Module 2 lec 4

General Conversion Laws:

The study of fluid mechanics is based on the conversion laws of following three
quantities:
1. Mass usually total, but sometimes of one or more individual chemical
species.
2. Total energy the sum of internal, kinetic, potential, and pressure energy.
3. Momentum both linear and angular.
For a system, the conversion means that there is no net change of any of these three
quantities, even though there may be some redistribution of them in the system. A
general conversion law can be phrased relative to the general system shown in fig.
2.1, in which can be identified:
1. The system V
2. The surrounding S
3. The boundary B, across which the system interacts in some manner with its
surrounding

The interaction between system and surrounding is by one or more of the following
mechanism:
1. A flowing stream, either entering or leaving the system.
2. A contact force in the boundary, usually normal or tangential to it, and is
called stress.
3. A body force, due to an external field that acts through out the system, for
example gravity.
4. Useful work, such as electrical energy entering a motor or shaft work leaving a
turbine.
Let X denote mass, energy or momentum. A general conversion of X for a noninteracting system can be written as:

For a mass balance on species i in a reacting system

The symbols are defined in the following table.

Table. 2.1. Meaning of symbols in Equation 2.1
Symbol

Meaning
Amount of X brought into the system
Amount of X taken out of the system
Amount of X created within the system
Amount of X destroyed within the system
Increase (accumulation) in the X content of the system

Equation 2.1 cannot be applied indiscriminately, and is only observed in general for
the three properties of mass, energy and momentum. For example, it is not true if X is
an extensive property such as pressure or temperature.
Equation 2.1a can be written in terms rates as follows:

Mass balances:
The mass balance for a non-interacting system in terms of rates can be written as:

Where
is the rate of addition of mass into the system
is the rate of removal of mass into the system

is the rate of accumulation of mass in the system (negative for

depletion)
Some of the examples where steady state mass balance can be applied are:
1. A river, with a flow rate that is constant with time.
2. A tank that is draining through a inlet pipe, but is also supplied with an
identical flow rate of liquid through an inlet pipe, so that the liquid level in the
tank remains constant with time.
Some examples of unsteady state situation are:
1. A river, whose level is being raised by a suddenly elevated dam gate down
stream.
2. A tank that is draining through its base, but is not supplied by an inlet stream,
so that the liquid level in the tank falls with time.
Example 2.1 Mass Balance for Tank Evacuation
The tank shown in the figure has a volume V = 1

and contains air that is

maintained at a constant temperature by being in thermal equilibrium with its

surroundings.

If the initial absolute pressure is

, how long will it take for the pressure to

fall to a final pressure of 0.0001 bar if the air is evacuated at constant rate of
, independent of the pressure in the tank?

Solution:
Choosing tank as a system and applying mass balance:

As the tank volume is constant,

From ideal gas law:

So that

Separation of variables and integrating between t = 0 and a later time t gives:

The result shows an exponential decay of the tank pressure with time as shown in the
following graph.

Thus the time

pressure of

taken to evacuate the tank from its initial pressure of 1 bar to a final
is:

Steady state mass balance for fluid flow:

Consider fig. 2.2 where the system resembles a wind sock at an airport. Applying
steady state mass balance on the situation will give us the so called continuity
equation.

Where m is the mass flow rate entering and leaving the system.
For incompressible fluid,

so eqn. 2.4b becomes

Where Q is the volumetric flow rate.