Objectives

CHAPTER 2

Fluid Characteristics
and Behavior

General Behavior
Weight (W)
The gravitational force applied to a body.

W = mg

Where:
m = mass of body (kg)
g = gravitational acceleration
= 9.81 m/s2 or 32.174 ft/s2

Student should be able to:

i.
Define and determine the fluid properties such as:
Weight
Mass
Density
Specific Gravity
Specific Weight
Specific Volume
Absolute Viscosity
Kinematic Viscosity
ii. Determine the liquid behavior:
Surface tension
Capillary effect

General Behavior
Mass (m)
Amount of matter in an object.
Unit in kg

Unit in kg.m/ s2 or Newton (N)

General Behavior
Density ()
Mass per unit volume

m
mass
kg

3
V volume m

Unit in kg/m3
Density of gas depends on temperature and pressure.
Density of liquid depends more strongly on
temperature than pressure.

General Behavior
The gas constant R is different for each gas and is
determined from
R = Ru/M
Where,
Ru = universal gas constant
= 8.314 kJ/kmol.K
= 0.287 kPam3/kg.K
M = Molecular weight

General Behavior
Density of ideal gases
Equation of State: equation for relationship between
pressure, temperature and density.

or

P = RT

Where:
P = absolute pressure (kPa)
= specific volume (m3/kg)
= density (kg/m3)
T = absolute temperature (K)
T(K) = T(C) + 273.15
R = gas constant

P
RT

General Behavior
Specific gravity (SG) or relative density
The ratio of the density of a substance to the density of
some standard substance at a specified temperature
(usually water at 4C, rH20 = 1000 kg/m3).

SG

H 2O

SG is dimensionless quantity.

General Behavior
Specific weight ()
Weight per unit volume

General Behavior
Specific volume ()
Volume per unit mass

W Weight mg

g
V Volume V

where:
= density (kg/m3)
g = gravitational acceleration (m/s2)
Unit in N/m3.

Check your understanding

Q: Determine the density, specific gravity and
mass of the air in a room whose dimensions
are 4m x 5m x 6m at 100 kPa and 25 C.
(Rconstant = 0.287 kPa.m3/kg.K)

V volume 1

m
mass

Unit in m3/kg

General Behavior
Shear Stress and Fluid Motion
Fluids move under influence of applied shear
The shear stress on the plate is:

F
A
y

u + du

Increasing
fluid
velocity
u

ux

Stationary surface

General Behavior
Shear Stress and the concepts of Viscosity
Fluid flowing past a stationary surface consist of many
layers.
Layer of liquid at the surface is static, ux = 0 and layer
velocity increase with distance y above the surface.
Velocity gradients means fluid layers slide or move relative
to each other.
Molecular forces and random movement across layers will
produces shear stress, between layers.
Magnitude of shear stress related to rate change of layer
velocity by

Viscosity is caused by
cohesive forces between
the molecules in liquid and
by the molecular collision
in gases, it varies greatly
with temperature.
The viscosity of liquids
decreases and the viscosity
of gases increases with
temperature.

Viscosity

Viscosity is a property that

represents the internal
resistance of a fluid to
motion.
The force a flowing fluid
exerts on a body in the flow
direction is called the drag
force, and the magnitude
of this force depends, in
part, on viscosity.

du
dy

General Behavior

General Behavior

General Behavior
Absolute / dynamic viscosity (m)
Shear force per unit area (or shear stress ) required to
drag one layer of fluid with unit velocity past another layer
a unit distance away.

shear stress

du dy velocity gradient

Force Area
Force Time

Velocity Distance
Area

Units in Nsm-2 or kgm-1s-1 or Pa.s or Poise (P)

General Behavior
Relationship between shear stress & velocity gradient

General Behavior
Kinematic Viscosity ()
The ratio of absolute viscosity to density.

v
The rate of deformation
(velocity gradient) is
proportional to shear
stress, and the constant
of proportionality is the
viscosity

Units in Stoke (St) or m2/s

(1 stoke = 1 cm2/s) = 0.0001 m2/s)

(velocity gradient)

Surface tension

Surface tension

Adhesion
The molecular attraction exerted between bodies in contact
(the forces between unlike molecules, such as water and
glass).

Cohesive force
The intermolecular attraction between like-molecules (the
forces between like molecules such as water and water).

Surface tension ()

Surface tension

Force per unit length at a

liquid-vapor or liquid-liquid
interface resulting from the
imbalance in attractive forces
among like liquid molecules at
the interface (cohesion).
Unit in N/m

Surface tension
Wetting behavior
a) Liquid which wets a solid surface well, e.g. water on a very
clean copper.
b) Partial wetting.
c) Liquid which does not wet a solid surface, e.g. water on teflon
or mercury on clean glass.

Surface tension
Angle () shown is the angle between the edge of the liquid
surface and the solid surface, measured inside the liquid.
Angle is called contact angle and is a measure of the quality
of wetting.

90
wets a solid surface well

= 180
Zero wetting

Capillary effect (h)

Capillary effect

The rise or fall of a liquid in a small-diameter tube.

Caused by surface tension and depends on the relative
magnitude of cohesion of the liquid and the adhesion of the
liquid to the walls of the containing vessel.

Capillary effect
Weight of liquid in column
W = mg = Vg = g(R2h)
Equating vertical component of surface tension to W
W = Fsurface
2
g(R h) = 2R cos

2 cos
Rg

Valid only for constant-diameter tubes

The curved free surface in the

tube is call the meniscus.
Water meniscus curves up
because water is a wetting
fluid.
Mercury meniscus curves
down because mercury is a
nonwetting fluid.

Capillary effect
The capillary rise is given by:

2 cos
Rg

Where:
= surface tension, N/m
= contact angle
= density of a liquid, kg/m3
g = gravitational acceleration, 9.81 m/s2
R = radius of tube, m
Unit in m.

Capillary effect

For nonwetting liquids, the contact angle > 90 and thus

cos < 0, therefore h will have negative value which
correspond to a capillary drop.
Capillary rise is inversely proportional to the radius of the
tube, therefore the thinner the tube, the greater the rise
(fall) of the liquid in the tube. Capillary effect is negligible in
tube with diameter > 1.
Capillary also inversely proportional to the density of the
liquid, therefore lighter liquids experience greater capillary
rise.

Check your understanding

Q: A 0.6 mm diameter glass tube is
inserted into water at 20 C in a
cup. Determine the capillary rise
of water in the tube.(H2O at 20
C = 0.073 N/m)