ME 6601: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics
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.
Textbook: 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 K. Smith, Paul Neitzel (Fall 2003, Fall 2004)

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:

    Navier-Stokes, continuity, and energy.

    2) 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.

    3) Inviscid Flows

    Bernoulli’s equation, potential flow theory, and water waves.

    4) Laminar Boundary Layers

    The boundary-layer equations, exact and approximate solutions, friction drag, separation, and transition.

    5) Turbulent Flows

    The fundamentals of turbulent flow, turbulent boundary layers, jets, and shear layers.

    Prepared by: Marc K. Smith
    Date: March 1997

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    Revised June 2004