Description
BACKGROUND
Fluid mechanics is an exciting and fascinating subject with unlimited practical applications ranging from microscopic biological systems to automobiles, airplanes, and spacecraft propulsion. Yet fluid mechanics has historically been one of the most challenging subjects for undergraduate students. Unlike earlier freshman- and sophomore-level subjects such as physics, chemistry, and engineering mechanics, where students often learn equations and then “plug and chug” on their calculators, proper analysis of a problem in fluid mechanics requires much more. Oftentimes, students must first assess the problem, make and justify assumptions and/or approximations, apply the relevant physical laws in their proper forms, and solve the resulting equations before ever plugging any numbers into their calculators. Many problems in fluid mechanics require more than just knowledge of the subject, but also physical intuition and experience. Our hope is that this book, through its careful explanations of concepts and its use of numerous practical examples, sketches, figures, and photographs, bridges the gap between knowledge and proper application of that knowledge.
Fluid mechanics is a mature subject; the basic equations and approximations are well established and can be found in numerous introductory fluid mechanics books. The books are distinguished from one another in the way the material is presented. An accessible fluid mechanics book should present the material in a progressive order from simple to more difficult, building each chapter upon foundations laid down in previous chapters. In this way, even the traditionally challenging aspects of fluid mechanics can be learned effectively. Fluid mechanics is by its very nature a highly visual subject, and students learn more readily by visual stimulation. It is therefore imperative that a good fluid mechanics book also provide quality figures, photographs, and visual aids that help to explain the significance and meaning of the mathematical expressions.
O B J E C T I V E S
This book is intended for use as a textbook in the first fluid mechanics course for undergraduate engineering students in their junior or senior year. Students are assumed to have an adequate background in calculus, physics, engineering mechanics, and thermodynamics. The objectives of this text are
• To cover the basic principles and equations of fluid mechanics
• To present numerous and diverse real-world engineering examples to give students a feel for how fluid mechanics is applied in engineering practice
• To develop an intuitive understanding of fluid mechanics by emphasizing the physics, and by supplying attractive figures and visual aids to reinforce the physics
The text contains sufficient material to give instructors flexibility as to which topics to emphasize. For example, aeronautics and aerospace engineering instructors may emphasize potential flow, drag and lift, compressible flow, turbomachinery, and CFD, while mechanical and civil engineering instructors may choose to emphasize pipe flows and open-channel flows, respectively. The book has been written with enough breadth of coverage that it can be used for a two-course sequence in fluid mechanics if desired.