ME 219: Fluid Mechanics

Instructor: Prof. Avishek Ranjan (avishekr@iitb.ac.in)

TAs: Ravi Kant, Shantanu Pradhan, Arupjyoti Das

Lecture 8: Rigid body motion + Kinematics

Ref: Cengel-Cimbala’s book, Google for images

“Rigid body” motion – linear acceleration

– Rotation
Lagrangian & Eulerian Descriptions

Replacement lecture for Monday will

be on Wednesday 3-4pm in LC 301.
Quiz 1 answers & statistics will be shared.
QUICK RECAP: FLUIDS IN RIGID-BODY MOTION
Assume that there is no motion between fluid layers
relative to each other. So, shear stresses are ABSENT.
For a very small element, how can we write the
force balance?

Similarly,

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The Newton’s second law of motion for body and surface forces

from the 2nd law of motion

Can you write the components of this Eq. in Cartesian co-ordinates?

Exercise: Write these equations for (a) Fluid at rest or moving at constant speed
(b) Fluid in Free Fall (c) Fluid accelerating opposite to gravity at the same rate
(d) Fluid accelerating perpendicular to gravity.

Did you obtain an expression for pressure difference between two points.

Case (a) Case (b)

What about cases (c) and (d) ?

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(d) Acceleration on a Straight Path
Fluid accelerating/retarding in both x, z directions

If we are on the free-surface, ΔP = 0

Iso-surfaces (isobars): lines of constant pressure

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Rotation in a Cylindrical Container
• Consider a vertical cylindrical container partially
filled with a liquid, rotating about its axis at a
constant angular velocity of ω.

• After initial transients, the liquid will move as a

rigid body together with the container (every fluid
particle moves with the same angular velocity).

•Shear stresses are ABSENT

If we are on the free-surface, ΔP = 0

Find the constant C1.

Maximum dip in the surface ?

Can you find the free-surface equation in terms

of the given parameters? What is the way forward?

Maximum height difference?

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If we fix point 1 at (r, z)=(0,0) on the free surface, then
at any point

• At a fixed r, the pressure varies hydrostatically in

the vertical direction, as in a fluid at rest.

• At a fixed z, the pressure varies as r2.

• In any horizontal plane, the pressure difference

between the center and edge of the container of
radius R is :

Surfaces of constant
pressure in a rotating liquid.
KINEMATICS: LAGRANGIAN AND EULERIAN DESCRIPTIONS
Kinematics: The study of motion – the root word is from Ancient Greek κίνημα
(kínēma, “movement”).
Fluid kinematics: The study of how fluids flow and how to describe fluid motion.

There are two ways to describe motion: Lagrangian and Eulerian

Lagrangian description: Follow and track the position and velocity of each
individual fluid parcel (fluid particle) and take to be a parcel of fixed identity.

Eulerian description: Define a field and variables as functions of space and time.
The field variable at a particular location at a particular time is the value of the variable
for whichever fluid particle happens to occupy that location at that time.

Recall and note the

connection with the
continuum
approximation!

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 Lagrangian (particle) vs Eulerian (field) approach

Acceleration following a fluid particle with position vector

xparticle(t), yparticle(t), zparticle(t)

material position vector

xparticle(t), yparticle(t), zparticle(t) Acceleration at a point is the acc. of fluid particle at that point
 Total Local Advective (convective)
acceleration = acceleration + acceleration

Recall - Acceleration at a point is the

acceleration of the fluid particle at that point.

Can you write the components of the total acceleration vector in cartesian
coordinates?

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