Pressure differences are (often) the forces that move fluids

Chapter 4

FLOWING FLUIDS AND

PRESSURE VARIATION

e.g., pressure is low at the center of a hurricane.

“For your culture”: The force balance for hurricanes is the
pressure force vs. the Coriolis force. Thatʼs why hurricanes
on the northern hemisphere always spin counter-clockwise.
In a tornado, the balance is between pressure force and
Fluid Mechanics, Spring Term 2011
centrifugal acceleration; a tornado can spin either way…

Lagrangian and Eulerian Descriptions of Fluid Motion For fluid mechanics, the more convenient description is
usually the Eulerian one:
Eulerian: Observer stays at a fixed point in space.
Lagrangian: Observer moves along with a given fluid particle.

We consider first the Lagrangian case. The position of a

fluid particle at a given time t can be written as a Cartesian
vector

For a complete description of a flow, we need to know

at every point. Usually one references each particle to its
initial position:
“For your Culture”: In solid mechanics, we often use Streamlines and Flow Patterns
Lagrangian methods. We donʼt need to follow “every particle”,
but just some small volumes.
Figure 4.3 (p. 84)

Streamlines are used for visualizing the flow. Several

streamlines make up a flow pattern.

When displacements get large (e.g. in fluid flow), the deforming A streamline is a line drawn through the flow field such that
grid gets problematic. But we sometimes use mixed the flow vector is tangent to it at every point at a given
approaches, e.g. Lagrangian tracers in a Eulerian frame. instant in time.

Uniform vs. Non-Uniform Flow

Examples of non-uniform flow:
Using s as the spatial variable along the path (i.e., along a
streamline):

Flow is uniform if

Examples of uniform flow:

a) Converging flow: speed increases along each

streamline.

b) Vortex flow: Speed is constant along each

Note that the velocity along different streamlines need streamline, but the direction of the velocity vector
not be the same! (in these cases it probably isnʼt). changes.
Steady vs. Unsteady Flow
Turbulent flow in a jet

For steady flow, the velocity at a point or along a

streamline does not change with time:

Any of the previous examples can be steady or unsteady,

depending on whether or not the flow is accelerating:

Turbulence is associated with intense mixing and unsteady flow.

Flow inside a pipe:

Flow around an airfoil:
Laminar Turbulent
Partly laminar, i.e.,
flowing past the object
in “layers” (laminae).

Turbulence forms
mostly downstream
from the airfoil.

(Flow becomes more

turbulent with Turbulent flow is nearly constant across a pipe.
increased angle of
attack.) Flow in a pipe becomes turbulent either because of high
velocity, because of large pipe diameter, or because of
low viscosity.
Methods for Developing Flow Patterns Pathline, Streakline, and Streamline
(i.e., finding the velocity field)
Important concepts in flow visualization:
Analytical Methods: The governing equations (mostly the
“Navier-Stokes” equation) are non-linear. Closed-form
In steady flows, all 3 are the same.
solutions to these equations only exist for special,
strongly simplified cases.
Pathline: The line (or path) that a given fluid particle
takes.
Computational Methods: The authors of the book seem
to feel that this is not overly useful. As a numerical
Streakline: The line formed by all fluid particles that have
modeler I disagree. For experimental methods, it is often
passed through a given fixed point.
difficult to find materials that scale properly to large scales
(e.g., entire oceans or the Earthʼs mantle).
Streamline: A continuous line that is tangent to the
velocity vectors everywhere along its path (at a given
Experimental Methods: Very useful for complicated flows,
moment in time).
especially flows that involve turbulence. While the
corrects physical laws are known, time and space
resolution make turbulence tricky in numerical models.

Acceleration: Normal and Tangential Components

Velocity can be written as:

where V(s,t) is the speed and

is a unit vector tangential
to the velocity.

The derivative of the speed is (since ds/dt = V):

xxxxx xxxxx

Streakline at t = t0 Streakline at t > t0

The time derivative of the unit vector is non-zero because the Acceleration in Cartesian Coordinates
direction of the unit vector changes. The centripetal This is probably one of the most fundamental concepts of
acceleration is the course, but it is not very intuitive!

so that the total acceleration becomes

or

From last page, we For a simpler example, letʼs look at the material
had derivative of temperature T in one dimension: T(x,t)

This derivative is called the full derivative or material At a given point x0, a change
derivative. in temperature can be
It is often written D/Dt instead of d/dt. caused by two different
It can apply to other quantities as well. mechanisms:
1) The temperature of the local fluid particle changes
(e.g., due to heat conduction, radioactive heating,
etc…): Mistake in notes!

2) All fluid particles keep their temperature, but the

velocity u brings a new particle to x0 which has a
different temperature:
The changes are called “local change” and “convective Example 4.1 (p. 94): Find the acceleration half-way
change” (the convective change is also called “advective through the nozzle
change”)
Velocity is given as
= local temperature change

= local acceleration in x

= convective temperature change

= convective acceleration in x Taking the x-derivative of u, and multiplying it times u gives:

Just plug in the values and x = 0.5L to get the answer…

Lagrangian reference frame:

In the Lagrangian frame (moving along with a fluid

particle), there is no convective acceleration. Because
youʼre staying with a given particle, no other particle can
come in and bring with it a different velocity.

Eulerian:
Note that conservation laws naturally apply in the
Lagrangian frame:
A conserved quantity such as total energy E remains
The convective terms may be seen as a correction due to constant in a given material volume.
the fact that new particles with different properties are An Eulerian observer sees different material volumes
moving into our observation volume. flow past, each of them possibly with different E.
Eulerʼs Equation

Eulerʼs equation is Newtonʼs 2nd Law applied to a

continuous fluid.
Recall Newtonʼs 2nd law for a particle (balance in l-direction):

This law is fundamental and thus also applies to fluid particles:

(There may be additional forces…)

Now we shrink the fluid element to Uniform acceleration of a tank of liquid (Fig. 4.13)

(partial derivative since p may be a

function of other coord.s and time)

and so that

Horizontal balance:

Eulerʼs equation
(force balance in Vertical balance: (hydrostatic!)
a moving fluid)
 Derivation of the Bernoulli Equation: Recall what we just did to get the Bernoulli equation:

Start with Eulerʼs equation applied along a pathline: 1) Assume steady flow (donʼt apply this to anything else!)
2) Integrate forces (per volume) along a pathline.

Assume steady flow ( ); all s-derivatives are

now full derivatives.
• The integral of force along a distance gives us energy:
• Note that the velocity term is the kinetic energy per unit
volume.
• Also note that energy / volume has same units as
pressure.
Integrating with respect to s, we get • The kinetic energy / volume is also known as kinetic
pressure.
Bernoulliʼs eqn. • Along a streamline in steady, inviscid flow, the sum of
piezometric pressure plus kinetic pressure is constant.

Application of the Bernoulli Equation: Stagnation Tube

From the geometry of the flow we know (we observe or else
we just assume; we havenʼt really derived this) that at both
points there is no vertical acceleration. The vertical balance
is thus hydrostatic:

Apply to points 1 and 2

(same depth z):

Point 2 is a stagnation point

(velocity is zero)

The stagnation tube is a simple device for measuring velocity.

Notice that we had to Pitot tube:
have a free surface at the
top of the fluid. Look carefully; the Pitot tube is
really 2 tubes in 1.
If the flow is in a
pressurized pipe, we If we know the static pressure
donʼt know whether the at point 1 and the dynamic
piezometric head pressure at point 2, we have
measured by l is due to all we need to find the velocity.
static pressure in the pipe
or due to flow. For more details see the book,
p. 102.
Hence the Pitot tube…

Rotation and Vorticity

Rotation of fluid element in flow between moving and
stationary parallel plates

You can think of the “cruciforms” as small paddle wheels

that are free to rotate about their center.

Rotation of a fluid element in a rotating tank of fluid If the paddle wheel rotates, the flow is rotational at that
(solid body rotation). point.
 The net rate of
rotation of the
bisector is

As

And similarly

The rotation rate we just found was that about the z-axis; The property more frequently used is the vorticity
hence, we may call it

and similarly

The rate-of-rotation vector is

Irrotational flow requires (i.e., for all 3 components)

 Vortices
Vortex with irrotational flow (free vortex):
A vortex is the motion of many fluid particles around a common
center. The streamlines are concentric circles.

Choose coordinates such that z is perpendicular to flow.

In polar coordinates, the vorticity is (see p. 112 for details)

(V is function of r, only)

Solid body rotation (forced vortex):

or A paddle wheel does not rotate

in a free vortex!

Forced vortex (interior) and We can find the pressure variation in different vortices
(letʼs assume constant height z):
free vortex (outside):
In general:
Good approximation to
naturally occurring
vortices such as 1) Solid body rotation:
tornadoes.

Eulerʼs equation for

any vortex:

2) Free vortex (irrotational):

Application to forced vortex (solid body rotation):

with

Pressure as function of
z and r

p = 0 gives free surface