McKeon Research Group
AE 101c: FLUID MECHANICS
Instructor:Beverley J. McKeon
120 Karman, 626.395.4460
Email: mckeon (at) caltech (dot) edu
Office hours: Please email for an appointment
Lectures: Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays 10:00 - 10:55am
306 Firestone
References: No single text (see master list for the class).
TAs: Philipp Boettcher philipp (at) caltech (dot) edu
Sally Moffett sallym (at) caltech (dot) edu
Adam Norman norman (at) caltech (dot) edu
Office Hours: Wednesday, Thursday pm.
Homework: Homework will be assigned on Fridays and due in class the following Friday, unless otherwise stated.
You may discuss the problem set solutions with your classmates, but we expect that everyone will try each problem on their own and that each solution is the result of that student's individual effort. Graduate students are bound to follow the Caltech Honor Code.
Use of packages such as Matlab and/or Mathematica is permitted (but will not necessarily be useful).
Late Policy: Late homeworks will be subject to a points penalty and will not be accepted unless you have emailed Dr. McKeon for an extension in advance of the due date. Problem sets will generally only be accepted up to 5 days late (i.e. usually Wednesday 5:00pm) with a penalty of 5 points per day.
Exams:There will be a mid-term exam and a final exam.
Grading:The weighting for the final grade will be as follows:
Homework30%
Midterm Exam30%
Final Exam40%
Websites:http://www.mckeon.caltech.edu/ae101/index.html
http://www.galcit.caltech.edu/~jeshep/Ae101/

COURSE OUTLINE:
7. VISCOSITY (LAMINAR FLOW)
a) Viscous stress tensor
b) Navier-Stokes equations
c) Dimensional analysis, important dimensionless numbers
d) Pipe flow, Couette flow
e) Low-Reynolds' number flow
f) Boundary layers
g) Rayleigh problem
h) Blasius problem
i) Karman integral relation
j) Displacement, momentum thickness
k) Separation
l) Exact solutions, stagnation point flow, Falkner-skan flows
m) Howarth-Dorodnitsyn transformation and compressible boundary layer
8. TURBULENCE
a) Instability and transition
b) Reynolds' decomposition, stresses
c) Channel and pipe flow, pressure drop correlations, friction factor
d) Boundary layers, skin-friction coefficient, log-layer
e) Flow over cylinders and spheres, drag laws
f) Jets and wakes, entrainment

PROBLEM SETS:
Assigned:Due:Solutions:
Problem Set 1 April 4April 11 Solution Set 1
Problem Set 2 April 11April 18 Solution Set 2
Problem Set 3 April 18April 25 Solution Set 3
Problem Set 4 April 25May 9 Solution Set 4
Mid-Term April 30May 5 Mid-Term Solutions
Problem Set 5 May 9May 16 Solution Set 5
Problem Set 6 May 16May 23 Solution Set 6
Problem Set 7 May 23May 30 Solution Set 7
High_Re_data_PS7.xls
Final Exam 6/6/08, 8am6/6/08, 2pm Final Solution Set

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
  • Course Details (posted March 26, 2008)
  • Reference List (posted March 26, 2008)
  • Full Ae101 syllabus (posted March 26, 2008)