ABSTRACT

Now it is time to speak the language of fluid mechanics. Fluid mechanics is the study of fluids in motion or at rest. From the point of view of conventional fluid mechanics, matter is either a fluid or a solid. A fluid is a substance that will deform continuously under shear stress, and a solid is a substance that will not. That is, a fluid will not support shear stress, but will flow and take the shape of its container, as shown in Figure 9.1. This section will describe macroscale fluid motion, and then talk about how things change at the microscale and nanoscale.