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STUDY GUIDE · GKU 2

Fluid mechanics study guide (Chemical Engineering)

A chemical plant is mostly pipes, and most of its electricity goes into pushing fluids through them. This guide starts with the properties that decide how a fluid behaves (density, viscosity, compressibility) and with fluids that do not obey Newton's law of viscosity, such as slurries and polymer solutions. It then writes the momentum balance that gives the forces on bends and nozzles, and the mechanical energy balance (Bernoulli with friction and a pump) that sizes every transfer line. Friction in pipes comes next, laminar and turbulent, with the Moody chart, fittings and pipe networks, followed by flow through packed and fluidised beds with the Ergun equation. The last sections cover flow meters, pumps, compressors, agitators and vacuum equipment, and gas flow fast enough to choke.

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Structured by the official ETEC subject standard for this topic: every listed topic and learning outcome, with formulas, figures and worked examples. The full sections are available to members in the app.

SKU 2.1 · Fluid properties

  1. Fluid properties and fluid types

    Density, specific volume, viscosity, compressibility and heat capacity: what each means physically and how to estimate it; ideal and real fluids, Newtonian and non-Newtonian behaviour.

SKU 2.2 · Fluid static and dynamic mechanics

  1. The momentum balance

    Newton's second law written for a control volume: the forces on pipe bends, reducers and nozzles, and the force balance that links pressure drop to wall shear stress.

  2. Hydrostatics, Bernoulli and the mechanical energy balance

    Pressure in a fluid at rest, the Bernoulli equation as an exchange between pressure, velocity and elevation heads, and the engineering form with friction loss and pump head that sizes every transfer line.

  3. Laminar and turbulent pipe flow, fittings and networks

    The Reynolds number and the two flow regimes, friction loss from the Darcy–Weisbach equation and the Moody chart, losses in valves and fittings, and pipes in series and parallel.

  4. Flow through packed and fluidised beds

    Pressure drop across catalyst beds, packed columns and filter cakes from the Ergun equation, and what happens when the upward flow becomes strong enough to lift the particles: minimum fluidisation.

  5. Flow measurement

    Obstruction meters (orifice plate, venturi, nozzle) as Bernoulli plus a discharge coefficient, the pitot tube for local velocity, and the rotameter; how to read their characteristics and what each costs in permanent pressure loss.

  6. Pumps, turbines, compressors, agitators and vacuum systems

    How centrifugal and positive-displacement machines work, the pump curve against the system curve, cavitation and NPSH, the affinity laws, gas compression with intercooling, agitator power, and how vacuum is made.

  7. Compressible flow and choking

    What changes when gas moves fast: the speed of sound and Mach number, stagnation conditions, why flow through a nozzle or relief valve stops increasing once the throat reaches sonic speed, and how to size a choked orifice.

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