MAAE 2300 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Fluid Mechanics

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Course: MAAE 2300
• Professor: Thor Jodoin

Document Summary

1. 3 fluids as a continuum the action of forces on fluids can be determined either by: - Counting the effect of each and every molecule, Considering the average effect of the molecules in a given volume (i. e. treating the fluid as a. Continuums can be assumed only when the number of molecules in a small volume, is sufficiently great enough so that the average effects within the volume will be varying smoothly over time. Example: in a volume as large as a dust particle, there are: Sea level = 106 molecules of air (n2, co2, o2, h2o, ar, and other trace gases); Altitude of 305km = 1 molecules of air (n2, co2, o2, h2o, ar, or another trace gas) (at odds of 1 time in 100,000,000); At h = 0 m (sea level) air can be assumed to be a continuum; at h = 305,000 m (low earth orbit) the continuum assumption does not hold.