instant t2, another fluid particle B is located at (x,y,z), so its velocity is the
observation at t2. Since the fluid can be treated as a continuum (continuum hypothesis), it is
ensured that for any value of (x,y,z,t) an observation of velocity can be obtained. As you can see,
we are not taking about the velocity of a tagged particle, but the velocity of various particles that
pass through a fixed point in space at various instants of time. Thus, the velocity is “freed” from
particles. Following this way to define velocity, we can describe the flow by using the field
representation that “at a given instant in time t, a description of fluid properties (e.g. velocity)
can be given as a function of spatial coordinate “(x,y,z)”:

flow at time t  q ( x, y, z, t ),{x, y, z} fluid body (2)

This description is called:

“Eulerian description: prescribe fluid properties as functions of space and time”.

To help you understand the difference between Lagrangian and Eulerian descriptions, I provide
you an illustration example: a tracer tagged on a migration bird vs. a velocity-measuring camera
located on the path of bird’s migration. The tracer always measures the velocity of the tagged
bird, but the velocity-measuring camera measures the velocities of all birds passing through its
sampling point. The former follows the Lagrangian description and the later follows the Eulerian
description.

The Eulerian description makes it possible to use Calculus and Continuum Mechanics to study
fluid mechanics, so it is the foundation for fluid mechanics. However, you do not get something
for nothing. Because many physics laws, including the Newton’s laws, are stated in the
Lagrangian manner, some translation is needed to state these laws in the Eulerian manner. We
will see this soon.

Based on the Eulerian-described velocity we can do the following flow classifications.

Steady/unsteady flows

For steady flows, velocity is not a function of time, but for unsteady flow, the time dependence
exists:

Steady: velocity  q ( x, y, z )
Unsteady: velocity  q ( x, y, z, t )

1D/2D/3D flows

This classification depends on how many spatial variables is needed to describe the velocity field:

1D: velocity  q ( x, t )
2D: velocity  q ( x, y, t )
3D: velocity  q ( x, y, z, t )

Example for 1D flow is the ideal flow in a long and straight pipe. Example for 2D flow is the
flow passing through a very long wing with uniform cross section. Example for 3D flow is the
flow passing through a football.
2. Acceleration field

The Newton’s second law is based on the lagrangian description, i.e. it identifies an object
(particle), studies the forces on it and then determines the particle’s acceleration. We surely want
to use the Newton’s second law to study fluid dynamics, so we need to express the acceleration
of a fluid particle using the Eulerian description of velocity, which does not follow a particular
particle. Intuitively, you will think about taking the time derivative of the velocity field, because
this is the conventional definition of acceleration, but this is wrong.

Let us think about the flow in a circular pipe of which the cross-section area gradually decreases
in the flow direction, as shown in Figure 1. Due to mass conservation and the narrowing of the
pipe, the velocity increases in the downstream direction. We assume the flow is steady, so at any
point the time derivative is zero, which seems to indicate no acceleration. However, the velocity
of a fluid particle will increases as the particle moves downstream. This clearly suggests that the
fluid particle experiences certain acceleration. This “paradox” is because we want to obtain a
Lagrangian-described rate of change for an Eulerian-described physical quantity, i.e. velocity is
Eulerian-described, but the rate of change for velocity, i.e. acceleration, is “tagged” to a fluid
particle, so it is Lagrangian-described. Therefore, more effort is required to obtain the
acceleration field.

Figure 1 Steady flow in a circular pipe with gradually decreasing cross-section area

As shown in Figure 2, a fluid particle initially (t=t1) located at (x1, y1, z1) moves to a new location
(x2, y2, z2) at (t=t2). Assume the time interval is infinitesimally small, so we can write:
  t  t2  t1
 x  x2  x1
 y  y2  y1
 z  z2  z1

The flow velocity is a function of (x, y, z, t), so we can use the Taylor-series expansion evaluated
at (x1, y1, z1, t1) to express the velocity at (x2, y2, z2, t2):

q q q q
q ( x2 , y2 , z2 , t2 )  q ( x1 , y1 , z1 , t1 )   t   x   y   z  ... (3)
t x y z

Here all derivatives are evaluated at (x1, y1, z1, t1), and the higher order terms of the Taylor series
is neglected. Thus, the acceleration is:

q ( x2 , y2 , z2 , t2 )  q ( x1 , y1 , z1 , t1 ) q q  x q  y q  z
a ( x1 , y1 , z1 , t1 )      (4)
t t x  t y  t z  t

Notice that:

x y z
 u1 ,  v1 ,  w1
t t t

Thus:

q q q q
a ( x1 , y1 , z1 , t1 )   u1  v1  w1
t x y z

We can drop the subscript “1” to get the acceleration:

q q q q
a ( x, y, z, t )  u v w (5)
t x y z

Eq. (5) gives the acceleration of a fluid particle that happens to be at (x,y,z,t).

For brevity, here we define an operator:

D( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
 "Total or Material derivative"  u v w (6)
Dt t x y z

It means the rate of change of a fluid property (in this case is velocity) carried by the fluid
particle located at (x, y, z, t). Although we derive the total derivative based on acceleration, it can
also be used for obtaining the rate of change of other fluid properties (temperature, energy)
carried by the fluid particle located at (x, y, z, t). The total derivative is the sum of the following
two components:

( )
 : local derivative, i.e. the rate of change taking place at the fixed location (x, y, z).
t
This term is zero for steady flow.

( ) ( ) ( )
 u v w : The convective derivative, i.e. the rate of change associated with
x y z
the particle moving to a new location where conditions (here velocity) has changed
relative to the original location. Note that this is why we have acceleration for the steady
flow in Figure 1.

Eq. (5) is in vector form. The xyz-component form is:

u u u u
ax  u v w
t x y z
v v v v
ay   u  v  w (7)
t x y z
w w w w
az  u v w
t x y z

Figure 2 Velocity and position of a particle moving after Δt

3. Streamlines

Assume that we have obtained the velocity field, but how can we present this graphically to
someone else? Streamline is defined to do so. A streamline is a line that at given instant of time
has the local velocity vector as its tangent at any point along the line. By definition, it therefore
follows that:

ds  infinitesimal element along the streamline=(dx, dy, dz )

(8)
 q ( s, t )  (u, v, w)

or:

dx dy dz
  (9)
u v w

Figure 3 Illustration of a streamline

From the definition, we can see that two stream lines can never cross each other. Otherwise,
there are two directions for the velocity at the intersection.

A velocity field can be represented by a set of streamline. The spacing between neighboring
streamlines indicates the magnitude of local velocity, while the local tangent of a streamline
indicates the direction of local velocity.

It is not easy to obtain streamlines, but there are some circumstances for 2D flows that a
streamline can be easily drawn. First, the free-surface is usually a streamline, since the water
particles must move tangential to the free surface. Otherwise, you will see water particles
popping up and down on the free surface. For the same reason, the solid-fluid interface is also a
streamline, since fluid particles cannot entire the solid. A typical example is shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4 2-dimensional open-channel flow through a flood gate (the red dashed line is a
streamline. It follows the free-surface along the streamline and then turned 90 degree to follow
the water-gate boundary. Finally it follows the downstream free surface again. The horizontal
bottom is also a streamline, since it is a water-solid interface).

Stream tube

A stream tube is a virtual tube of which the tube boundaries are formed by streamlines, as shown
in Figure 5. Since the velocity along a streamline is always tangential to the streamline, no
normal component, q , is possible along the boundaries, so no inflow or outflow across the tube
boundaries is possible. We arbitrarily take two cross sections perpendicular to the streamlines as
the inflow and outflow areas, and apply the conservation of volume to the control volume formed
by the tube boundaries and the two cross sections (see lecture note 5):

VCV VCV
  (q  n )dS  0   Qin  Qout  0 (10)
t SCV t

If the flow is steady:

Qin  Qout  Q (11)

Thus, the average velocity at any cross section is:

Q
V (12)
A

V is larger where A is smaller and vice versa.

A typical stream tube is a pipe, i.e. the velocity at the pipe’s boundary must be tangential to the
surface.

Figure 5 Stream tube

For 2-dimensional flow, two neighboring streamlines make a stream tube, so the discharge
between the two neighboring streamlines is unchanged. Consequently, the local velocity is
higher where the spacing between streamlines is smaller, as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6 Streamlines and velocity

Visualization of streamline for steady flow: Streaklines and Pathlines

A streamline only virtually exists, so we need to rely on some experimental technique to

visualize it. For unsteady flow, such technique is usually unavailable, but for steady flow we can.
If the flow is steady, the velocity vector at any point does not vary with time, so the stream line is
independent of time. Since a particle on a streamline always move tangential to the line, it will
follow a path (pathline) equal to the streamline. The pathline can be visualized by introducing a
small and light weight particle into the flow, and the trajectory of it given by some tracing
technique is the pathline. It can be easily seen that for steady flow the particles that passing
through the same point will take the same path. Therefore, we can continuously introduce dye at
a fixed point, and the streak of the dye is called the streakline. More generally, the streaklines are
the locus of points of all the fluid particles that have passed continuously through a particular
spatial point in the past. For steady flow, streakline will be a visualization of both the pathline
and the streamline.

You should always remember that the pathline and the streakline can be visualizations of the
streamline only if the flow is steady!