Civil and Environmental Engineering 2224 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Mean Free Path
5 Oct 2018
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T = tangential (tangent/parallel to a body at a point) N = normal (normal/perpendicular to the body at a point) Divide each of these forces by the area upon which they are acting. So, because we have this problem that we can"t determine any finite properties, we have developed an assumption in order to help us solve fluid mechanic problems. We look at the physical dimensions of the problem we are trying to solve relative to the spacing between individual molecules. If the problem dimensions are much larger than the spacing b/w molecules, we can take the properties of a fluid at a point as being the average of a very large number of molecules surrounding that point. This assumption allows us to treat fluids as a continuum with properties that vary continually and smoothly. smoothly in the sense that the density shift is consistent and predictable.
