Chapter 4 : Conservation Equations and Analysis of Finite Control Volume
Lecture 13 :


Bernoulli's Equation   

Energy Equation of an ideal Flow along a Streamline

Euler’s equation (the equation of motion of an inviscid fluid) along a stream line for a steady flow with gravity as the only body force can be written as

(13.6)

Application of a force through a distance ds along the streamline would physically imply work interaction. Therefore an equation for conservation of energy along a streamline can be obtained by integrating the Eq. (13.6) with respect to ds as

 
(13.7)

Where C is a constant along a streamline. In case of an incompressible flow, Eq. (13.7) can be written as

(13.8)

The Eqs (13.7) and (13.8) are based on the assumption that no work or heat interaction between a fluid element and the surrounding takes place. The first term of the Eq. (13.8) represents the flow work per unit mass, the second term represents the kinetic energy per unit mass and the third term represents the potential energy per unit mass. Therefore the sum of three terms in the left hand side of Eq. (13.8) can be considered as the total mechanical energy per unit mass which remains constant along a streamline for a steady inviscid and incompressible flow of fluid. Hence the Eq. (13.8) is also known as Mechanical energy equation.

This equation was developed first by Daniel Bernoulli in 1738 and is therefore referred to as Bernoulli’s equation. Each term in the Eq. (13.8) has the dimension of energy per unit mass. The equation can also be expressed in terms of energy per unit weight as

(13.9)

In a fluid flow, the energy per unit weight is termed as head. Accordingly, equation 13.9 can be interpreted as

Pressure head + Velocity head + Potential head =Total head (total energy per unit weight).

Bernoulli's Equation with Head Loss

The derivation of mechanical energy equation for a real fluid depends much on the information about the frictional work done by a moving fluid element and is excluded from the scope of the book. However, in many practical situations, problems related to real fluids can be analysed with the help of a modified form of Bernoulli’s equation as

(13.10)

where, hf represents the frictional work done (the work done against the fluid friction) per unit weight of a fluid element while moving from a station 1 to 2 along a streamline in the direction of flow. The term hf is usually referred to as head loss between 1 and 2, since it amounts to the loss in total mechanical energy per unit weight between points 1 and 2 on a streamline due to the effect of fluid friction or viscosity. It physically signifies that the difference in the total mechanical energy between stations 1 and 2 is dissipated into intermolecular or thermal energy and is expressed as loss of head hf in Eq. (13.10). The term head loss, is conventionally symbolized as hL instead of hf in dealing with practical problems. For an inviscid flow hL = 0, and the total mechanical energy is constant along a streamline.

 
            End of Lecture 13!

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