Falling Ball Viscometer

Abhishek Suman
Department of Energy Science and Engineering
IIT Bombay
Learning Objective
• Determination of viscosity of liquid by using falling ball viscometer
Required background
Phenomena involve in falling ball viscometer

Fd, air

V=0 V=V_terminal
Fg Fb Fd, liq 𝐹! − 𝐹" − 𝐹#,%&' = 0
𝐹! = 𝑚𝑔
Fb Fd, liq 𝜋 (
𝐹" = 𝑑 𝜌𝑔
6
1
Fg 𝐹# = 𝜌𝑉 ) 𝐴 𝐶#
2
Stokes flow (Re <<1) past a small sphere
24
Fg 𝐶# =
𝑅𝑒
Governing equations
Continuity equation:
∇. 𝑉 = 0
Navier-stokes flow equation for Newtonian fluid:

𝜕𝑉
𝜌 + 𝑉. ∇ 𝑉 = −∇𝑃 + 𝜌𝑔 + 𝜇∇! 𝑉
𝜕𝑡
Nondimensionalized Navier–Stokes:
# %&%!
𝑡 ∗ = 𝑓𝑡, 𝑉 ∗ = $ , ∇∗ = 𝐿∇, 𝑃∗ = %
" &%!

𝑓𝐿 𝜕𝑉 ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗
𝑃 − 𝑃' ∗ ∗ 𝑔𝐿 ∗ 𝜇
+ 𝑉 . ∇ 𝑉 = − ∇ 𝑃 + 𝑔 + ∇∗! 𝑉 ∗
𝑈 𝜕𝑡 ∗ 𝜌𝑈 ! 𝑈! 𝜌𝑈𝐿

𝜕𝑉 ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗
1 ∗
1 ∗! ∗
𝑆𝑡 + 𝑉 . ∇ 𝑉 = − 𝐸𝑢 ∇ 𝑃 + 𝑔 + ∇ 𝑉
𝜕𝑡 ∗ 𝐹𝑟 ! 𝑅𝑒

Order of magnitude analysis:

0 + 1 = − ≫ 1 .1 + ≫ 1 .1 + ≫ 1 .1

Momentum equation:
0 = −∇𝑃 + 𝜌𝑔 + 𝜇∇) 𝑉

0 = 𝐹 𝐵𝑢𝑜𝑦𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑦 + 𝐹(𝐺𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦) + 𝐹(𝑉𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑠)

𝑉 = 𝑣! 𝑟, 𝜃 , 𝑣" 𝑟, 𝜃 , 0

1 𝜕𝜓
𝑣! 𝑟, 𝜃 = 𝑉𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃 = #
𝑟 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 𝜕𝜃

1 𝜕𝜓
𝑣" 𝑟, 𝜃 = −𝑉𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 = −
𝑟𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 𝜕𝑟
At r~∞, stream function
𝑉 # #
𝜓= 𝑟 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝜃
2
Approximate solution
Variable separable form
𝜓 𝑟, 𝜃 = 𝑠𝑖𝑛# 𝜃𝑓(𝑟)

2𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃𝑓(𝑟)
𝑣! 𝑟, 𝜃 = −
𝑟#

𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 𝜕𝑓
𝑣" 𝑟, 𝜃 =
𝑟 𝜕𝑟
#
$! #
Continuity equation: − 𝑓 = 0 ……………………….................................................................(1)
$! ! !!
Boundary conditions:
At r=𝑟% , 𝑣! =0 and 𝑣" =0 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………...(2)
&! !
At r → ∞, 𝑓 = …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….(3)
#
Approximate solution
Solution of the equation (1)
𝐴
𝑓 𝑟 = + 𝐵𝑟 + 𝐶𝑟 # + 𝐷𝑟 '
𝑟
From boundary condition (2) and (3), we get

𝑉𝑟% ( 3 𝑉
𝐴= , 𝐵 = − 𝑉𝑟% , 𝐶 = 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐷 = 0
4 4 2
Now,
𝑉𝑟 ( 3 𝑉
# %
𝜓 𝑟, 𝜃 = 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝜃 − − 𝑉𝑟% 𝑟 +
4𝑟 4 2

𝑟% ( 3𝑟% 𝑟% ( 3𝑟%
𝑣! = 𝑉𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃 1 + ( − and 𝑣" = −𝑉𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 1 − ( −
2𝑟 2𝑟 4𝑟 4𝑟
Pressure and stress
Pressure distribution (from momentum equation)
3𝜇𝑉𝑟% 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃
𝑃 𝑟, 𝜃 = 𝑝) −
2𝑟 #
Stress:
3 𝜇𝑉
𝜏!! = −𝑝 + 𝜎!! = 𝑝) + 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃
2 𝑟%

3 𝜇𝑉
𝜏!" = 𝜎!" =− 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃
2 𝑟%
Total stress:
3 𝜇𝑉
𝜏 = 𝜏!! 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃 − 𝜏!" 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 = 𝑝)𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃 +
2 𝑟%
Drag Force
Drag force:
#+ +

𝐹* = Y Y 𝜏, 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃𝑟% 𝑑𝜑𝑑𝜃
% %

𝐹* = 6𝜋𝜇𝑟% 𝑉
Drag coefficient:
𝐹* 24
𝐶- = =
1 #
𝜌𝑉 𝐴 𝑅𝑒
2
Experimental procedure and sample
calculation
Observation table:
Sl Diameter of Length of the Time taken to travel Terminal Viscosity
no. sphere tube (L) distance L velocity
(V=L/∆t)
m m s m s-1 m2 s-1
1
2
3
4
5
Avg.
SD
Error propagation
Random error
a a a
𝑥` 𝜕𝜐 𝑥b 𝜕𝜐 𝑥c 𝜕𝜐
𝑅_ = 𝑢` + 𝑢b + 𝑢c
𝜐 𝜕𝑥` 𝜐 𝜕𝑥b 𝜐 𝜕𝑥c