Chapter 2: Fluid Properties

Fluid Mechanics: Fundamentals and Applications

2nd EDITION
Yunus A. Cengel, John M. Cimbala
McGraw-Hill, 2010

Fluid properties
 Property: Any characteristic of a system.
 Some familiar properties are pressure P,
temperature T, volume V, and mass m.
 Properties are considered to be either
intensive or extensive.
 Intensive properties: Those that are
independent of the mass of a system,
such as temperature, pressure, and
density.
 Extensive properties: Those whose
values depend on the size—or extent—of
the system.
 Specific properties: Extensive
properties per unit mass. Criterion to differentiate intensive
and extensive properties.

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Density and specific gravity
Density

Specific volume

Specific gravity: The ratio of

Specific weight: the density of a substance to
The weight of a unit volume of a the density of some standard
substance. substance at a specified
temperature (usually water at
4°C).

Density of ideal gases

 Equation of state: Any equation that relates the pressure,
temperature, and density (or specific volume) of a substance.
 Ideal-gas equation of state: The simplest and best-known
equation of state for substances in the gas phase.

 Ru: The universal gas constant, M: Molecular weight

 Equation called the ideal-gas equation of state, or simply the
ideal-gas relation, and a gas that obeys this relation is called an
ideal gas.
 For an ideal gas of volume V, mass m, and number of moles N,
the ideal-gas equation of state

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Ideal gas
 An ideal gas is a hypothetical substance that obeys the relation Pv
= RT.
 The ideal-gas relation closely approximates the P-v-T behavior of
real gases at low densities.
 At low pressures and high temperatures, the density of a gas
decreases and the gas behaves like an ideal gas.
 In the range of practical interest, many familiar gases such as air,
nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, helium, argon, neon, and krypton and
even heavier gases such as carbon dioxide can be treated as ideal
gases with negligible error.
 Dense gases such as water vapor in steam power plants and
refrigerant vapor in refrigerators, however, should not be treated as
ideal gases since they usually exist at a state near saturation.

Problem

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Vapor pressure and cavitation
 Saturation temperature Tsat: The temperature at which a
pure substance changes phase at a given pressure.
 Saturation pressure Psat: The pressure at which a pure
substance changes phase at a given temperature.
 Vapor pressure (Pv): The pressure exerted by its vapor in
phase equilibrium with its liquid at a given temperature. It is
identical to the saturation pressure Psat of the liquid (Pv =
Psat).
 Partial pressure: The pressure of a gas or vapor in a
mixture with other gases. For example, atmospheric air is a
mixture of dry air and water vapor, and atmospheric
pressure is the sum of the partial pressure of dry air and the
partial pressure of water vapor.

Vapor pressure and cavitation

The vapor pressure (saturation

pressure) of a pure substance
(e.g., water) is the pressure
exerted by its vapor molecules
when the system is in phase
equilibrium with its liquid
molecules at a given temperature.

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Vapor pressure and cavitation
 There is a possibility of the liquid pressure in
liquid-flow systems dropping below the vapor
pressure at some locations, and the resulting
unplanned vaporization.
 The vapor bubbles (called cavitation
bubbles since they form “cavities” in the
liquid) collapse as they are swept away from
Cavitation damage on a 16-
the low-pressure regions, generating highly
mm by 23-mm aluminum
destructive, extremely high-pressure waves. sample tested at 60 m/s for
 This phenomenon, which is a common cause 2.5 h. The sample was
for drop in performance and even the erosion located at the cavity
collapse region downstream
of impeller blades, is called cavitation, and it
of a cavity generator
is an important consideration in the design of
specifically designed to
hydraulic turbines and pumps. produce high damage
potential.

Problem
In a water distribution system, the temperature of
water is observed to be as high as 30°C. Determine
the minimum pressure allowed in the system to avoid
cavitation.

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Energy and specıfıc heats
 Energy can exist in numerous forms such as thermal,
mechanical, kinetic, potential, electric, magnetic, chemical,
and nuclear, and their sum constitutes the total energy, E of
a system.
 Macroscopic forms of energy: Those a system possesses
as a whole with respect to some outside reference frame,
such as kinetic and potential energies.
 Microscopic forms of energy: Those related to the
molecular structure of a system and the degree of the
molecular activity.
 Internal energy, U: The sum of all the microscopic forms of
energy.

Energy and specıfıc heats

At least six different forms of energy are encountered in bringing

power from a nuclear plant to your home, nuclear, thermal, kinetic,
mechanical, magnetic, and electrical.

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Energy and specıfıc heats

The internal energy u represents the microscopic energy

of a non-flowing fluid per unit mass, whereas enthalpy h
represents the microscopic energy of a flowing fluid per
unit mass.
Enthalpy:
Total energy for compressible fluid

Energy of flowing fluid:

P/ is the flow energy, also called the flow work,

which is the energy per unit mass needed to move
the fluid and maintain flow.

Specific heats
Specific heat at constant volume, cv: The energy required
to raise the temperature of the unit mass of a
substance by one degree as the volume is maintained
constant.
Specific heat at constant pressure, cp: The energy
required to raise the temperature of the unit mass of a
substance by one degree as the pressure is
maintained constant.

Constant-volume and constant-pressure specific

heats cv and cp(values are for helium gas).

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Compressibility and speed of sound
Coefficient of Compressibility
We know from experience that the volume (or
density) of a fluid changes with a change in its
temperature or pressure.
Fluids usually expand as they are heated or
depressurized and contract as they are cooled or
pressurized.
But the amount of volume change is different for
different fluids, and we need to define properties
that relate volume changes to the changes in
pressure and temperature.
Two such properties are: Fluids, like solids,
the bulk modulus of elasticity  compress when the
the coefficient of volume expansion  . applied pressure is
increased from P1 to P2.

Coefficient of compressibility (also called the bulk modulus of

compressibility or bulk modulus of elasticity) for fluids

(1)
The coefficient of compressibility represents the fractional change in
volume or density corresponding to a change in pressure of the fluid
while the temperature remains constant.
What is the coefficient of compressibility of a truly incompressible
substance (v = constant)?
A large value of  indicates that a large change in pressure is needed to
cause a small fractional change in volume, and thus a fluid with a large 
is essentially incompressible.
This is typical for liquids, and explains why liquids are usually considered
to be incompressible.

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Water hammer: Characterized by a sound that resembles
the sound produced when a pipe is “hammered.” This
occurs when a liquid in a piping network encounters an
abrupt flow restriction (such as a closing valve) and is
locally compressed.
The acoustic waves that are produced strike the pipe
surfaces, bends, and valves as they propagate and reflect
along the pipe, causing the pipe to vibrate and produce
the familiar sound.
Water hammering can be quite destructive, leading to
leaks or even structural damage. The effect can be
suppressed with a water hammer arrestor.

Water hammer arrestors: (a) A large surge tower

built to protect the pipeline against water hammer
damage. (b) Much smaller arrestors used for
supplying water to a household washing machine.

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The coefficient of compressibility of an ideal gas is equal to its
absolute pressure, and the coefficient of compressibility of the gas
increases with increasing pressure.

The percent increase of density of an ideal gas during isothermal

compression is equal to the percent increase in pressure.
Isothermal compressibility: The inverse of the coefficient of
compressibility.
The isothermal compressibility of a fluid represents the fractional
change in volume or density corresponding to a unit change in
pressure.

Coefficient of volume expansion

The density of a fluid depends more strongly
on temperature than it does on pressure.
The variation of density with temperature is
responsible for numerous natural
phenomena such as winds, currents in
oceans, rise of plumes in chimneys, the
operation of hot-air balloons, heat transfer by
natural convection, and even the rise of hot
air and thus the phrase “heat rises”.
To quantify these effects, we need a property
Natural convection over a
that represents the variation of the density of
woman’s hand.
a fluid with temperature at constant pressure.

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The coefficient of volume expansion (or volume expansivity): The
variation of the density of a fluid with temperature at
constant pressure.

A large value of  for a fluid means a large change in

density with temperature, and the product  T
represents the fraction of volume change of a fluid that
corresponds to a temperature change of T at constant
pressure.

The volume expansion coefficient

of an ideal gas (P = RT ) at a
temperature T is equivalent to the
inverse of the temperature:

The coefficient of volume expansion

is a measure of the change in
volume of a substance with
temperature at constant pressure.

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The combined effects of pressure and temperature
changes on the volume change of a fluid can be
determined by taking the specific volume to be a function
of T and P.

The fractional change in volume (or density) due to

changes in pressure and temperature can be expressed
approximately as

The variation of the coefficient of volume

expansion of water with temperature in the
range of 20°C to 50°C.

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Problem
Consider water initially at 20°C and 1 atm. Determine
the final density of water (a) if it is heated to 50°C at
a constant pressure of 1 atm, and (b) if it is
compressed to 100-atm pressure at a constant
temperature of 20°C. Take the isothermal
compressibility of water to be alpha=4.80x10-5 atm-1.

Solution

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Viscosity
Viscosity: A property that represents the internal resistance of a fluid to
motion or the “fluidity”.
Drag force: The force a flowing fluid exerts on a body in the flow
direction. The magnitude of this force depends, in part, on viscosity

The viscosity of a fluid is a measure of its “resistance to

deformation.”
Viscosity is due to the internal frictional force that develops
between different layers of fluids as they are forced to move
relative to each other.

A fluid moving relative to a

body exerts a drag force on
the body, partly because of
friction caused by viscosity.

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 Newtonian fluids: Fluids for
Viscosity which the rate of deformation is
proportional to the shear
stress.

Shear
stress

The behavior of a fluid in laminar flow Shear force

between two parallel plates when the
upper plate moves with a constant
velocity.
 coefficient of viscosity
Dynamic (absolute) viscosity
kg/m  s or N  s/m2 or Pa  s
1 poise = 0.1 Pa  s

Viscosity

The rate of deformation (velocity Variation of shear stress with the

gradient) of a Newtonian fluid is rate of deformation for Newtonian
proportional to shear stress, and and non-Newtonian fluids (the
the constant of proportionality is slope of a curve at a point is the
the viscosity. apparent viscosity of the fluid at
that point).

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 Kinematic viscosity
m2/s or stoke and 1 stoke = 1cm2/s
For liquids, both the dynamic and kinematic
viscosities are practically independent of
pressure, and any small variation with
pressure is usually disregarded, except at
extremely high pressures.
For gases, this is also the case for dynamic
viscosity (at low to moderate pressures),
but not for kinematic viscosity since the
density of a gas is proportional to its Dynamic viscosity, in
pressure. general, does not depend
on pressure, but
For gases
kinematic viscosity does.

For liquids

Viscosity is caused by the cohesive forces

between the molecules in liquids and by
the molecular collisions in gases, and it
varies greatly with temperature.
In a liquid, the molecules possess more
energy at higher temperatures, and they
can oppose the large cohesive
intermolecular forces more strongly. As a
result, the energized liquid molecules can
move more freely.
In a gas, the intermolecular forces are
negligible, and the gas molecules at high
The viscosity of liquids decreases temperatures move randomly at higher
and the viscosity of gases velocities. This results in more molecular
increases with temperature. collisions per unit volume per unit time
and therefore in greater resistance to flow.

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 The variation of
dynamic (absolute)
viscosity of common
fluids with temperature
at 1 atm
(1 Ns/m2
= 1 kg/ms
= 0.020886 lbfs/ft2)

Viscosity

L length of the cylinder

𝑛̇ number of revolutions per unit
time

This equation can be used to calculate the viscosity of a

fluid by measuring torque at a specified angular velocity.
Therefore, two concentric cylinders can be used as a
viscometer, a device that measures viscosity.

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Problem
The viscosity of a fluid is to be measured by a
viscometer constructed of two 40-cm-long concentric
cylinders (Fig.). The outer diameter of the inner cylinder
is 12 cm, and the gap between the two cylinders is 0.15
cm. The inner cylinder is rotated at 300 rpm, and the
torque is measured to be 1.8 Nm. Determine the
viscosity of the fluid.

Solution

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Surface tension
 At the interface between a liquid and a
gas, or between two immiscible liquids,
forces develop in the liquid surface which
cause the surface to behave as if it were a
“skin” or “membrane” stretched over the
fluid mass.
 It is due to the unbalanced cohesive
Interior molecules -
forces acting on the liquid molecules at
surrounded by molecules
the fluid surface.
that are attracted to each
 A tensile force acts parallel to the surface other equally.
and is due to the attractive forces Surface molecules along
between the molecules of the liquid. the surface are subjected
to a net force toward the
interior.

Surface tension

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 Surface tension
 The magnitude of this force per unit length is
called surface tension (or coefficient of
surface tension) and is usually expressed in
the unit N/m.
 This effect is also called surface energy [per
unit area] and is expressed in the equivalent
unit of N  m/m2.
 Drop of blood forms a hump on a horizontal glass;
 Drop of mercury forms a near-perfect sphere and Some consequences of
can be rolled just like a steel ball over a smooth surface tension: (a) drops
surface; of water beading up on a
leaf, (b) a water strider
 Water beads up into small drops on flower petals sitting on top of the
surface of water.

The free-body
diagram of half a
droplet or air
bubble and half a
soap bubble.

Surface tension acts along the

circumference and the pressure acts on
the area, horizontal force balances for the
droplet and the bubble give

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Stretching a liquid film with a U-shaped wire,
and the forces acting on the movable wire of
length b.

Effect of pressure and temperature

The surface tension of a liquid, in general, decreases with
temperature and becomes zero at the critical point (and thus
there is no distinct liquid–vapor interface at temperatures
above the critical point). The effect of pressure on surface
tension is usually negligible.

Effect of impurities
The surface tension of a substance can be changed considerably by
impurities. Therefore, certain chemicals, called surfactants, can be
added to a liquid to decrease its surface tension. For example,
soaps and detergents lower the surface tension of water and enable
it to penetrate through the small openings between fibers for more
effective washing. But this also means that devices whose operation
depends on surface tension (such as heat pipes) can be destroyed
by the presence of impurities due to poor workmanship.

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 We speak of surface tension for liquids only at liquid–
liquid or liquid–gas interfaces. Therefore, it is important to
specify the adjacent liquid or gas when specifying surface
tension.
 Surface tension determines the size of the liquid droplets
that form.
 A droplet that keeps growing by the addition of more
mass will break down when the surface tension can no
longer hold it together.
 This is like a balloon that will burst while being inflated
when the pressure inside rises above the strength of the
balloon material.

Capillary effect
Capillary effect: The rise or fall of a liquid in a small-
diameter tube inserted into the liquid.
Capillaries: Narrow tubes or confined flow channels.
The capillary effect is partially responsible for the rise of
water to the top of tall trees.
Meniscus: The curved free surface of a liquid in a capillary
tube.

The meniscus of colored water

in a 4-mm-inner-diameter glass
tube. Note that the edge of the
meniscus meets the wall of the
capillary tube at a very small
contact angle.

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Capillary effect

The strength of the capillary effect

is quantified by the contact (or
wetting) angle, defined as the
angle that the tangent to the liquid
surface makes with the solid
surface at the point of contact.
The contact angle for
wetting and non-wetting
fluids.

Microscopic origin
The phenomenon of capillary effect can be explained microscopically by
considering cohesive forces (the forces between like molecules, such as
water and water) and adhesive forces (the forces between unlike
molecules, such as water and glass). The liquid molecules at the solid–
liquid interface are subjected to both cohesive forces by other liquid
molecules and adhesive forces by the molecules of the solid. The relative
magnitudes of these forces determine whether a liquid wets a solid
surface or not. Obviously, the water molecules are more strongly
attracted to the glass molecules than they are to other water molecules,
and thus water tends to rise along the glass surface. The opposite occurs
for mercury, which causes the liquid surface near the glass wall to be
suppressed

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The capillary rise of water The forces acting on a
and the capillary fall of liquid column that has risen
mercury in a small- in a tube due to the
diameter glass tube. capillary effect.

 The magnitude of the capillary rise in a circular tube can

be determined from a force balance on the cylindrical
liquid column of height h in the tube.

 The weight of the liquid column is approximately

 Equating the vertical component of the surface tension

force to the weight gives

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Problem

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 (Fig.).

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Solution

Thank You

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