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Bernoulli's Equation
Bernoulli's Equation
Bernoulli's Equation
The Bernoulli
equation states that,
where
Although these restrictions sound severe, the Bernoulli equation is very useful, partly
because it is
very simple to use and partly because it can give great
insight into the balance between pressure,
velocity and elevation.
Pressure/velocity variation
Consider the steady, flow of a constant density fluid in a converging
duct, without losses due to
friction (figure 14). The flow
therefore satisfies all the restrictions governing the use of Bernoulli's
equation. Upstream and downstream of the contraction we make the one-dimensional assumption
that the
velocity is constant over the inlet and outlet areas and parallel.
These two observations provide an intuitive guide for analyzing fluid flows, even when the
flow is
not one-dimensional. For example, when fluid passes over a solid body, the
streamlines get closer
together, the flow velocity increases, and the pressure
decreases. Airfoils are designed so that the
flow over the top surface is faster than over
the bottom surface, and therefore the average
pressure over the top surface is less than
the average pressure over the bottom surface, and a
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Example 1
Example 3
Suppose a ball is spinning clockwise as it travels through the air from left to right The forces acting
on the spinning ball would be the same if it
was placed in a stream of air moving from right to left,
as
shown in figure 15.
A thin layer of air (a boundary layer) is forced to spin with the ball
because of viscous friction. At A
the motion due to spin is opposite to that of the
air stream, and therefore near A there is a region of
low velocity where the pressure
is close to atmospheric. At B, the direction of motion of the
boundary layer is the
same as that of the external air stream, and since the velocities add, the
pressure in
this region is below atmospheric. The ball experiences a force acting from A to B,
causing its path to curve. If the spin was counterclockwise, the path would
have the opposite
curvature. The appearance of a side force on a spinning sphere or
cylinder is called the Magnus
effect, and it well known
to all participants in ball sports, especially baseball, cricket and tennis
players.
The stagnation or total pressure, p_0, is the pressure measured at the point where the fluid
comes to rest. It is the highest pressure
found anywhere in the flowfield, and it occurs at the
stagnation point. It is the sum of
the static pressure
(p_0), and the dynamic pressure measured
far upstream. It is called
the dynamic pressure because it arises from the motion of the fluid.
The dynamic pressure is not really a pressure at all: it is simply a convenient name
for the quantity
(half the density times the velocity squared), which represents the decrease
in the pressure due to
the velocity of the fluid.
We can also express the pressure anywhere in the flow in the form of a non-dimensional pressure
coefficient C_p, where
At the stagnation point C_p = 1, which is its maximum value. In the freestream, far from
the plate,
C_p = 0.
Pitot tube
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