CHBE422: Fluid Mechanics

Math Review

Prof. Panos Dimitrakopoulos

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Bioengineering Graduate Program
University of Maryland, College Park

Math Review

• Review of your background on Vector Calculus

• Review of your background on Ordinary Differential Equations

Linear ODEs with constant coefficients
Euler-Cauchy ODE

• Wilkes: Chapter 5.1-5.4, Appendix A & C, Class Notes

This Friday Discussion, 1:00 - 1:50pm

 Math Review: Vector Calculus

• Dot product of two vectors

X
3 X
3
a·b= ai bi = am b m = b · a
i=1 m=1

• Vector magnitude |a| = |a · a|1/2

• Kronecker delta
8
< 1 if i = j
δij =
: 0 if i != j

Scalars, Vectors and Tensors

• A scalar f (x, y, z) is a physical quantity represented only by its magnitude.

Examples are hydrostatic pressure and temperature.

• A vector u(x, y, z) is a physical quantity represented by its magnitude and direction.

Examples are position, force and velocity. A vector has three components,
i.e. u = (ux , uy , uz ) or simply ui where the index i shows the direction.

• What is a tensor?
The extension of a scalar (dimension=0) or a vector (dimension=1) to higher dimensions
Example: the second-order tensor of fluid stress σ(x, y, z) or σij
At each point (x, y, z) of a fluid, the first index i describes the surface while the second
index j describes the force per area on this surface.

We can also define a third-order τijk or a forth-order tensor ηijkm

but we do not need them for this class.

More on tensors when we define the fluid stress in class

 Vector Differential Operators

Functions of position: scalar f (x, y, z) vector u(x, y, z) tensor σ(x, y, z)

• Gradient or del ∇f = ( ∂f ∂f ∂f
∂x , ∂y , ∂z )

Thus treat ∇ as a vector defined by the equation above

∂ux ∂uy ∂uz

• Divergence ∇·u = ∂x + ∂y + ∂z

∂2f ∂2f ∂2f

• Laplacian ∇2 f = ∇ · ∇f = ∂x2 + ∂y 2 + ∂z 2

Above you can replace f with u or σ, and u with σ

Integral Transformations

• Divergence Theorem
Consider system with volume V and surface S
n

n is the unit normal on the surface out of the volume

Surface S

Z I Volume V

∇ · u dV = n · u dS
V S

rate of change of u in volume ≡ rate of change of u through surface

This theorem is used extensively in TP to move from the system’s volume to its
surface, and to convert the macroscopic balances into microscopic equations

Above you can replace the vector u with the tensor σ

 Operations with Tensors

• Vector (one dot) product of a tensor τ with a vector u

X
3 X
3
(τ · u)i = τik uk and (u · τ )i = uk τki
k=1 k=1

Note that τ · u != u · τ unless τ is symmetric

• Example: stress vector s on a surface with normal n

X
3 X
3
s=n·σ or si = nj σji = [if σ is symmetric ] = σij nj
j=1 j=1

X
3
∂τki
• Del operator (∇ · τ )i =
∂xk
k=1