Desktop Flow Visualisation Experiments for Guided Discovery of Boundary Layers
- Conference
- Location
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Portland, Oregon
- Publication Date
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June 23, 2024
- Start Date
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June 23, 2024
- End Date
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July 12, 2024
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Experimentation and Laboratory-Oriented Studies Division (DELOS)
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/47147
Paper Authors
Peter B. Johnson
Imperial College London
orcid.org/0000-0001-7841-691X
Peter is a Principal Teaching Fellow (permanent academic staff with an education focused remit) in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Imperial College London. He teaches a fluid mechanics module to undergraduate students. He is also responsible for laboratory based learning, and plays a lead role in teaching administration within the department. Additionally, Peter has a remit to innovate in educational methods, with two main focuses: discovery based learning, including developing laboratory equipment and demonstrations; and software development to support self-study.
Peter has been at Imperial College since 2018, before which he worked in the Oil and Gas industry as a Research Scientist and as a Field Engineer at Schlumberger. Prior to that he was Assistant Professor at Nazarbayev University. Peter has a Ph.D. in Fluid Dynamics from University College, London (UCL); a Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from UCL and Columbia University, New York; and a Master's Degree in Education from Imperial College London.
Christian Klettner University College London
Abstract
The theory of boundary layers, which is well established and taught in all undergraduate fluid mechanics courses, can be challenging for first-time learners to comprehend. Three challenges are identified in this paper, namely to visualise the existence, thinness, and attachment/separation of boundary layers. We frame these challenges as threshold concepts that may benefit from discovery-based learning. We present a new desktop experiment, where water flow is visualised in a transparent flow loop, that supports a `guided discovery' approach.
Student lab books and reports from the activity provide evidence that the first two challenges were broadly solved, while the nuance of separation requiring strong positive gradients was recorded by approximately half of the students.
A survey on the student experience over four years (717 students, 331 replies --- 46\%) considered seven dimensions of the student experience. Overall results showed that students found the experiment engaging, and helpful in gaining a conceptual understanding of the boundary layer.
Overall, on the three challenges we identified, the equipment and the `guided discovery' activity were judged to be successful. We also show prototype improvements for future, to aid with the third challenge, including equipment upgrades and the introduction of computational fluid dynamics (CFD).
Johnson, P. B., & Klettner, C. (2024, June), Desktop Flow Visualisation Experiments for Guided Discovery of Boundary Layers Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/47147
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