TECHNICAL ENGLISH

FLUIDS
FLUIDS
In this chapter, we introduce the subject of fluids engineering and its
role in applications as diverse as aerodynamics, biomedical and
biological engineering, piping systems, microfluidics, and sports
engineering. The study of fluids, which are classified as either liquids
or gases, is further broken down into the areas of fluid statics and
dynamics. Mechanical engineers apply the principles of fluid statics
to calculate the pressure and buoyancy force of fluids acting on
stationary objects, including ships, tanks, and dams. Fluid dynamics
refers to the behavior of liquids or gases when they are moving or
when an object is moving through an otherwise stationary fluid.

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Source: An introduction to Mechanical Engineering, Jonathan Wickert, Kemper Lewis, 2013
Hydrodynamics and aerodynamics are the specializations focusing on
the motions of water and air, which are the most common fluids
encountered in engineering. Those fields encompass not only the
design of high-speed vehicles but also the motions of oceans and the
atmosphere. Some engineers and scientists apply sophisticated
computational models to simulate and understand interactions
among the atmosphere, oceans, and global climates. The motion of
fine pollutant particles in the air, improved weather forecasting, and
the precipitation of raindrops and hailstones are some of the key
issues that are addressed. The field of fluid mechanics is an exacting
one, and many advances in it have occurred in conjunction with
developments in applied mathematics and computer science.

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Source: An introduction to Mechanical Engineering, Jonathan Wickert, Kemper Lewis, 2013
 Hydrodynamics and aerodynamics are the specializations focusing on
the motions of water and air, which are the most common fluids
encountered in engineering.

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Source: An introduction to Mechanical Engineering, Jonathan Wickert, Kemper Lewis, 2013
88% of the electricity in the United States is produced by a process
that involves continuously cycling water between liquid and steam,
and back again. Coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear fuels are used to
heat water into steam, which in turn drives turbines and electrical
generators. Another 7% of America’s electricity is produced by
hydroelectric power plants, and wind power provides a smaller
fraction still. As we will explore later in Section 7.7, collectively
speaking, over 98% of the electricity in the United States is produced
through processes that involve fluids engineering in one form or
another. The properties of fluids, the forces they generate, and the
manner in which they flow from one location to another are key
aspects of mechanical engineering.
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The forces generated by stationary or moving fluids are important to
the hardware designed by mechanical engineers. Up to this point, we
have considered mechanical systems where the forces arise from
gravity or the interactions between connected components. Forces
are also generated by liquids and gases, and in this chapter we will
examine the fluid forces known as buoyancy, drag, and lift. As shown
in Figure 6.3, mechanical engineers apply sophisticated computer-
aided engineering tools to understand complex airflows around
aircraft and automobiles. In fact, those same methods have been
applied to design golf balls capable of longer flight and to help ski
jumpers, racing cyclists, marathon runners, and other athletes
improve their performances.
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Source: An introduction to Mechanical Engineering, Jonathan Wickert, Kemper Lewis, 2013
2. Properties of Fluids
Although you already have some intuition as to the behavior and
properties of fluids in everyday situations, we begin this chapter with
a seemingly simple question: From an engineering standpoint, what
exactly is a fluid? Scientists categorize compositions of matter in
different ways. A chemist classifies materials according to their
atomic and chemical structures in the context of the periodic table of
elements. An electrical engineer might group materials according to
the manner in which they respond to electricity—as conductors,
insulators, or semiconductors. Mechanical engineers often categorize
substances as being either solids or fluids. The technical distinction
between the two centers on how they behave when forces are
applied to them.
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In Chapter 5, we saw how the behavior of a solid material is
described by a stress–strain curve. A rod that is made of an elastic
solid will satisfy Hooke’s law [Equation (5.4)], and its elongation will
be proportional to the force acting on it. When a tension,
compression, or shear force is applied to a solid object, it usually
deforms by a small amount. As long as the yield stress has not been
reached, a solid material will spring back to its original shape once
the force has been removed.

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A fluid, on the other hand, is a substance that is unable to resist a shear force
without continuously moving. No matter how small, any amount of shear stress
applied to a fluid will cause it to move, and it will continue to flow until the force
is removed. Fluid substances are further categorized as being either liquids or
gases, and the distinction here depends on whether the fluid easily can be
compressed (Figure 6.4). When forces are applied to a liquid, the volume does
not change appreciably, even though the liquid may move and change its shape.
For the purposes of most engineering applications, a liquid is an incompressible
fluid. The hydraulic systems that control flight surfaces in aircraft, power off-road
construction equipment, and control automotive brakes develop their large
forces by transmitting pressure from the liquid hydraulic fluid to pistons and
other actuators. Gases, the second category of fluids, have molecules that
separate from one another widely in order to expand and fill an enclosure. A gas
can be easily compressed, and, when it is compressed, its density and pressure
increase accordingly.
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Source: An introduction to Mechanical Engineering, Jonathan Wickert, Kemper Lewis, 2013
A fluid, on the other hand, is a substance that is unable to resist a shear force
without continuously moving. No matter how small, any amount of shear stress
applied to a fluid will cause it to move, and it will continue to flow until the force
is removed.

When forces are applied to a liquid, the volume does not change appreciably,
even though the liquid may move and change its shape. For the purposes of most
engineering applications, a liquid is an incompressible fluid.

Gases, the second category of fluids, have molecules that separate from one
another widely in order to expand and fill an enclosure. A gas can be easily
compressed, and, when it is compressed, its density and pressure increase
accordingly.

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Source: An introduction to Mechanical Engineering, Jonathan Wickert, Kemper Lewis, 2013
The primary difference between a solid and a fluid is the manner in which
each behaves when subjected to a shear force. Figure 6.5(a) depicts a
thin layer of fluid that is being sheared between a stationary surface and
a flat plate that is moving horizontally. The plate is separated from the
surface by a small distance, and the fluid between them might be a thin
layer of machine oil. When a force is applied to the upper plate, it will
begin to slide over and shear the oil layer. A fluid responds to shear stress
by a continuous motion that is called a flow. As an analogy, place a deck
of playing cards on a tabletop, and as you press your hand against the top
of the deck, also slide your hand horizontally [Figure 6.5(b)]. The
uppermost card moves with your hand, and the lowermost card sticks to
the table. The playing cards in between are sheared, with each one
slipping slightly relative to its neighbors. The oil layer in Figure 6.5(a)
behaves in a similar manner.
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Source: An introduction to Mechanical Engineering, Jonathan Wickert, Kemper Lewis, 2013
A fluid layer is also sheared between two surfaces when a puck slides
over an air-hockey table, an automobile tire hydroplanes over water
on a road’s surface, and a person takes a plunge down a water slide.
In the field of computer data storage, the read/write head in a hard
disk drive (Figure 6.6) floats above the surface of the rotating disk on
a thin film of air and liquid lubricant. In fact, the air layer between the
read/write head and the disk is an important part of the hard disk
drive’s design, and without it, rapid wear and heating of the
recording head and the magnetic medium would prevent the product
from functioning reliably.

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Source: An introduction to Mechanical Engineering, Jonathan Wickert, Kemper Lewis, 2013
Experimental evidence shows that, for the majority of engineering
applications, a condition called no-slip occurs at the microscopic level
between a solid surface and any fluid that is in contact with it. A fluid
film, which might be only several molecules thick, adheres to the
solid’s surface, and the remaining fluid moves relative to it. In the
case of the oil film of Figure 6.5(a), the no-slip condition implies that
the lowermost bit of fluid will be stationary, and the uppermost
element of fluid will move at the same speed as the adjacent plate.
As we look across the thickness of the oil film, each layer of fluid
moves at a different speed, with the velocity of the oil changing
gradually across its thickness

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Source: An introduction to Mechanical Engineering, Jonathan Wickert, Kemper Lewis, 2013
When the upper plate in Figure 6.7 slides over the fluid layer at
constant speed, it is in equilibrium in the context of Newton’s second
law of motion. The applied force F is balanced by the cumulative
effect of the shear stress

exerted by the fluid on the plate. The property of a fluid that

enables it to resist a shear force by developing steady motion is
called viscosity. This parameter is a physical property of all gases
and liquids, and it measures the stickiness, friction, or resistance of a
fluid. When compared to water, honey and maple syrup, for
instance, have relatively high viscosity values.

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All fluids have some internal friction, and experiments show that, in
many cases, the magnitude of the shear stress is directly
proportional to the plate’s sliding velocity. Those substances are
called Newtonian fluids, and they satisfy the relation

The parameter µ (the lowercase Greek character mu) is called the

fluid’s viscosity, and it relates the fluid’s shear stress to the plate’s
speed. For Equation (6.2) to be dimensionally consistent, we can see
that viscosity has the units of mass/(length-time).

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Source: An introduction to Mechanical Engineering, Jonathan Wickert, Kemper Lewis, 2013
In both the SI and USCS, the numerical values for µ are generally
small. Because the viscosity property arises frequently in fluids
engineering, a special unit called the poise (P) was created and
named in recognition of the French physician and scientist Jean
Poiseuille (1797–1869), who studied the flow of blood through
capillaries in the human body. The poise is defined as

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The forces known as buoyancy, drag, and lift arise when fluids
interact with a solid structure or vehicle. Discussed in Sections 6.6
and 6.7, drag and lift forces arise when there is relative motion
between a fluid and a solid object. A vehicle can either move through
the fluid (as an aircraft moves through air, for instance) or the fluid
can flow around the structure (such as a gust of wind impinging on a
skyscraper). However, forces between fluids and solid objects can
arise even if there is no relative motion. The force that develops
when an object is simply immersed in a fluid is called buoyancy, and
it is related to the weight of the fluid displaced.

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Source: An introduction to Mechanical Engineering, Jonathan Wickert, Kemper Lewis, 2013
The weight of a quantity of fluid is determined by its density ρ (the lowercase
Greek character rho) and volume. The weight of a volume V of fluid is given by
the expression

where g is the gravitational acceleration constant of 9.81 m/s2.

The pressure in a liquid or gas increases with depth. Referring to the beaker of
liquid shown in Figure 6.10, the difference in pressure p between levels 0 and 1
arises because of the intervening liquid’s weight. With the two levels separated
by depth h, the weight of the liquid column is w = ρgAh, where Ah is the enclosed
volume. By using the free body diagram of Figure 6.10, the equilibrium-force
balance of the liquid column shows that the pressure at depth 1 is

The pressure grows in direct proportion to the depth and the density of the fluid.
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Similar to stress in Chapter 5, pressure has the dimensions of force per-unit-
area. In the SI, the unit of pressure is the pascal (1 Pa = 1 N/m2), named
after the seventeenth-century scientist and philosopher Blaise Pascal, who
conducted chemical experiments involving air and other gases.

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When ships are docked in port and hot air balloons hover above the ground,
they are subjected to the buoyancy forces created by the surrounding fluid.
As shown in Figure 6.11, when a submarine is submerged and floating at a
steady depth, the net force on it is zero since the (upward) buoyancy force
balances the submarine’s weight. The buoyancy force FB equals the weight
of fluid displaced by an object according to the equation

where ρ represents the fluid’s density, and V is the volume of fluid displaced
by the object.

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Source: An introduction to Mechanical Engineering, Jonathan Wickert, Kemper Lewis, 2013
4. LAMINAR AND TURBULENT FLUID FLOWS
When fluid flows smoothly around an object, as in the sketch of airflow
around a sphere in Figure 6.14(a), the fluid is said to move in a laminar
manner. Laminar flow occurs when fluid is moving relatively slowly (the
exact definition of “relative” being given shortly). As fluid moves faster past
the sphere, the flow’s pattern begins to break up and become random,
particularly on the sphere’s trailing edge. The irregular flow pattern shown
in Figure 6.14(b) is said to be turbulent. Small eddies and whirlpools
develop behind the sphere, and the fluid downstream of the sphere has
been severely disrupted by its presence.

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Source: An introduction to Mechanical Engineering, Jonathan Wickert, Kemper Lewis, 2013
The criterion to determine whether a fluid moves in a laminar or
turbulent pattern depends on several factors: the size of the object
moving through the fluid (or the size of the pipe or duct in which the
fluid is flowing); the speed of the object (or of the fluid); and the
density and viscosity properties of the fluid. The exact relationship
among those variables was discovered in the latter half of the
nineteenth century by a British engineer named Osborne Reynolds,
who conducted experiments on the transition between laminar and
turbulent flow through pipes. A dimensionless parameter, which is
now recognized as being the most important variable in fluids
engineering, was found to describe that transition. The Reynolds
number (Re) is defined by the equation

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in terms of the fluid’s density and viscosity, its speed v, and a
characteristic length l that is representative of the problem at hand.
For crude oil that is being pumped through a pipe, the characteristic
length l is the pipe’s diameter; for water flowing past the sphere in
Figure 6.14, l is the sphere’s diameter; for the ventilation system in a
building, l is the diameter of the air duct; and so forth.

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The Reynolds number has the physical interpretation of being the
ratio between the inertia and viscous forces acting within a fluid; the
former is proportional to density (Newton’s second law), and the
latter is proportional to viscosity [Equation (6.2)]. When the fluid
moves quickly, is not very viscous, or is very dense, the Reynolds
number will be large, and vice versa. The inertia of a fluid tends to
disrupt it and to cause it to flow irregularly. On the other hand,
viscous effects are similar to friction, and, by dissipating energy, they
can stabilize the fluid so that it flows smoothly.

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From the standpoint of calculations, situations that arise in
mechanical engineering involving laminar flow often can be
described by relatively straightforward mathematical equations; that
is generally not the case for turbulent flows. The usefulness of those
equations, however, will be limited to low speeds and ideal shapes
such as spheres, flat plates, and cylinders. Experiments and detailed
computer simulations are often necessary for engineers to
understand the complexity of fluids flowing in real hardware and at
actual operating speeds.

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Source: An introduction to Mechanical Engineering, Jonathan Wickert, Kemper Lewis, 2013
VOCABULARY
Steam: buhar
Fluid: akışkan
Oil: petrol
Buoyancy: (akışkanın) kaldırma kuvveti
Flow: akmak
Dam: baraj
Drag force: sürükleme kuvveti
Stationary: hareketsiz
Lift force: taşıma kuvveti
Sophisticate: sofistike, karmaşık, ileri
Complex: karmaşık
Fine: ince
Airflow: hava akımı
Pollution: çevre kirliliği
Landing gear: iniş takımı
Pollutant: çevre kirliliğine yol açan madde
Vortex: girdap, vorteks
Hailstone: dolu tanesi
Solid: katı
Exacting: emek isteyen, zor, zahmetli
Substance: cisim, madde
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Appreciably: hissedilir şekilde Rapid: hızlı
Expand: genişlemek, yayılmak Wear: aşınma
Enclosure: kutu Surface: yüzey
Compress: sıkıştırmak Contact: temas
Shear: kayma Thick: kalın
Slide: kaymak Adhere: yapışmak, bağlı kalmak
Analogy: benzerlik Adjacent: bitişik, komşu
Slip: kaymak Plate: levha
Plunge: dalmak Exert: uygulamak, harcamak
Float: batmadan yüzmek Layer: katman, tabaka
Lubricant: yağlayıcı Steady: sabit durum, değişmeyen
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Stickiness: yapışkanlık
Viscosity: viskozite, ağdalık
Friction: sürtünme
Frequently: sık sık
Arise: doğmak, meydana çıkmak, oluşmak
Immerse: içine batırmak, daldırmak
Gust: fırtına
Impinge: vurmak, çarpmak
Displaced: yerinden edilmiş
Determine: belirlemek, saptamak
Intervening: aradaki
Beaker: beher, laboratuvar bardağı
Depth: derinlik
Pressure: basınç
Column: sütun, kolon
Hover: havada durmak
Submerge: batmak, dalmak
Buoyancy force: kaldırma kuvveti
Hose: hortum
Laminar flow: laminar akış
Turbulent: tübülanslı, çalkantılı
Random: rastgele, gelişigüzel
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Irregular: düzensiz, karışık
Eddy: girdap
Whirlpool: girdap
Downstream: akıntı yönündeki
Disrupt: dağıtmak, bozmak
Severely: şiddetle, ciddi olarak
Pipe: boru
Duct: boğaz, su yolu, boru
Variable: değişken
Ventilation: havalandırma
Inertia: atalet, eylemsizlik
Dissipate: yok etmek, harcamak
Stabilize: dengede tutmak, stabilize etmek
Straightforward: kolay, anlaşılır
Necessary: gerekli
Complexity: karmaşıklık
Actual: gerçek
Operating: çalıştırma, işletme
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