Offered Every Fall


Credit Hours: 3-0-3
Prerequisites: Graduate standing in engineering or related discipline
Catalog Description: The fundamentals of fluid mechanics. Derivation of the governing equations of motion. An introduction to viscous, inviscid, turbulent, and boundary-layer flows.
Textbooks: Ronald Panton, Incompressible Flow, Panton; 2nd Edition, John Wiley; 1995.
G. M. Homsy, et al, Multi-Media Fluid Mechanics (w/CD), Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Instructors: Marc Smith, Paul Neitzel, and Minami Yoda
Goals: This course is intended to provide the beginning graduate student with a broad background in the fundamentals of fluid mechanics and an introduction to the various flow regimes. After this course, the student should be prepared to take subsequent courses in a broad range of engineering disciplines, such as mechanical, bio-engineering, aerospace, and civil engineering.
Topics:
  1. Derivation of the governing equations
  • Navier-Stokes, continuity, and energy.
  • Viscous Flows
    • Exact solutions to various flow problems, including: channel flows, flow over a cylinder and a sphere, rotating flows, impulsively-started flow over a flat plate, etc.
  • Inviscid Flows
    • Bernoulli's equation, potential flow theory, and water waves.
  • Laminar Boundary Layers
    • The boundary-layer equations, exact and approximate solutions, friction drag, separation, and transition.
  • Turbulent Flows
    • The fundamentals of turbulent flow, turbulent boundary layers, jets, and shear layers.