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Continuum Hypothesis

Fluid mechanics makes basic assumptions about materials, including conservation of mass, energy, and momentum, as well as the continuum hypothesis. The continuum hypothesis treats fluids as continuous, ignoring that they are made of discrete molecules, instead defining properties at infinitesimally small reference volumes. This hypothesis can lead to approximate solutions, so statistical mechanics is used for problems where the mean free path of molecules is comparable to physical length scales.

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943 views

Continuum Hypothesis

Fluid mechanics makes basic assumptions about materials, including conservation of mass, energy, and momentum, as well as the continuum hypothesis. The continuum hypothesis treats fluids as continuous, ignoring that they are made of discrete molecules, instead defining properties at infinitesimally small reference volumes. This hypothesis can lead to approximate solutions, so statistical mechanics is used for problems where the mean free path of molecules is comparable to physical length scales.

Uploaded by

S.h. Fahad Fiaz
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Like any mathematical model of the real world, fluid mechanics makes some basic assumptions

about the materials being studied. These assumptions are turned into equations that must be
satisfied if the assumptions are to be held true. For example, consider an incompressible fluid in
three dimensions. The assumption that mass is conserved means that for any fixed closed surface
(such as a sphere) the rate of mass passing from outside to inside the surface must be the same as
rate of mass passing the other way. (Alternatively, the mass inside remains constant, as does the
mass outside). This can be turned into an integral equation over the surface.
Fluid mechanics assumes that every fluid obeys the following:

Conservation of mass

Conservation of energy

Conservation of momentum

The continuum hypothesis, detailed below.

Further, it is often useful (at subsonic conditions) to assume a fluid is incompressible that is,
the density of the fluid does not change. Liquids can often be modelled as incompressible fluids,
whereas gases cannot.
Similarly, it can sometimes be assumed that the viscosity of the fluid is zero (the fluid is
inviscid). Gases can often be assumed to be inviscid. If a fluid is viscous, and its flow contained
in some way (e.g. in a pipe), then the flow at the boundary must have zero velocity. For a
viscous fluid, if the boundary is not porous, the shear forces between the fluid and the boundary
results also in a zero velocity for the fluid at the boundary. This is called the no-slip condition.
For a porous media otherwise, in the frontier of the containing vessel, the slip condition is not
zero velocity, and the fluid has a discontinuous velocity field between the free fluid and the fluid
in the porous media

Continuum Hypothesis In Fluid Mechanics:


Fluids are composed of molecules that collide with one another and solid objects. The
continuum assumption, however, considers fluids to be continuous. That is, properties such as
density, pressure, temperature, and velocity are taken to be well-defined at "infinitely" small
points, defining a REV (Reference Element of Volume), at the geometric order of the distance
between two adjacent molecules of fluid. Properties are assumed to vary continuously from one

point to another, and are averaged values in the REV. The fact that the fluid is made up of
discrete molecules is ignored.
The continuum hypothesis is basically an approximation, in the same way planets are
approximated by point particles when dealing with celestial mechanics, and therefore results in
approximate solutions. Consequently, assumption of the continuum hypothesis can lead to
results which are not of desired accuracy. That said, under the right circumstances, the
continuum hypothesis produces extremely accurate results.
Those problems for which the continuum hypothesis does not allow solutions of desired
accuracy are solved using statistical mechanics. To determine whether or not to use conventional
fluid dynamics or statistical mechanics, the Knudsen number is evaluated for the problem. The
Knudsen number is defined as the ratio of the molecular mean free path length to a certain
representative physical length scale. This length scale could be, for example, the radius of a body
in a fluid. (More simply, the Knudsen number is how many times its own diameter a particle will
travel on average before hitting another particle). Problems with Knudsen numbers at or above
unity are best evaluated using statistical mechanics for reliable solutions.

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