What is Fluid Mechanics?
• First, What is a fluid? • Three common states of matter are solid, liquid, and gas. • A fluid is either a liquid or a gas. • If surface effects are not present, flow behaves similarly in all common fluids, whether gases or liquids. • Example – The Penn State Sea Lion Students in the Penn State Mechanical Engineering Department have designed and built a human powered submarine, named the “Sea Lion” as part of a national contest. In the preliminary stages of the design, back in the early 1990’s, some wind tunnel testing was done on various hull shapes and fin shapes. Since the submarine moves below any surface effects, it was perfectly valid to run these tests in a wind tunnel (using air as the working fluid) rather than in water (the actual fluid in which the submarine moves). As will be discussed in a later learning module, drag and lift measurements must, of course, be scaled properly according to the rules of dimensional analysis. • Example – PSU Harrier experiments Several years a
Fluid mechanics is a branch of physics which concerns the study of fluids and the ways in which they interact with forces. Both liquids and gases are considered to be fluids for the purposes of this branch of science. Often, the field of fluid mechanics is divided into two more specific fields of study. These are fluid statics and fluid dynamics, which concern fluids at rest and fluids in motion, respectively. Fluid mechanics can involve highly complex mathematics, and the aid of modern computers has enhanced this science significantly. The chronological roots of fluid mechanics go all the way back to at least the ancient Greeks. The Greek physicist and inventor Archimedes was the author of some of the first studies we know of which concern fluid statics, including the property of buoyancy. Persian philosophers in the Medieval time period coupled these ancient works with their own studies of fluid dynamics that acted as an early precursor to modern fluid dynamics. Such well-known histo
Fluid Mechanics, physical science dealing with the action of fluids at rest (fluid statics) or in motion (fluid dynamics), and their interaction with flow devices and applications in engineering. The subject branches out into sub-disciplines such as: Aerodynamics – deals with the motion of air and other gases, and their interactions with bodies in motion such as lift and drag; Hydraulics – application of fluid mechanics to engineering devices involving liquids such as flow through pipes, weir and dam design; Geophysical fluid dynamics- fluid phenomenoa associated with the dynamics of the atmosphere and the oceans such as hurricane and weather systems, Bio-fluid mechanics- fluid mechanics involved in biophysical processes such as blood flow in arteries, and many others. Wind Energy Power Plant: A Case Study NWTC: National Wind Technology Center The electricity generated by wind turbines is used for many applications, from large, utility-scale power plants, to small, single turbines for
