The relationship between a fluid’s

dynamic viscosity and temperature

Physics High Level Internal Assessment

Introduction
Viscosity is a well-known concept, as practically everyone is able to tell a liquid is more
viscous than another one. Tar is more viscous than oil. Oil is more viscous than water. I
got particularly interested in this concept when, on a normal morning, I wanted to have
a toast with honey for breakfast. Accidentally I had putted the honey in the fridge the
previous day. The honey was so viscous that I was unable to take any off the jar. I asked
myself how does viscosity work at a molecular level and how does temperature
influence this?

Background Knowledge
To be more precise, viscosity could be defined as the measure of the resistance to flow
in a fluid in motion. This resistance is caused by the particles sliding pass each other in
order to flow, as well as those particles having to slide with the static walls of the
container, making them go slower than those further apart from the wall. This would be
a graph for velocity against distance from the wall:

For most fluids the relationship between the shear stress and the slope of the velocity
profile is linear. This constant of proportionality is what we call dynamic viscosity, which
can be expressed with the following equation:
𝑑𝑢
𝜏 =µ
𝑑𝑦

This is Newton’s Law of Viscosity, and fluids that follow this proportionality are called
Newtonian fluids.
From the equation we can see the unit for dynamic viscosity is pascal-seconds, usually
shortened to poise (P), although the centipoise (cP) is more commonly used due to the
viscosity of water at room temperature being 1 cP.
Research question:
“How does temperature affect a fluid’s dynamic viscosity?”

Hypothesis
When temperature increases molecular motion increases as well as the molecular
interchange. We can therefore deduce that the more the particles move, the easier they
flow, causing them to reduce their viscosity. We can initially make the supposition that
with an increase in temperature dynamic viscosity will reduce.

Apparatus
• Graduated cylinder
• A marble (5.12g, 1.08cm)
• A stopwatch
• A Bunsen burner
• A fridge
• 500 ml of water
• 500 ml of olive oil
• 500 ml of honey
[Photos of the apparatus]

Methodology
The experiment will consist in 5 steps:
1. Introduce the liquid in the graduated cylinder until it reaches exactly 500 ml.
2. Heat or cool the liquid until it reaches the desired temperature.
3. Drop the marble from exactly the surface of the liquid.
4. Measure the time it takes for the marble to reach the bottom of the cylinder.
5. Repeat steps 1-4 with the 3 different liquids and 5 times for each temperature.
The fluids that I chose for the experiment are water, olive oil and honey, mainly due to
the broad difference in viscosity: water – 1 cP; olive oil – 107.5 cP; honey – 10,000 cP.
Each fluid will be heated with a Bunsen burner and cooled in a fridge. Temperature will
be measured with a thermometer. The temperature samples we will use are: 0℃, 10℃,
20℃, 30℃ and 40℃.
To measure the time taken for the marble (the same marble will be used throughout all
the experiment) to fall to the bottom of the graduated cylinder. This graduated cylinder
will be filled with a volume of 500 ml of the different fluids.
 Risk assessment
One of the main risks for the scientific veracity of the experiment is the fact that time
will be measured by eyesight. With water especially this will be an issue as the time it
will take for the marble to go through water will most surely be extremely small,
requiring lots of precision and an accurate reaction time.
Another risk related to the previous point is that the marble is going to be thrown by
hand, therefore lots of care has to be taken in not influencing the speed of the marble
by accidentally throwing it instead of simply letting it fall.
Another risk is that temperature does not distribute homogeneously throughout the
whole liquid. To solve this issue, I will stir the liquid with the thermometer to try to get
the temperature to evenly distribute in the liquid.
Finally, there is a chance that when heating up the different liquids a certain amount of
volume might evaporate, but I do think it will be negligible when collecting the data.

Data
Time taken (s)
Temp. (ºC) Water Oil Honey
60 Trial 1 – Trial 2 – Trial 3 – Trial 1 – Trial 2 – Trial 3 – Trial 1 – Trial 2 – Trial 3 –
0.145 0.144 0.153 0.129 0.132 0.126 0.255 0.214 0.248
Avg. – 0.147 Avg. – 0.129 Avg. – 0.239
50 Trial 1 – Trial 2 – Trial 3 – Trial 1 – Trial 2 – Trial 3 – Trial 1 – Trial 2 – Trial 3 –
0.159 0.161 0.166 0.143 0.146 0.151 0.325 0.341 0.350
Avg. – 0.162 Avg. – 0.147 Avg. – 0.339
40 Trial 1 – Trial 2 – Trial 3 – Trial 1 – Trial 2 – Trial 3 – Trial 1 – Trial 2 – Trial 3 –
0.214 0.188 0.167 0.161 0.167 0.160 0.587 0.645 0.599
Avg. – 190 Avg. – 0.163 Avg. – 0.610
30 Trial 1 – Trial 2 – Trial 3 – Trial 1 – Trial 2 – Trial 3 – Trial 1 – Trial 2 – Trial 3 –
0.182 0.200 0.202 0.187 0.198 0.193 1.638 1.468 1.409
Avg. – 0.195 Avg. – 0.193 Avg. – 1.505
20 Trial 1 – Trial 2 – Trial 3 – Trial 1 – Trial 2 – Trial 3 – Trial 1 – Trial 2 – Trial 3 –
0.226 0.231 0.223 0.266 0.233 0.243 7.141 7.359 7.205
Avg. – 0.227 Avg. – 0.247 Avg. – 4.836

Modelling a function for the relationship

[…]
Conclusion
In conclusion, […]
An important observation that I had not predicted with my hypothesis is that, for
example, having honey a greater viscosity than water the decrease in its viscosity as the
temperature gets higher is also greater. Not only this, but the difference in their
viscosities also remains constant. For example, at 0℃ in water, the marble takes an
average of x seconds, while in honey it takes y seconds. At 10℃ in water, the marble
takes an average of z seconds, while in honey it takes w seconds. x multiplied by 10,000
equals y, while z multiplied by 10,000 equals w. This makes sense as this is the difference
between the viscosity of both liquids (1 cP and 10,000 cP) and you would expect this
difference to remain constant, but, nevertheless, I had not thought about it.