Fluid Mechanics Ae/APh/CE/ME 101

Ae/APh/CE/ME 101 is the introductory graduate course in fluid dynamics offered in the EAS division at Caltech. The course covers the fundamentals of fluid motion and serves as preparation for research in fluid mechanics. The course covers both compressible and incompressible flow, including viscous effects as well as inviscid approximations.

Selected topics include flows with shock and expansion waves, quasi-one dimensional and two dimensional compressible flow, vorticity, acoustics, airfoil and wing theory, boundary layers, lubrication theory, and an introduction to turbulence flow. The emphasis is on developing the student’s ability to formulate and solve physical problems based on the fundamental conservations laws, kinematics and thermodynamics. Dimensional considerations, similarity and order of magnitude analysis of equations are introduced along with the classical methods of applied mathematics for solving partial differential equations.

The material covered in this course is a prerequisite for advanced classes in fluid mechanics in CME and Ae and also forms the basis for the qualifying exams in fluid dynamics that ME and Ae graduate students aspiring to Ph.D. status must take in their second year of graduate study.

Prerequisites: An introductory course in Fluid Mechanics at the senior level. A first course in advanced engineering mathematics or mathematical physics covering solutions of partial differential equations and complex variables is preferred but usually is taken concurrently by most graduate students.

• Joe Shepherd's skeleton guide (PDF)
• Brad Sturtevant's more comprehensive notes (PDF)

• Formulary for perfect gas shocks (PDF)
• Shock waves in air at sea level, real gas results (PDF)
• Shock waves in air at 31 km, real gas results (PDF)