Fluid mechanics is a branch of physics that studies the mechanics of fluids and the forces acting on them. It has applications in many fields, including: Mechanical engineering, Aerospace engineering, Civil engineering, Chemical engineering, Biomedical engineering, Geophysics, Oceanography, Meteorology, Astrophysics, Biology.
Fluid mechanics includes two main areas of study: Fluid statics: The study of fluids at rest, including when the fluid is moving like a rigid solid. Fluid statics focuses on understanding the pressure distribution and buoyant force acting on fluids at rest. Fluid kinematics: The study of fluid motion without considering the forces that cause it
Fluids include both liquids and gases, which are materials that cannot keep their geometric form on their own.
Some types of fluids include: Ideal fluid Real fluid Newtonian fluid Non-Newtonian fluid Ideal plastic fluid Incompressible fluid Compressible fluid
Fluid mechanics is a subdiscipline of continuum mechanics, which is the study of the physics of continuous materials.
Basically, every fluid mechanical system is assumed to obey:
Conservation of mass Conservation of energy Conservation of momentum The continuum assumption
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