To introduce students to both theory, fundamentals, and hands-on applications of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to meet the requirements of both courses. The course starts with emphasizing on the fundamentals and after the midterm exam, the fundamentals will be applied to an engineering application.

By taking this course, CAE 405 students will be able to (1) understand numerical solutions that arise in engineering applications, especially heat transfer and fluid mechanics (up to five independent variables, including spatial coordinates, time, and species), (2) learn underlying equations of the finite volume method and pressure-based methods, (3) deploy the fundamentals of CFD to engineering applications using a computer software package, (4) prepare and run CFD models for the engineering problems using computer software packages, and (5) post process CFD results using computer software packages and prepare technical reports.

By taking this course, CAE 505 and MMAE 517 students will be able to: (1) understand numerical solutions that arise in engineering applications, especially heat transfer and fluid mechanics (up to five independent variables, including spatial coordinates, time, and species), (2) learn underlying equations of the finite volume method and pressure-based methods, (3) deploy the fundamentals of CFD to simple engineering applications using programming languages, (4) deploy the fundamentals of CFD to engineering applications using a computer software package, (5) prepare and run CFD models for the engineering problems using computer software packages, and (6) post process CFD results using computer software packages and prepare technical reports.

Course Syllabus

• Most recent syllabus_updated_May 13, 2024

Lecture Notes

Fundamentals:

• Lecture 01: Introduction to the course and overview, airflow modeling, case studies, tensor notations, classification of PDEs, and conservation equations
• Lecture 02: Conservation equations
• Lecture 03: Introduction to turbulence modeling
• Lecture 04: Finite difference method for time independents problems
• Lecture 05: Finite volumes for time-independent problems (1)
• Lecture 06: Finite volumes for time-independent problems (2)
• Lecture 07: Finite volumes for time-independent problems (3) and intro to solving linear systems
• Lecture 08: Solving linear systems
• Lecture 09 (Part 1): Midterm exam

Applications:

• Lecture 09 (Part 2): Guest speaker (Dantec Dynamics, Inc.)
• Lecture 10: Spring Break
• Lecture 11: Ansys Fluent training (pre-processing and post-processing)
• Lecture 12: Validation and verification for CFD simulations and creating mesh for a bluff body (1)
• Lecture 13: Creating mesh for a bluff body (2) and student interim project presentations
• Lecture 14: Guest speakers (Ansys) and writing UDF and expressions
• Lecture 15: Guest speakers (Baumann Consulting) and student interim project presentations
• Lecture 16: Student project presentations (1)
• Lecture 17: Student project presentations (2)