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Viscosity is a measure of a fluid's rate-dependent resistance to a change in shape or to movement of its neighboring portions relative to one another. [1] For liquids, it corresponds to the informal concept of thickness; for example, syrup has a higher viscosity than water. [2]
In engineering, physics, and chemistry, the study of transport phenomena concerns the exchange of mass, energy, charge, momentum and angular momentum between observed and studied systems. While it draws from fields as diverse as continuum mechanics and thermodynamics, it places a heavy emphasis on the commonalities between the topics covered ...
Understanding the temperature dependence of viscosity is important for many applications, for instance engineering lubricants that perform well under varying temperature conditions (such as in a car engine), since the performance of a lubricant depends in part on its viscosity.
Dimensionless numbers (or characteristic numbers) have an important role in analyzing the behavior of fluids and their flow as well as in other transport phenomena. [1] They include the Reynolds and the Mach numbers, which describe as ratios the relative magnitude of fluid and physical system characteristics, such as density, viscosity, speed of sound, and flow speed.
Stokes' law is important for understanding the swimming of microorganisms and sperm; also, the sedimentation of small particles and organisms in water, under the force of gravity. [ 5 ] In air, the same theory can be used to explain why small water droplets (or ice crystals) can remain suspended in air (as clouds) until they grow to a critical ...
Counteracting this effect is the viscosity of the fluid, which tends to inhibit turbulence. The Reynolds number quantifies the relative importance of these two types of forces for given flow conditions and is a guide to when turbulent flow will occur in a particular situation. [7]
In physics, a fluid is a liquid, gas, or other material that may continuously move and deform (flow) under an applied shear stress, or external force. [1] They have zero shear modulus, or, in simpler terms, are substances which cannot resist any shear force applied to them.
In condensed matter physics and physical chemistry, the terms viscous liquid, supercooled liquid, and glass forming liquid are often used interchangeably to designate liquids that are at the same time highly viscous (see Viscosity of amorphous materials), can be or are supercooled, and able to form a glass.