This image is regarding flow of viscous fluid between two parallel plates. I don't understand how they determine direction of shear stress above and below the element. As the flow is towards right shear-stress should be towards left but at portion above the element it's indicated towards right. Also the shear stress on side faces of element seems to be neglected.
[In orginal question we have to find velocity distribution, shear stress distribution and drop of pressure for given length for a flow of fluid between two parallel plates, flow is assumed to be laminar.]
(I will be grateful if you have any way to solve the orginal question.)
Best Answer
The viscous stress must come in equal and opposite pairs because of Newton's third law. The forces on an element are exerted by the elements above and below it much like the friction between surfaces. If the force on the top face of a given element is rightwards, then it means that the element above is exerting this force on the given element. This means that the bottom face of the element above experiences the same force leftwards.
So we see there is really only one force variable here, $F(y)$, for every value of $y$. In other words, at each $y$, there is a pair of equal and opposite forces of magnitude $F(y)$ which act respectively on the elements above and below. So for the fluid element from $y$ to $y+\Delta y$, the force on the top face is $F(y+\Delta y)$ to the right and the force on the bottom face is $F(y)$ to the left. In steady flow, the net force on the element is zero, so the external force on the element must equal $-(F(y+\Delta y) - F(y))$, i.e. it is the (negative) derivative of $F$. After finding $F(y)$, the velocity profile can be determined using the definition of $F/A = \eta \partial v/\partial y$.
For example, in the simple case of Couette flow, the external force on all elements is zero. Therefore, the velocity varies linearly with $y$. If the external force is uniform, such as a river flowing downhill, the velocity will be a quadratic function of $y$.