| Fig. 9. |
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| Fig. 10. | Fig. 11. | Fig. 12. |
| Fig. 13. |
§ 15. Stream Lines.—The characteristic of a perfect fluid, that is, a fluid free from viscosity, is that the pressure between any two parts into which it is divided by a plane must be normal to the plane. One consequence of this is that the particles can have no rotation impressed upon them, and the motion of such a fluid is irrotational. A stream line is the line, straight or curved, traced by a particle in a current of fluid in irrotational movement. In a steady current each stream line preserves its figure and position unchanged, and marks the track of a stream of particles forming a fluid filament or elementary stream. A current in steady irrotational movement may be conceived to be divided by insensibly thin partitions following the course of the stream lines into a number of elementary streams. If the positions of these partitions are so adjusted that the volumes of flow in all the elementary streams are equal, they represent to the mind the velocity as well as the direction of motion of the particles in different parts of the current, for the velocities are inversely proportional to the cross sections of the elementary streams. No actual fluid is devoid of viscosity, and the effect of viscosity is to render the motion of a fluid sinuous, or rotational or eddying under most ordinary conditions. At very low velocities in a tube of moderate size the motion of water may be nearly pure stream line motion. But at some velocity, smaller as the diameter of the tube is greater, the motion suddenly becomes tumultuous. The laws of simple stream line motion have hitherto been investigated theoretically, and from mathematical difficulties have only been determined for certain simple cases. Professor H. S. Hele Shaw has found means of exhibiting stream line motion in a number of very interesting cases experimentally. Generally in these experiments a thin sheet of fluid is caused to flow between two parallel plates of glass. In the earlier experiments streams of very small air bubbles introduced into the water current rendered visible the motions of the water. By the use of a lantern the image of a portion of the current can be shown on a screen or photographed. In later experiments streams of coloured liquid at regular distances were introduced into the sheet and these much more clearly marked out the forms of the stream lines. With a fluid sheet 0.02 in. thick, the stream lines were found to be stable at almost any required velocity. For certain simple cases Professor Hele Shaw has shown that the experimental stream lines of a viscous fluid are so far as can be measured identical with the calculated stream lines of a perfect fluid. Sir G. G. Stokes pointed out that in this case, either from the thinness of the stream between its glass walls, or the slowness of the motion, or the high viscosity of the liquid, or from a combination of all these, the flow is regular, and the effects of inertia disappear, the viscosity dominating everything. Glycerine gives the stream lines very satisfactorily.
Fig. 9 shows the stream lines of a sheet of fluid passing a fairly shipshape body such as a screwshaft strut. The arrow shows the direction of motion of the fluid. Fig. 10 shows the stream lines for a very thin glycerine sheet passing a non-shipshape body, the stream lines being practically perfect. Fig. 11 shows one of the earlier air-bubble experiments with a thicker sheet of water. In this case the stream lines break up behind the obstruction, forming an eddying wake. Fig. 12 shows the stream lines of a fluid passing a sudden contraction or sudden enlargement of a pipe. Lastly, fig. 13 shows the stream lines of a current passing an oblique plane. H. S. Hele Shaw, “Experiments on the Nature of the Surface Resistance in Pipes and on Ships,” Trans. Inst. Naval Arch. (1897). “Investigation of Stream Line Motion under certain Experimental Conditions,” Trans. Inst. Naval Arch. (1898); “Stream Line Motion of a Viscous Fluid,” Report of British Association (1898).
III. PHENOMENA OF THE DISCHARGE OF LIQUIDS FROM ORIFICES AS ASCERTAINABLE BY EXPERIMENTS
| Fig. 14. |
§ 16. When a liquid issues vertically from a small orifice, it forms a jet which rises nearly to the level of the free surface of the liquid in the vessel from which it flows. The difference of level hr (fig. 14) is so small that it may be at once suspected to be due either to air resistance on the surface of the jet or to the viscosity of the liquid or to friction against the sides of the orifice. Neglecting for the moment this small quantity, we may infer, from the elevation of the jet, that each molecule on leaving the orifice possessed the velocity required to lift it against gravity to the height h. From ordinary dynamics, the relation between the velocity and height of projection is given by the equation
v = √2gh.
(1)