- What am
I doing here?
The behavior of fluids is critical to a wide variety of everyday
applications. To understand why airplanes fly, or propellers push, or
curveballs turn, or why the wind blows, we need to first understand the
fundamental behaviors of fluids. We’ll start by defining “fluid”, and
contrasting fluids with solids. We’ll use Newton’s Second Law (SF
= ma)
to predict the motion of fluids, and we’ll use a few ideas from
thermodynamics, too. Also, we’ll play some clever algebraic tricks with
units (“Dimensional Analysis”) to help us simplify complicated problems
to a more manageable level. By the end of the class, you should be adept
at solving problems using the following ideas:
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- the
continuum, fluid fields, streamlines, density, viscosity, control
volumes and control masses, pressure, normal and shear stress, buoyancy,
conservation principles (Bernoulli’s equation, Navier-Stokes), hydraulic
jumps, potential flows, dimensional analysis, boundary layers, lift,
drag, vorticity, circulation, and compressible flow.
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- The
textbook for this class, Fluid Mechanics, by Frank White (8th
edition, McGraw Hill, 2016) is pretty user-friendly. You may also use
earlier or later editions of the book. Since there are too many subtopics to
cover in a single semester, we will not cover all of the topics in the
text. Also, we will not cover all of the topics in the exact same order
as the text.
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- What’s
this about a project?
Midway through the semester, you will choose a project idea based on one
or more of the topics we’ve studied. Although I will provide some
suggestions for projects, you are permitted to develop your own idea,
subject to my approval. Your projects may be theoretically or
experimentally based. The projects may be individual or group efforts,
and should be open-ended (i.e., you will not be working towards a single
“correct” answer).
- Project Due Dates: 1. Inform Dr.
Pogo of your team roster (2 or 3 names) by Thursday February 27, 2025.
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2. Inform Dr. Pogo of your project topic by Thursday, March 13, 2025.
By this date it
-
is already too late to start a conversation with Dr. Pogo about topics
or options.
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3. Submit all your final documents to my inbox prior to the final exam (May
12, 2025).
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How
will I be graded?
Your grade will be determined by:
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| Weekly Assignments and Quizzes |
30% |
| Project |
10% |
| Exams |
60% |
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100% |
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- When
are the tests? Here is a tentative schedule of exams. Exams are
currently scheduled as “in class” exams. If the entire class (including
Dr. Pogo) agrees, an exam time, date, or length can be changed (to a two
hour evening exam, for example). Such changes will not affect the exam
questions.
-
- Exam #1:
Thursday,
February 13, 2025 (chapters 1
& 2 of White)
- Exam #2:
Thursday,
March 23, 2025 (chapters 3 &
6b of White)
- Exam #3:
Thursday,
April 10, 2025 (chapters 4 & 8
of White)
- Final
Exam: Monday,
May 13, 2025, noon – 2:30 am (chapters 1 through
9 of
White)
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Schedule of Assignments
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|
CAPA |
Topic |
Due Date |
Which Exam? |
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Assignment #1 |
Fluid properties; viscosity |
Tue, Jan 28, 2025 |
1 |
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Assignment #2 |
Viscosity; hydrostatics |
Tue, Feb 4, 2025 |
1 |
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Assignment #3 |
Hydrostatics |
Tue, Feb 11, 2025 |
1 |
|
Assignment #4 |
Conservation laws (integral
forms) |
Thu, Feb 27, 2025 |
2 |
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Assignment #5 |
Conservations laws;
Bernoulli’s equation |
Thu, Mar 6, 2025 |
2 |
|
Assignment #6 |
Conservation laws
(differential forms) |
Thu, Mar 27, 2025 |
3 |
|
Assignment #7 |
Differential forms;
potential flow |
Thu, Apr 3, 2025 |
3 |
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Assignment #8 |
Dimensional analysis |
Thu, Apr 17, 2025 |
4 |
|
Assignment #9 |
Internal/external flows
(pipes, boundary layers) |
Tue, Apr 29, 2025 |
4 |
|
Assignment #10 |
Compressibility |
Fri, May 9, 2025 |
4 |
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- Written Homework Rules
-
- The entire point of having written assignments is to
help you improve your professionalism. Therefore, unlike the CAPA
portion of each weekly assignment, your grade will be based on factors
other than whether you get the right answer.
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·
Follow Directions. Do the thing that’s asked for!
·
Define your symbols, and use subscripts. Not all velocities can be called “V”.
Make a list or table of relevant symbols and their values.
·
Use words
and/or diagrams to clarify your method of solution and your
symbol definitions.
·
Solutions
should be symbolic. Include
the initial fundamental formulas, but don’t show every step of
intermediate algebra. If, for some reason, your solution uses numeric
values, show no more than 4 significant
figures, and include units. If a written assignment is based on a CAPA
problem for which you were given random numerical values, then those
numerical values aren’t an important part of your written version of the
solution.
·
Under no
circumstances may you submit code
(e.g., text imported from Mathematica). Similarly, all “computational”
notation (“^”, “E”, “*”, “:=”, “Out[8]:=”, etc.) is forbidden.
Solutions must be 100% comprehensible on their own to someone who has
never heard of Mathematica. If I can tell what software you used, you’ve
already messed up.
·
Plots should
be professional
and no smaller than 3
´
4 inches. Do not use default font sizes, default trendline formatting
(where every variable is apparently an x or a y), default
line widths, etc. All these
choices are your grade!
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- What if
I have trouble with the homework?
Visit me during online office
hours (see times listed above) and I’ll try to point you in the right
direction. Remember that all
learning and all skill comes from doing, not seeing. Every part of every
problem that you let somebody else do for you is something that you are
deciding that you just don’t want to learn. You will not have their help
on exams!
So for
this course, use of online homework solutions (e.g., Chegg) or AI (e.g.,
ChatGPT) is considered academic dishonesty. Do your own work!
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Learning
Outcomes:
At the end of this
course, students will be adept at solving physical problems involving
fluids (e.g., air, water, and oil) using the following techniques:
- Streamlines
and streamfunctions
- Control
volumes
- Control masses
- Buoyancy and
Archimedes’ principle
- Conservation
of mass and the continuity equation
- Conservation
of momentum, including both Bernoulli’s equation and the Navier-Stokes
equations.
- Potential flow
analysis
- Dimensional
analysis and similitude
In addition,
students will be knowledgeable about the following fluids properties and
descriptions:
- The continuum
model for describing fluids
- Pressure,
normal stress, and shear stress
- Density,
viscosity, vorticity, and circulation
- Lift and drag
- Boundary
layers
- Hydraulic
jumps and fluid instability
Also, the college
provides information at the following URL relating to a variety of
topics:
https://bulletin.geneseo.edu/content.php?catoid=22&navoid=958
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