Viscosity

1. Viscosity
2. GCSE definition – “Resistance to flow”
- “Backwards definition”
- Inadequate (qualitative rather than quantitative)
- Claims it is due to “larger molecules” – why?
3. Viscosity is “a measure of momentum transfer in a fluid”
- Given symbol μ or η, depending if you’re an engineer or a
chemist (IUPAC)
- Units are
- Kinematic viscosity takes into account density (used in momentum equa-
tions and such as the Navier-Stokes equations)
4. Introduction to laminar flow
- Way of modelling fluid flow
- Fluids flow in layers or “lamina” on top of each other
5. More accurate definition of velocity
- “Transfer of momentum” between these layers
in lamina flow
- Modelled by fluid flow between two plates
- Proportional to the area and the plate velocity but
inversely proportional to the distance (separation)
- The coefficient is the viscosity
- Similar to stress and strain in solids (Young’s
Modulus)
- Stress can be thought of as the “internal pres-
sure” of a material
- Strain can be thought of as the “deforma-
tion” of a material
- Caused by attractive force between mole-
cules as well as steric effects (molecules
getting in the way of each other)
- Dinner party analogy used to explain it

6. Different types of fluids

- Traditional “Newtonian” fluids are only one
of many categories of fluids – the rest are
“Non-Newtonian” fluids
- Bingham plastics act as rigid bodies at low stresses but
become viscous at high stresses e.g. mud flow in drilling engineering
 - Shear thinning fluids decrease their viscosity under shear strain e.g. poly-
mer solutions and suspensions such as paint and blood
- Shear thickening fluids (dilatants) increase their viscosity with shear strain is
what is commonly thought of as a non-Newtonian fluid e.g. corn starch and
water (oobleck)

7. Examples of common viscocities:

Name State 𝛍 (mPa･s)

Air Gas 0.0186

Hydrogen Gas 0.009

Blood Fluid 3-4

Honey Fluid 2000-10,000

Water Liquid 0.894

Sulfuric acid Liquid 24.2

Ethanol Liquid 1.074

Diallyldimethyl ammonium chloride Liquid 1000-20,000

(polyDADMAC)*

Granite Solid 40,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

*A ‘common’ coagulant – used in water purification and paper

making

8. Viscosity tends to decrease with temperature

-Weaker bonds so the molecules are further away and thus
there are weaker steric effects
-Molecules move faster
9. Viscosity of polymers is slightly more complicated!
- Display viscoelastic (shear thickening behaviour) so they can store energy in
a “hysteresis loop”
- Polymers have a “Stress relaxation time” where there is a decrease in stress
in response to a constant amount of strain in the material
- The “relaxation time” increases (approximately) as the square of chain
length up until the “entanglement length”, where the polymers are trapped
by the other polymers (like a gridlock!)
- An common analogy is a nest of snakes, as they have to slither around each
other – as a result this motion is called “reptation”
10. Fire hoses
 - 40 years ago the New York City Fire Department used polymers to lubricate
water so it travelled further out of the hose. Unfortunately, they claimed
the “slippery water” was too slippery as they complained about slipping on
puddles!
- A few parts per million of soluble polymers dramatically reduced the drag of
the water on the pipe
- This is surprising if one considers how impurities in metal crystalline struc-
tures make the resulting harder, whereas with fluids it seems the opposite
is true
- Examples of high molecular weight, straight chain molecules which display
this odd phenomenon are DNA, Xanthan gum and Polyox
11.Why does this happen?
- There is no widely accepted theory for why this occurs, but several models
have been proposed, most of which involve the laminarization of turbulent
flow – i.e. the molecules are acting as flow straighteners
- The yo-yo model suggests that the expansion and contraction of the long
molecules causing the eddies and vortices which characterise turbulent
flow to decay rapidly
- Another model proposes that they absorb the energy from turbulent flows
near the walls of the pipe and then release the energy as laminar flow
nearer the centre of the pipe
- Note- it is important to realise that this effect is only observed in turbulent
flows, as most of the solution’s
properties , including conven-
tional viscosity, are almost in-
dis- tinguishable from pure water.