Paper Authors

Abstract

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

A Web-based Solver for Compressible Flow Calculations

Abstract

Compressible flow is an important subject in aerospace and mechanical engineering disciplines. This paper describes a web-base solver for carrying out compressible flow calculations. The main objective of the solver is to provide students with a software tool than can be used in the compressible flow course offered in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Lamar University. The solver has a graphical user interface (GUI) for ease of use and interactivity. The solver is capable of solving typical compressible flows such as isentropic flows, Rayleigh and Fanno flows, normal and oblique shock flows, and Prandtl-Myer expansion waves. The solver provides user with a host of input options to choose from: Mach number, area ratio, pressure ratio, etc. The output of the solver includes the text results as well as graphical plots.

Introduction

Fluid dynamics is a core subject for Mechanical, Aerospace, Civil, and Chemical engineering disciplines. Among many branches of fluid dynamics, compressible flow is an important subject for aerospace and mechanical engineering disciplines as it involves solving high speed air flows in situations such as flight of an airplane or aerodynamic drag of an automobile. In these flow situations, compressibility of the fluid must be taken into account as the density of the fluid cannot be considered a constant. Compressibility of fluid is very important in engineering applications involving flow through nozzles, diffusers, and flows in a scramjet engine.

One of the main obstacles in teaching fluid dynamics to undergraduate students is the lack of visualization and computational tools that enhance and improve learning process of the students. With the widespread availability of multi-media software and hardware tools, development and integration of 2- and 3-dimensional visualization tools and computational tools to the undergraduate fluid curriculum becomes necessary. Therefore, in order to improve the learning process of students, a variety of learning tools such as interactive and multimedia texts, multimedia videos and CD-ROMs, computational and experimental tools, have been developed and used by many educators teaching fluid and thermodynamics courses1-5. The development of Internet – specifically the World Wide Web (WWW) has led to unprecedented growth over the last decade in access to information. It offers many advantages: ease of use, quick access, low cost, available without the limitation of time or location, computer platform independent, and flexible in allowing students to control their learning pace. With the advent of JAVA programming language, which offers attractions like platform independence, and development of a single code for many different types of computers, engineering applications can be easily developed for the web.

Motivation and Need for the Solver

Proceedings of the 2006 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2006, American Society for Engineering Education

• Citation

• Format
  • APA
  • APA - LaTeX bibitem
  • MLA
  • MLA - LaTeX bibitem
  • Bibtex
  • EndNote - RIS

Eletem, H., & Young, F., & Aung, K. (2006, June), A Web Based Solver For Compressible Flow Calculations Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--403