Session 4: Viscosity and No-Slip Boundary Condition

1- Viscosity
Viscosity (μ) is the resistance of a fluid (liquid or gas) to a change in shape, or movement of
neighboring portions relative to one another.

2- No-Slip Boundary Condition

In fluid dynamics, the no-slip boundary condition for viscous fluids assumes that at a solid
boundary, the fluid will have zero velocity relative to the boundary.

The existence of solid wall next to the fluid flow causes to generate shear stress (τ) in the flow. The
shear stress leads to alter the magnitude of fluid velocity in different levels. Each fluid level with
respect to its adjacent level can have a velocity difference with the value of δu. Therefore, the shape
of fluid element changes as below.

1
As can be seen in the figure above, the magnitude of shear stress in fluids is proportional to the rate
of angular strain as,
𝜕𝜃
𝜏∝
𝜕𝑡

In other hand, we see from the figure that,

𝜕𝑢𝜕𝑡
tan(𝛿𝜃) =
𝜕𝑦

For small angles, tan (δθ) = δθ, thus

𝜕𝑢𝜕𝑡 𝛿𝜃 𝜕𝑢
𝛿𝜃 = ⇒ =
𝜕𝑦 𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑦

Therefore, the shear stress can be proportional to the velocity gradient for the Newtonian fluids as

𝜕𝑢
𝜏∝
𝜕𝑦

The constant of proportionality is the viscosity as

𝜕𝑢
𝜏=𝜇
𝜕𝑦

2
Conclusion
The viscosity causes to the no-slip boundary condition and also velocity difference in the levels
adjacent the solid wall.