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Undergraduate level: ME 201 Thermodynamics; ME 332 Fluid Mechanics;
ME 432 Intermediate Fluid Mechanics;
ME 481 Engineering Design.
The `staple' undergraduate course I teach is ME 201 Thermodynamics. I also teach, from time to time,
the ME 332 and ME 432 fluid mechanics courses and occasionally supervise ME 481
design groups. I am considering introducing a 400-level bio-fluid mechanics
course as a senior-level elective.
Graduate level: ME 830 Fluid Mechanics; ME 834 Fundamentals of Turbulence.
At the graduate level, the ME 830 graduate core course in fluid mechanics is taught in turn
by most of the fluid mechanics faculty and so I typically teach it every other year.
Prof. Foss and I take it in turns to teach the ME 834 course on fundamentals of turbulence - I think it
is his turn next! Prof. Jaberi and I have recently finalized plans for a
course on Turbulence Modeling and Simulation, which should be offered as a Special Topic
in Mechanical Engineering shortly, as ME 891.
Some Thoughts on Undergraduate Thermodynamics:
Let's face it! There is a severe mismatch between
many of today's undergraduate thermodynamics textbooks and the needs of a first,
introductory thermodynamics course (as well as between their cost and their value).
The 1000-plus pages of today's `one text covers two or three courses'
behemoths stretch out the three principles so far that students have great
difficulty finding, let alone applying, all three together. To make matters
worse, some prerequisite courses have embraced the culture of the syllabus that
is a mile wide and an inch deep. This kind of preparation can lead to culture
shock for students who, seemingly for the first time in their educational lives,
are faced with having to complete seven or eight sequential steps of an engineering
thermodynamics problem correctly to have any chance of arriving at a reasonable
answer, and a passing grade in the course. Multiple-choice tests on single-step problems
don't prepare students for the realities of solving multiple-step
engineering problems, in which a flawed understanding of any
one step reduces greatly the likelihood of obtaining a correct solution.
In my sections of ME 201, I use a set of undergraduate thermodynamics notes that emphasize a coherent understanding of the three basic principles. These principles are always used as the starting point for solving all problems, and the use of `special case' results is strongly discouraged. Weekly homework problems are assigned and graded. The two midterm exams and the final exam are closed book tests, in which the students have access to a `Thermodynamic Principles' handout describing the three laws in their general forms. This emphasis on starting from the basic principles to solve all problems, without reference to `special case' results, should provide students with the thorough understanding of the subject's fundamentals that is needed for further engineering study in fluid mechanics, heat transfer, combustion, and other thermal-fluid subjects.
Thermodynamics Project:
I am presently preparing printed notes for a first, introductory
thermodynamics course, which I distribute to students who enroll in my sections
of thermodynamics. These notes are continually evolving and will form the basis of
a course-pack or maybe even a book at some future time.
The notes are prepared in TeX, with figures in CorelDraw, and presently cover: Thermodynamic Properties of Matter;
the Conservation of Mass, First Law and Second Law of Thermodynamics; and
appendices containing information on the properties of some commonly used
substances. Notes on additional topics that would enrich a one-semester
thermodynamics course, and provide a useful basic thermodynamic reference
for more advanced study, are currently in preparation.