FLUIDS AND FLUID FLOW

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 Laminar and turbulent flows.

Fluids moving through pipes or around obstacles can flow in different ways. You may be
asked to identify, draw and describe both types of flow.

Laminar flow (or streamline flow) usually occurs at lower speeds and around more
streamlined objects. Laminar flow means flow in layers. The layers do not mix, except on
the molecular scale, so your drawings should not show streamlines crossing over. The
layers are roughly parallel. The speed and direction at any point remain constant over
time. There are no sudden changes in speed or direction along the streamlines either, so
do not draw sharply angled changes in direction when the lines flow around objects.

Turbulent flow is chaotic and subject to sudden changes in speed and direction – eddies
are frequently seen. There is a lot of large-scale mixing of layers, so you should include
lots of eddies.

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There may be situations where one type of flow changes to another, such as when a
laminar airflow passes around an obstacle and becomes turbulent.

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Stoke’s law

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Example 2

A table tennis ball of diameter 40 mm and mass 2.7 g is dragged through water of viscosity 0.001
N s m–2 at a speed of 5 m s–1. Calculate the viscous drag and comment on your answer.

radius = 40 mm/ 2 = 20 mm = 0.02 m

so viscous drag is

F = 6πηrv = 6 × π × 0.001 N s m–2 × 0.02 m × 5 m s–1 = 1.8 × 10–3 N

This is a very small force, much less than the weight of the ball, suggesting that the conditions
for Stokes’ law do not apply.

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Terminal velocity

An object in free fall motion experiences forces during its motion i.e weight (gravity)
downwards, viscous drag (upwards) and upthrust.

At the moment the object is released, the speed is zero

and viscous drag is also zero. The object accelerates downwards
due to its weight and upthrust. However, as the speed increases,
the viscous drag also increases causing the net force to decrease.
Although the acceleration is decreasing, the speed is increasing
because there is acceleration. This process continues until when
the speed reach a certain value so that the viscous drag is large
enough to balance the weight and upthrust. Then the net force
becomes zero and so do the acceleration. The speed will not change
anymore. This velocity is called the terminal velocity.

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EXERCISE

1. A sphere of mass 4.2 kg and volume 5.2 × 10–3 m3 is placed 1 m below the surface of a
liquid of density 1100 kg m–3.
a) Calculate the upthrust on the sphere.
b) Which way will it move?
c) Sketch the shape of the fluid flow just as the sphere starts to move.

2. Explain carefully the effect that an increase in temperature will have on the terminal
velocity of a small ball bearing falling through vegetable oil.

3. A toy helium balloon of radius 30 cm is released. The weight of the balloon is 0.17 N,
the upthrust is 0.18 N and the viscosity of the surrounding air is 1.8 × 10–5 N s m–2.
a) Sketch the forces acting.
b) Use this to help you find the terminal velocity using Stokes’ law.
c) Comment on your answer.

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 The slope of the graph is the stiffness.

The SI unit of stiffness is N m-1

Example

a) A spring has an extension of 20 cm when the applied force is 14 N. Find the spring constant.

b) Calculate the force to achieve an extension of 27 cm. State the assumption you make.

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 Solution

a) k = F/∆x = 14 N/0.2 m = 70 N m–1

b) F = k∆x = 70 N m–1 × 0.27 m = 19 N
This assumes that extension remains proportional to force for the new extension, i.e.
Hooke’s law is obeyed.

 If two springs are used in series, the effective stiffness constant of both of them
is less than either of them.

In fact, it can be worked out by the formula:  

1/Keq = 1/k1 + 1/k2

 If two springs are in parallel, their effective stiffness constant is greater:

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Force-extension graph for a rubber band

The work done in stretching rubber

up to extension x is equal to the
area under the loading curve.

The unloading curve is different

from its loading curve.

When the rubber is unloaded only

the energy equal to the area under
the unloading curve is returned.

The area between the two curves is

the energy transferred to internal
energy, due to which rubber band
becomes warmer.

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Example 2

A spring of original length 20 cm extends to 25 cm when a weight of 4N is hung from it.

Calculate:

(a) The elastic strain energy stored in the spring

(b) The spring constant
(c) The length of the spring when it is storing 0.5 J of energy.

Solution

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Force - extension graph
Some materials follow Hooke’s law up to a certain point. The point beyond which force is no
longer proportional to extension is called the proportionality limit. The region between the
origin and the proportionality limit is called the liner region. For spring and many materials,
there is a short further region where the behavior is still elastic (they return to their original
lengths when the force is removed). This region ends at the elastic limit. After the elastic limit,
further force produces permanent deformation, which means that after removing the force they
can’t return to their original lengths.

This is also called the plastic deformation.

Stress, strain and Young Modulus

Stiffness of a spring measures how hard it is to produce extension on a spring. It is dependent on
the material that the spring is made of and the dimensions of the spring.
We now want to introduce a quantity that measures how hard it is to produce extension for a
certain material. In other words, we want this quantity to be a property of the material and to be
independent on its geometrical dimensions. To do this, I firstly wish you to know the two terms
stress and strain.
Stress σ is defined as the force divided by cross section area, that is:

Stress has units N m–2 or Pa (pascal is also the unit of pressure, since pressure is also force/area).

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There are three types of stress, tensile stress (also called tensional stress), compressive stress
(also called compressional stress) and shear stress. Fig below shows the difference between
them.

A material may break if the stress caused by a tension or compression is too big. The tensile
stress at which a material fails is called tensile strength. The compressive stress at which a
material fails is called compressive strength of the material.

Strain ε is the relative extension, that is:

Strain has no units, as it is the ratio of two lengths.

Similar to the Hooke’s law which states that force is proportional to extension, in many
materials, stress is proportional to strain. The proportionality constant is called Young Modulus.
The letter E is used to denote Young Modulus.
It’s written in mathematical form as:

The unit of Young modulus is N m-2 or pascal (Pa).

Young Modulus is a quantity that is similar to the spring constant (stiffness) of a spring as it also
measures how difficult it is to produce an extension. The difference is that:
Young Modulus is a property of material and is not dependent on the dimensions of a particular
sample. Anything made from the same material have the same Young Modulus, regardless of
their shape or length. We can see this from the definition of Young Modulus.

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The purpose of dividing the force by cross section area while defining stress and dividing
extension by original length while defining strain is to eliminate the influence of the dimensions
of the sample.

Stress - strain graphs

A stress - strain graph is a very convenient tool to describe characteristics of a solid material.
Figure below shows such a graph for a metal.

The stress - strain graph is similar to the force - extension graph. The gradient of the linear part
of the stress-strain graph is equal to Young Modulus of the material.

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Some important points and regions on the graph you should be familiar with are:

 Proportionality limit: before this point, stress is proportional to strain; after this point,
stress-strain graph is no longer linear.

 Elastic limit: before this point, the material behaviors elastically, which means that it
will return to its original shape if the stress is removed; after this point, the material
behaviors plastically, which means that it can’t return to its original shape if the stress is
removed.

 Yield point: after this point, it seems that the material gives up “fighting against” the
stress. Even a very small increase of stress causes a big increase of strain. In other words,
the gradient of the graph becomes much smaller after this point.

 Linear region: the region before the proportionality limit.

 Elastic region: the region before the elastic limit.

 Plastic region: the region after the elastic limit.

While solving exam problems, it is often difficult to locate the elastic limit on the stress-strain
graph. But do not worry about this, as long as you label the elastic limit somewhere between
proportionality limit and yield point, you will get the mark.

How to measure the Young modulus

The apparatus used to measure the Young modulus is shown in the diagram below.

Increase the force applied to a long, thin wire by adding masses of known weight.

Measure the diameter of the wire with a micrometer screw gauge, remembering to measure at
different positions and in different planes, and find a mean value.

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Measure the original length, from the clamp to the marker, with a metre rule, and then measure
the increase in this length (the extension) using a fixed scale as the force is changed.

Plot a graph of force against extension, and find the gradient, F/∆x. This is multiplied by the
original length/cross-sectional area to find the Young modulus.

Where: e is the extension in m

A is the cross-sectional area of wire in m2

l is the original length

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