Chapter 2

PROPERTIES OF FLUIDS

McGraw-Hill | KC22903 1
 Objectives
• Have a working knowledge of the basic properties of
fluids.
• Have a working knowledge of viscosity and its effect on
the classification of fluid.

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2–1 ■ INTRODUCTION
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 Criterion to differentiate intensive
per unit mass. and extensive properties.

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 Continuum
A fluid is made up of molecules that are
widely spaced, especially in the gas phase.
Yet it is convenient to view it as a
continuous, homogeneous matter with no
holes, that is, a continuum.

The continuum idealization allows us to

treat properties as point functions and to
assume the properties vary continually in
space with no jump discontinuities.

This idealization is valid as long as the size Despite the relatively large gaps
of the system is large relative to the space between molecules, a substance can
between the molecules. This is valid in be treated as a continuum because
most system. of the very large number of
molecules even in an extremely
small volume.
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2–2 ■ DENSITY AND SPECIFIC GRAVITY

Density Specific gravity: The ratio of the density of a

substance to the density of some standard
substance at a specified temperature (usually
water at 4°C).

Specific volume Specific weight: The weight of a unit volume of a

substance.

Density of most gases is proportional to pressure and inversely proportional to

temperature.

Density of liquids and solids depends more strongly on temperature than

pressure.
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 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.

gas constant The universal gas constant

or

For a fixed mass

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Temperature Scales
Kelvin scale: The thermodynamic temperature scale in the SI
system.
Rankine scale: The thermodynamic temperature scale in English
system.

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An ideal gas is a hypothetical substance that obeys the relation Pv = RT.

Generally, at low pressures and high temperatures, the density of a gas

decreases and the gas behaves like an ideal gas.

Air, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, helium, argon, neon, and 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.

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2–3 ■ VAPOR PRESSURE AND CAVITATION
During phase change, T and P are dependent properties for pure
substances.
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.

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Why do we need to know Pv?

Possibility of the liquid pressure in liquid flow systems dropping

below vapor pressure at some locations, resulting unplanned
vaporization.

The vapor bubbles (called cavitation bubbles since they form

“cavities” in the liquid) collapse as they are swept away from the
low-pressure regions, generating highly destructive, extremely high-
pressure waves.

This phenomenon, which is a common cause for drop in

performance and even the erosion of impeller blades, is called
cavitation, and it is an important consideration in the design of
hydraulic turbines and pumps.
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 Cavitation damage on aluminium

Question: The temperature of

water in a distribution system is
30C, determine the minimum
Cavitation on pump impeller (Hany AG) pressure to avoid cavitation.
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 2–4 ■ ENERGY AND SPECIFIC 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 (or e on unit mass basis) of a system.

Internal energy, U: The sum of all the microscopic forms of energy (related
to the molecular structure of a system).
In daily life, we frequently refer to the sensible and latent forms of internal
energy as heat. In engineering, however, those forms of energy are usually
referred to as thermal energy.

Kinetic energy, KE: The energy that a system possesses as a result of its
motion relative to some reference frame.

Potential energy, PE: The energy that a system possesses as a result of its
elevation in a gravitational field.
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Enthalpy P/ is the flow energy, also called the flow
work, which is the energy per unit mass
needed to move the fluid.

Total energy
of a flowing
fluid

The change in internal energy and enthalpy of an ideal gas can be determined as
specific heat:

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
for a const P process of the unit mass of a substance by one
degree as the pressure is maintained
constant.
for a const T process

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2–5 ■ COMPRESSIBILITY AND SPEED OF SOUND
Coefficient of Compressibility
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:
Coefficient of compressibility/the bulk modulus of elasticity 
Coefficient of volume expansion 
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 Coefficient of compressibility
(bulk modulus of compressibility or bulk modulus
of elasticity) for fluids

The coefficient of compressibility represents the change in pressure

corresponding to a fractional change in volume or density of the fluid while
the temperature remains 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, for example liquid.

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.

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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.

To quantify these effects, we need a property that represents the

variation of the density of a fluid with temperature at constant pressure.

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The coefficient of volume expansion (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:

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Speed of Sound and Mach Number
Speed of sound (sonic speed): The speed at which an infinitesimally small
pressure wave travels through a medium.
Mach number Ma, : Actual speed of the fluid to the speed of sound in the
same fluid.

𝑽
𝑴𝒂 =
𝒄

For any fluid For an ideal gas

= specific heat ratio

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2–6 ■ 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.

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 Newtonian fluids: Fluids for which
the rate of deformation (du/dy) is
proportional to the shear stress.

linear

 coefficient of viscosity or
The behavior of a fluid in laminar flow between dynamic (absolute) viscosity
two parallel plates when the upper plate moves
with a constant velocity, the lower plate is held [kg/ms or Ns/m2 or Pas]
fixed. 1 poise = 0.1 Pas

Shear stress :
Shear force

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 Which fluids have these characteristics??

Shear
thinning

Shear
thickening

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

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 Kinematic viscosity
m2/s or stoke
1 stoke = 1 cm2/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 pressure.
Some common correlations:
For gases

For liquids

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 The viscosity of a fluid is directly related to
the pumping power needed to transport a
fluid in a pipe or to move a body through a
fluid.

In a liquid, the molecules possess more

energy at higher temperatures, and they can
oppose the large cohesive intermolecular
forces. 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
temperatures move randomly at higher
velocities. This results in more collision and
The viscosity of liquids decreases and greater resistance to flow.
the viscosity of gases increases with
temperature.
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2–7 ■ SURFACE TENSION AND
CAPILLARY EFFECT
Liquid droplets behave like small balloons filled with the
liquid on a solid surface, and the surface of the liquid acts
like a stretched elastic membrane under tension.
The pulling force that causes this tension acts parallel to the
surface and is due to the attractive forces between the
molecules of the liquid.
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.

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Capillary Effect
Capillary effect: The rise or fall of a liquid in
a small-diameter tube inserted into the
liquid.
Capillaries: Such narrow tubes or confined
flow channels.

Meniscus: The curved free surface of a

liquid in a capillary tube.

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.

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