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Velocity Field

This document discusses key concepts in fluid dynamics including: 1. The velocity field assigns a coarse-grained velocity to each fluid element and can be described using streamlines, pathlines, and streaklines. 2. The continuity and Navier-Stokes equations govern fluid flow and conservation of mass and momentum. The Navier-Stokes equation accounts for forces like viscosity, pressure gradients, and external body forces. 3. Viscosity arises due to shear stresses that are linear in the velocity gradient. It determines how quickly motions are damped in a fluid. 3. Boundary conditions like no-slip describe the behavior of fluid velocities at interfaces like solid boundaries.

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48 views

Velocity Field

This document discusses key concepts in fluid dynamics including: 1. The velocity field assigns a coarse-grained velocity to each fluid element and can be described using streamlines, pathlines, and streaklines. 2. The continuity and Navier-Stokes equations govern fluid flow and conservation of mass and momentum. The Navier-Stokes equation accounts for forces like viscosity, pressure gradients, and external body forces. 3. Viscosity arises due to shear stresses that are linear in the velocity gradient. It determines how quickly motions are damped in a fluid. 3. Boundary conditions like no-slip describe the behavior of fluid velocities at interfaces like solid boundaries.

Uploaded by

tugmatl
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Velocity Field

 Fluids can be treated as continua down to scales of about 20


Angstroms! The velocity field v(x,t) assigns a coarse-grained
velocity to each fluid element that is currently at x.
NOTE: Some books use u,v,w for the 3 components of v, instead
of vx, etc. Some also use u to mean v, whereas we have
reserved u for the displacement field.
Q: What would it be for a fluid that is uniformly rotating at
angular velocity  ?
 Alternative Lagrangian description: Follow fluid elements
starting at r for all subsequent times instead of giving v in fixed
lab coordinates.

Boulder Summer School 2006 - Gollub


Streamlines, pathlines, streaklines

 Streamlines, which are locally tangent to the velocity field, are


solutions to this equation at a fixed time to:
dx dt  v (x, to )
 If the velocity field is time-dependent, then the streamlines
change, and tracer particles or dye spots need not follow them.
They follow the current velocity field with initial condition xo :
forming “pathlines” that solve dx dt  v (x, t )

 Yet a third way to describe a fluid flow is to release particles at


a given starting position xo and initial time to, and ask what
“streaklines” x(t, xo, to) they form at a given observation time t
but various starting times to .
Boulder Summer School 2006 - Gollub
Streamlines, pathlines, streaklines (cont.)

 Q: To test your understanding, suppose that


v(x,t)=(a, bt, 0) and sketch the three types of lines I
have just described: streamlines (at several times),
pathlines from 0 to t, and streaklines from 0 to t.
(Divide class into 3 groups.)
 Movie: MMFM/kinematics/pathlines/steady and
unsteady flows.

Boulder Summer School 2006 - Gollub


Continuity; material derivative

 Continuity equation:  t    (  v )  0
 Incompressible flow: v  0
 Material time derivative: D 
  v 
Dt t

Q: What is the material derivative of the field x?


Examples: narrowing tube;
temperature field

Boulder Summer School 2006 - Gollub


Viscosity

 Stress tensor in an isotropic moving fluid:


 ij   p ij    i v j   j vi 
 Careful: gradients are not just derivatives in non-cartesian coords.
vx ( y )
 Special case: Parallel shear flow  xy 
y
 Viscosity – shear stress is linear in the velocity gradient or “strain
rate”.
 Water: =1 x 10-3 Pa s ; 1 centipoise in cgs units
Kin.visc. / =  = 1 x 10-6 m2/s (1 cS in cgs units)
 For air: =1.8 x 10-5 Pa s; =1.5 x 10-5 m2/s
Motions in air are more quickly damped.
Boulder Summer School 2006 - Gollub
Navier-Stokes equations

 Navier-Stokes equation is obtained by setting the local density


times acceleration equal to the effective force density:
Dv
  fi
*

Dt
 Force density on a fluid element can be computed from gravity
(or other external forces) and the stress tensor:
fi   gi    j ij
*

(Use the def. of the stress tensor; compute forces across


boundaries of a small box; and use Gauss’ theorem.)

Boulder Summer School 2006 - Gollub


Navier-Stokes equations (cont.)

 Using the stress tensor for a Newtonian fluid leads to the


Navier-Stokes equations (if incompressible):
Dv    1
   v   v  g  p   2 v
Dt  t  
v  0
 Try writing out this equation for one component.
 Note: 4 scalar equations for 4 fields
 Q: Validity?

Boulder Summer School 2006 - Gollub


Validity of the Navier-Stokes equations

 They describe motion on scales “much” larger than


the molecular scale but much smaller than the
system size.
 The mean free path must be much less than the
scale of interest.
 If the fluid is not Newtonian, the relation between
stress and strain rate must be specified:
“Constitutive relation”.
 Molecular dynamics calculations show that N-S
works even on the few nm scale.

Boulder Summer School 2006 - Gollub


Boundary conditions

 Generally, both normal and tangential components


of velocity are zero at a solid surface.
 No-slip usually works well down to a few nm
scales, except in special cases (hydrophobic
boundaries in microfluidics; dilute gasses).
 Slip length: distance past a surface at which the
velocity appears to extrapolate to zero (next slide)
 Pressure is usually continuous across fluid
boundaries (except for surface tension effects).
 Q: What would happen at a gas/liquid boundary?
(Movie: gas_fluid)
Boulder Summer School 2006 - Gollub

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