Environmental Fluid Dynamics: Flow Processes, Scaling, Equations of Motion, and Solutions to Environmental Flows

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Chapter 1

Physical Quantities, Dimensional Analysis, Scaling and Bulk Conservation Equations

Contents

1.1. Physical Quantities

1.2. Dimensional Analysis

1.3. Fluid Properties

1.3.1. Nature of Fluids: Gases and Liquids

1.3.2. Vapor Pressure

1.3.3. The Continuum Concept

1.3.4. Mass of a Fluid

1.3.5. Pressure and Compressibility

1.3.6. Temperature

1.3.7. Specific Heat

1.3.8. Coefficient of Thermal Expansion

1.3.9. Viscosity

1.3.10. Surface Tension

1.3.11. The Equation of State of Air

1.3.12. The Equation of State of Water

1.4. Flow Domains, Scaling and Modeling

1.5. Dynamic Similarity

1.6. Hydrostatic Pressure

1.7. Pressure Forces on a Surface

1.8. Control Volumes

1.9. Introduction to the Kinematics of Flow

1.10. Bulk Conservation of Mass

1.11. Bulk Conservation of Momentum

1.12. Bulk Conservation of Energy

1.13. Solving Problems Using the Conservation Laws

In this chapter, we present an overall introduction to the remainder of this book, from the point of view of a student who has had an undergraduate education in applied science or engineering or a researcher in the chemical or biological sciences who wishes to gain an introduction to fluid dynamics. The calculus that is required to understand the material is summarized in the Appendix.

1.1 Physical Quantities

Physical quantities are entities that quantify and describe some particular physical state. Everybody is familiar with quantities such as the volume of a bottle of milk, the weight of a suitcase, the speed of a motorcar and so on. As we shall see later such physical quantities may differ widely, but all possess two main attributes, a number to describe the magnitude or size of the quantity and the unit of measure used in assessing the magnitude or size. The particular unit chosen for a particular physical quantity is not uniquely determined, but depends on a number of factors. Tradition is certainly the main determinant. In Europe, the unit to measure the distance between two places is called the kilometer (equivalent to 1000 m) whereas in the US, people use miles to describe the same physical quantity. How did this come about? To see this, consider what determines the choice of the unit. It is very convenient to match the unit to the magnitude so that the mind is confronted with manageable numbers as magnitudes. Again consider a simple example. The size of the old small format photographic negative was specified as 35 mm, whereas the medium format negative was specified as 6 cm × 6 cm. We see immediately, from this example, that the units, mm and cm, were chosen in each case to keep the magnitude 35 and 6 manageable.

On the other hand, if we speak of the width of a road we would quite naturally speak of a certain number of meters, but if we speak about the length of the road between say two cities we would again quite naturally use kilometers or miles. All of this came about as it is convenient for our mind to visualize the physical quantity when we communicate, and this is best done in manageable units for which we have a feel. However, there is a second very important underlying reason for matching the choice of units to the magnitude of a physical quantity and that is the inherent accuracy when communicating the information. In most common experiences, it is sufficient to specify a physical quantity to an accuracy of, say, one part between 10 and 1000. Obviously, this is not universal, but for common usage this would usually suffice. Hence, we speak of the distance between two cities is say 876 km, the width of a road is say 20.5 m, the diagonal of a computer screen is say 40.5 cm and the size of a pixel is 0.25 mm. The mind associates the unit with the quantity being specified and through every day use is able to quickly visualize the size of the quantity. Accompanying this visualization is the accuracy of the specification. The necessary accuracy is achieved with a reasonable and manageable number of digits when specifying the magnitude. It is therefore not surprising that different units developed in different countries such as the foot in England and the US and the meter in the European countries. The foot being a measure of a standard foot and the meter being, in the first instance, a measure of a step, both derived from human experience. The third influence in describing physical units was the choice of the ease of subdivision. For instance, there are 1000 m in a kilometer, 100 cm in a meter, 10 mm in a cm and so on. On the other hand, there are 12 in. in a foot and 3 feet in a yard or 36 in. in a yard. The number 36 may be divided by 36, 18, 12, 6, 4, 2, and 1, a total of seven possible divisions. By contrast a meter has 100 cm and so has the following simple divisions, 100, 50, 25, 10, 5, 1 a total of only six divisions; in general the decimal system has the advantage of ease of computation and the 12 system has the advantage of having slightly more simple divisions, making mental calculations easier. These differences have receded with the increasing use of electronic aids to do calculations.

The photographic image illustrates a further transition brought about by the digital world, making it convenient to use the building block, or the pixel, as the unit. This is convenient as it measures the resolution of the image, but it really implies nothing about the linear size or quality of the image, only the storage size. Digital building blocks have their own magnitudes when related to the original physical quantity.

The choice of units is, however, not arbitrary. As we know, the world is governed by a series of physical laws. The most relevant one to our study of fluid mechanics is Newton’s law of motion that states, for a single particle, simply:

(1.1.1)

Hence, if we fix units for mass (kg) and acceleration (m s−2) then we cannot arbitrarily also fix the unit for force, as then the magnitude derived by multiplying the magnitudes of the mass and acceleration would not match our force magnitude. Hence, each country has now adopted a consistent set of units such as (meters, kilograms, seconds, Newtons) in Europe or (feet, slug, seconds, pounds) in the US. This means that the chosen units are consistent with the physical laws in which they occur.

Scalars: A scalar physical quantity is a quantity that is uniquely defined by specifying a unit of measurement and the quantity of these units as a number.

Simple examples are area (m²), volume (m³), time (s), speed (m s−1) and power (kg m² s−3 or W). For a scalar, it is sufficient to specify a single number indicating the amount and a set of units indicating the size of the measure.

Consider further the concept of a simple area S0,

(1.1.2)

where [ ] denotes the unit of measure or the dimensions of the physical quantity.

Suppose we are dealing with a simple rectangle of width B and length L, then

(1.1.3)

Both sides of (1.1.3) have the same unit (m²) and we may note that:

(1.1.4)

is dimensionless. It is often convenient to write our equations in a dimensionless form as in (1.1.4) so that consistency of units is easily recognized. Suppose we are dealing with the volume, V, under a surface as shown in Fig. 1.1.1 and the surface, S, is described by:

(1.1.5)

Figure 1.1.1 Surface subtended by a rectangle in the base plane.

The volume V, defined by (1.1.5), is given by:

(1.1.6)

Suppose we define the mean height of f(x1, xthen we may rewrite (1.1.6) in the form:

(1.1.7)

where we have introduced the new dimensionless variables:

(1.1.8)

The right hand side of to be the mean height, the quantity V∗ is not only dimensionless, but is also about unity. Rendering an equation dimensionless with magnitudes that make the leading term in the equation about one is called scaling; it is a convenient tool to highlight which terms in an equation are important and which are small and may thus be neglected.

Vectors: A vector is a physical quantity that is made up of three scalar components. Alternatively, a vector is a quantity that requires specification of a magnitude and a direction. Many examples are common experience; velocity (m s−1), momentum (kg m s−1), force (kg m s−2) and acceleration (m s−2).

Implied in the above definition, however, is the concept of direction and the three scalar components are the magnitudes of the physical quantity resolved in the three directions. Now the nature of a physical quantity is such that it is independent of the frame of reference and remains unchanged when the axes (x1, x2, x3) are changed (rotated). This invariance to the orientation may be likened to the invariance of a scalar to a change in units; the magnitude changes so as to keep the physical quantity unchanged.

Thus, if the reference axes are changed from (x1, x2, x3) to (y1, y2, y3) via a rotation transformation, then if a vector v given in (x1, x2, x3) by:

(1.1.9)

then this changes to:

(1.1.10)

are the new unit vectors.

Mathematically, this may be expressed as follows. Suppose that the (y1, y2, y3) and (x1, x2, x3) coordinate systems are connected by the rotation transformation:

(1.1.11)

(1.1.12)

(1.1.13)

that may be shortened to:

(1.1.14)

where the repeated subscript i indicates there is a sum over i (see Appendix 1) and j = (1, 2, 3). The linear transformation (1.1.14) is a rotation of the axis so that the length of any vector is preserved. This constraint implies

(1.1.15)

where the symbol

(1.1.16)

Multiplying and summing over j, leads to the inverse of (1.1.14):

(1.1.17)

Now the triplet (x1, x2, x3) may be viewed as the position vector of a point in space and (y1, y2, y3) are the components in the transformed coordinate system. Thus, the general definition of a vector a is a quantity that has three components (a1, a2, a3) that transform into components (b1, b2, b3) under a rotation transformation (1.1.14) such that:

(1.1.18)

Tensor of second order: Many physical quantities in environmental fluid mechanics are vectors that act on a surface. A simple example of this is the pressure, or more generally the stress τ on a particular surface. A little reflection reveals that if we fix the surface then the stress τ (force . It is common that we have a particular force acting on a particular area. For example, consider the infinitesimal cube shown in Fig. 1.1.2.

Figure 1.1.2 Infinitesimal volume cube.

The face (A B C D) in and in general a force F acting on (A B C D) will have components (F1, F2, F3) leading to stresses (τ11, τ12, τ13), where τij is the component of force in the jth direction on a surface with unit normal in the ith direction; in general such physical quantities have nine components. This is called a second order tensor if all the components are transformed under a rotation so that the net physical quantity remains unchanged. Given that such a transformation acts on two vectors (the force and the surface) the transformation rule for tensors becomes:

(1.1.19)

A tensor is thus, a quantity, with nine components, that transform according to (1.1.19) under a rotation (1.1.14) and each component has a magnitude and a unit of measurement.

1.2 Dimensional Analysis

Physical laws, expressing one physical quantity in terms of other physical quantities, should have the property that the dimensions of the terms on the left and right hand sides of the equation are the same. For instance Newton’s second law:

(1.2.1)

defines the units for F such that,

(1.2.2)

where the square bracket is used to denote units of the physical quantities. In other words, physical laws are dimensionally homogeneous. Another way to express this is to say that, physical laws that model the behavior of physical processes should be independent of the system of units used to define the individual variables in the equation. This property may be used to rewrite any physical law in a non-dimensional form. For example, given (1.2.1) we may write:

(1.2.3)

where now both sides are now non-dimensional. In general, if a particular physical law depends on say n state variables xi, i = 1, 2, … n, then the relationship between the state variables xi,

(1.2.4)

must be independent of the set of units used. Here f(…) represents the functional relationship between the independent variables xi, i = 2, …, n. We say that the function f(…) is invariant to a transformation of the units. This observation has far reaching implications as may be seen from the following examples.

Example: Suppose a car is traveling with a speed U m s−1along a straight road and the car and the passengers have a total mass M kg. If the driver suddenly brakes so that a constant force F kg m s−2 (Newton’s) is applied in the direction opposite to the motion, how far will the car take to stop?

In order to illustrate the power of dimensional reasoning, we shall look at this problem in three distinct ways.

Informal Reasoning: Let L be the distance the car takes to stop. Then we may write (1.2.4) in the form:

(1.2.5)

The dimensions of the state variables are:

As noted above, the function f must be independent of the units used to specify L, U, M and F. We notice that only M and F in order to remove the dependence on