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L2 Viscosity Experiment

The document provides background information on viscosity and describes an experiment to measure viscosity. The experiment involves measuring the terminal velocity of steel spheres falling through glycerine. Stokes' law relates the drag force on a falling sphere to the viscosity, sphere velocity, and radius. By equating the upward and downward forces, an expression can be derived relating velocity, viscosity, and radius. The goal is to measure the velocity of spheres with different radii to determine viscosity by plotting velocity versus radius and finding the slope.

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Hussam Ashour
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242 views

L2 Viscosity Experiment

The document provides background information on viscosity and describes an experiment to measure viscosity. The experiment involves measuring the terminal velocity of steel spheres falling through glycerine. Stokes' law relates the drag force on a falling sphere to the viscosity, sphere velocity, and radius. By equating the upward and downward forces, an expression can be derived relating velocity, viscosity, and radius. The goal is to measure the velocity of spheres with different radii to determine viscosity by plotting velocity versus radius and finding the slope.

Uploaded by

Hussam Ashour
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Viscosity Experiment Background The classic definition of viscosity is the from the tangential force on one part of a fluid moving over another. The sketch shows fluid in contact with a surface, and the fluid x-velocity increasing with its y distance from the surface. Fvisc y x

December 19, 2011 vx(y)

The arrow on the dotted line pointing to the left depicts a viscous force exerted on the fluid above the dotted line due to the fluid below the line. This force depends on the area of contact A, and the viscosity , and the velocity gradient vx/y : Fvisc = A vx/y The 'dynamic' viscosity has units of (F/A)/(velocity/distance). There is also a 'kinematic viscosity' given by = , where is the fluid density. You should be able to work out the units of as m2/s. The cgs unit 'poise' for dynamic viscosity is named after Poiseuille, who came up with Poiseuille's law. 1 poise = 1 Pa-s ( dynamic viscosity, )

Our experiment involves letting spheres fall through glycerine and determining the velocity. The radius R of each of the four steel spheres is given. In highly viscous flow, as we will be doing, the drag force on a sphere is given by Stokes' law Fdrag = 6 v R, where v is the sphere's velocity. The drag force on a falling sphere is upward, opposite to its velocity. The gravitational force mg acts downward, and the buoyant force equal to the weight of the displaced fluid acts upward. It doesn't take long for these forces to come into balance, so the ball travels at a constant velocity.

The upward forces on a falling sphere are 6 v R while the downward force is and
fluid

g 4 R3/3, g 4 R3/3.

sphere

Equating the upward and downward forces gives a relation between the velocity v, the dynamic viscosity , and the ball radius R. Your job is to determine terminal velocity v for each of 4 steel balls. There is tall skinny cylinder. This tube is basically free of air bubbles. Measure the inside diameter of cylinder. To find the velocity of a given ball, first center that ball in the tube by tilting the tube. When ready, turn the tube over expeditiously and set it gently on the table. Measure the time for a ball to fall between two scribed distance on the tube, and of course carefully measure the distance between these scribed distance. Analysis. Steel ball velocities. Be sure to measure at least two runs for each ball, and be careful to get the right distance through which each ball fell. Then calculate and correct each velocity. Find viscosity , in Pa-s. For the steel balls, find a way to plot a function of velocity and a function of radius so that you get a straight line whose slope will give you the viscosity . ( I don't object to you getting a viscosity from each individual velocity and radius, but I do want you to come up with a straight-line plot.) Get viscosity , in CGS. When you have a value of in CGS, you can look at the attached table to see if it appears to make sense at all.

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