MAE 3230 - Introductory Fluid Mechanics

Fall, Summer. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

Prerequisite: ENGRD 2020, MAE 2030. Prerequisite or corequisite: ENGRD 2210 or permission of instructor. Enrollment limited to: M.E. majors and those officially registered for A.E. or M.E. minor. Offered in summer through the Engineering Cooperative Program.

Fall: B. Kirby; Summer: Staff.

Topics include physical properties of fluids, hydrostatics, conservation laws using control volume analysis and using differential analysis, Bernoulli’s equation, potential flows, simple viscous flows (solved with Navier-Stokes equations), dimensional analysis, pipe flows, boundary layers. Introduction to compressible flow.

Outcome 1: Students will be able to use the fundamental principles and mathematical basis underlying the conservation equations.

Outcome 2: Students will be able to identify the guiding principles in a given fluid problem, to formulate the governing equations, and so to solve basic engineering problems.

Outcome 3: Students will be able to recognize solutions with and without vorticity, and understand the limitations of the solutions for real practical fluid flows. Understand the difference between a simple solution and a real practical problem.

Outcome 4: Students will be able to understand where their analysis might involve approximations and empirical approaches; for example, pipe flows and boundary layer flows.

Outcome 5: Students will be able to improve their ability to formulate an ordered approach to problem solving, using words of explanation in derivations, and algebra before substituting numerical values that allows neat analytical solutions and dimensional analysis.