Resumen de Computational fluid exploration as an engineering teaching tool
A course in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) at the senior or first-year-graduate levels has traditionally emphasized an understanding of the numerical techniques involved, i.e., finite difference, finite volume, or finite elements, followed by a project in which the student writes his or her own Navier±Stokes solver for a simple flow geometry. The educational pedagogy of this format is that the only way one could truly learn and appreciate CFD was to work through the underlying nuts-and-bolts of these respective methods. The evolution of CFD software over the last twenty years has brought us to the point where a challenge to this traditional pedagogy is in order. In this paper, a CFD course given during the Spring 2007 term at the Georgia Institute of Technology will be described. The course was based on the idea that a tool to successfully solve the Navier±Stokes and continuity equations is available, called COMSOL Multiphysics. The course involved the exploration of a number of fluid flows with the aim of developing a deep understanding of the underlying fluid mechanical mechanisms involved in the flow. Along the way, the student learned about the finiteelement method used in the software, how to properly pose the underlying mathematical model for the fluid flow, and about the limitations of the modeling process itself. Specific examples from the course that illustrate these ideas are presented and discussed.
