Computer Experiments in the Fluids Laboratory

Abstract

An introductory course in computational fluid dynamics for undergraduate students is described. The content of the course is: two lectures; an assisted ‘on computer’ example; several common hands-on exercise tutorials done by the students and an individual task. The whole is intended to give students an appraisal of the potential of CFD rather than an in-depth training. Various modes of print out are used in order to show up two-dimensional flow features not easily envisaged from analytical or experimental sections of a first degree course. These (velocity) patterns are explained by the students in executive reports which serve as feedback on what the course has done for them and as a consolidation of the aims of the exercise.