Momentum microscopic balance

Macroscopic and Microscopic Balances Three postulates, regarded as laws of physics, are fundamental in fluid mechanics. These are conservation of mass, conservation of momentum, and con-servation of energy. In addition, two other postulates, conservation of moment of momentum (angular momentum) and the entropy inequality (second law of thermodynamics) have occasional use. The conservation principles may be applied either to material systems or to control volumes in space. Most often, control volumes are used. The control volumes may be either of finite or differential size, resulting in either algebraic or differential consei vation equations, respectively. These are often called macroscopic and microscopic balance equations. 

Microscopic Balance Equations Partial differential balance equations express the conservation principles at a point in space. Equations for mass, momentum, totaf energy, and mechanical energy may be found in Whitaker (ibid.). Bird, Stewart, and Lightfoot (Transport Phenomena, Wiley, New York, 1960), and Slattery (Momentum, Heat and Mass Transfer in Continua, 2d ed., Krieger, Huntington, N.Y., 1981), for example. These references also present the equations in other useful coordinate systems besides the cartesian system. The coordinate systems are fixed in inertial reference frames. The two most used equations, for mass and momentum, are presented here. 

Problem 2-15. Derivation of Transport Equation for a Sedimenting Suspension. There are many parallels among momentum, mass, and energy transport because all three are derived from similar conservation laws. In this problem we derive a microscopic balance describing the concentration distribution (x, t) of a very dilute suspension of small particles suspended in an incompressible fluid undergoing unsteady flow. [Note cj>(. t) is the local volume fraction of particles in the fluid (i.e. volume of particles/volume of fluid) and hence is dimensionless. ... 

The flow behavior of fluids is governed by the basic laws for conservation of mass, energy, and momentum coupled with appropriate expressions for the irreversible rate processes (e.g., friction loss) as a function of fluid properties, flow conditions, geometry, etc. These conservation laws can be expressed in terms of microscopic or point values of the variables, or in terms of macroscopic or integrated average values of these quantities. In principle, the macroscopic balances can be derived by integration of the microscopic balances. However, unless the local microscopic details of the flow field are required, it is often easier and more convenient to start with the macroscopic balance equations. 

Conservation laws at a microscopic level of molecular interactions play an important role. In particular, energy as a conserved variable plays a central role in statistical mechanics. Another important concept for equilibrium systems is the law of detailed balance. Molecular motion can be viewed as a sequence of collisions, each of which is akin to a reaction. Most often it is the momentum, energy and angrilar momentum of each of the constituents that is changed during a collision if the molecular structure is altered, one has a chemical reaction. The law of detailed balance implies that, in equilibrium, the number of each reaction in the forward direction is the same as that in the reverse direction i.e. each microscopic reaction is in equilibrium. This is a consequence of the time reversal syimnetry of mechanics. 

By either integrating the microscopic momentum equations (see Example 5-9) or applying a momentum balance to a slug of fluid in the center... 

If the relative velocity is sufficiently low, the fluid streamlines can follow the contour of the body almost completely all the way around (this is called creeping flow). For this case, the microscopic momentum balance equations in spherical coordinates for the two-dimensional flow [vr(r, 0), v0(r, 0)] of a Newtonian fluid were solved by Stokes for the distribution of pressure and the local stress components. These equations can then be integrated over the surface of the sphere to determine the total drag acting on the sphere, two-thirds of which results from viscous drag and one-third from the non-uniform pressure distribution (refered to as form drag). The result can be expressed in dimensionless form as a theoretical expression for the drag coefficient ... 

At present analytical solutions of the equations describing the microscopic aspects of material transport in turbulent flow are not available. Nearly all the equations representing component balances are nonlinear in character even after many simplifications as to the form of the equation of state and the effect of the momentum transport upon the eddy diffusivity are made. For this reason it is not to be expected that, except by assumption of the Reynolds analogy or some simple consequence of this relationship, it will be possible to obtain analytical expressions to describe the spatial variation in concentration of a component under conditions of nonuniform material transport. 

For deriving the equation of motion, which is the microscopic counterpart of the macroscopic momentum balance, we proceed as in the case of the mass balance and first... 

The role of constitutive equations is to instruct us in the relation between the forces within our continuum and the deformations that attend them. More prosaically, if we examine the governing equations derived from the balance of linear momentum, it is found that we have more unknowns than we do equations to determine them. Spanning this information gap is the role played by constitutive models. From the standpoint of building effective theories of material behavior, the construction of realistic and tractable constitutive models is one of our greatest challenges. In the sections that follow we will use the example of linear elasticity as a paradigm for the description of constitutive response. Having made our initial foray into this theory, we will examine in turn some of the ideas that attend the treatment of permanent deformation where the development of microscopically motivated constitutive models is much less mature. 

---