Paper Authors

Abstract

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

From the Proceedings of the 2008 meeting of the American Society of Engineering Education

Session 3426 Educational Particle Image Velocimetry Interactive Experiment Suites

Murat Okçay PhD and Bilgehan Uygar Öztekin PhD Interactive Flow Studies

Abstract: Laboratory experience is an essential component of teaching Fluid Mechanics. Hands-on teaching methods provide a lasting understanding of the fluid flow principles. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) has become a very powerful technique for studying fluid mechanics. Unfortunately very high price and safety concerns of using Class 4 lasers prevent this technology being used in the undergraduate and graduate laboratory teaching. Recently, however, a relatively inexpensive, and safe for classroom use ‘educational Particle Image Velocimetry’ (ePIV) system with web based interactive software was developed. This novel technology is an instrument that can be used in diverse educational settings because of its effectiveness as an education tool, high-tech appeal, compact size, low cost and safety. In this paper we introduce ePIV, describe its components in detail and provide examples of how it can be used to enhance undergraduate and graduate laboratory experience.

1. Introduction

Creativity is essential in generating scientific and technological breakthroughs. One way to develop and encourage creativity in students is to combine theory and practice in education. In this paper the focus will be on teaching of fluid mechanics. The laboratory experience has proved to be a crucial component of instruction in Fluid Mechanics1. The hands-on opportunity provides a compelling and lasting perspective of the realities of fluid flow, aspects that are missing from books and computers1. The Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) has become a very powerful technique for studying fluid mechanics2,3,4.

The setup is intended for educational use with the purpose of providing actual visualization and validation of the various flow phenomena in fluid mechanics studies. When studying a particular fluid mechanics theory - for example the concept of convective acceleration - flow in converging nozzle can be measured experimentally, and this can be correlated to the theory. In addition the PIV system can be used in senior design classes to visualize the actual flow in a prototype. It will provide a physical grasp of the theory, and a real appreciation of how the theory is applied in daily life situations. Correlations between the theory and actual flow visualization helps students and educators to fully understand the issues and benefits of fluid mechanics in a wide range of applications spanning from the fluid machinery to emerging applications, such as environmental, biological and micro-scale flows.

Design optimization is a common practice in industry. Students learning the design optimization process early in their career will benefit from this experience greatly. In fluid mechanics engineering a product development cycle starts with a design, and this initial design is optimized using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The purpose of the CFD is to minimize the number of tests that needs to be performed during the validation process of the design. This reduces the cost of development as tests are more expensive then the computational effort. The optimized

Proceedings of the 2008 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2008, American Society for Engineering Education

• Citation

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

OKCAY, M., & OZTEKIN, B. U. (2008, June), Educational Particle Image Velocimetry Interactive Experiment Suites Paper presented at 2008 Annual Conference & Exposition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 10.18260/1-2--3855