REQUIREMENTS AND PRIOR KNOWLEDGE
This course is mainly aimed at Students in the fields of Engineering,
Physics etc… A minimal background in Fluid Mechanics is also important
to properly enjoy the course.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE SUBJECT
The incorporation of CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) as a possible
solution to modern day fluid mechanic problems has become part of the
daily lives of many engineers along with the companies they work for.
EADS, ALSTOM, GAMESA, and many other major automobile manufacturers have
incorporated CFD’s in their design cycles. Usually, the main objective
is to quantitatively estimate forces produced by flows around a specific
structural component or to optimize the design of an individual part
responding to forces originating from fluid dynamics.
For these companies, where many engineering graduates end up,
knowledge in the field of CFD and their codes is a very important asset.
These skills imply a high degree of multidisciplinary competence in
order to accurately define and resolve specific problems. A profound
knowledge is needed in different key areas such as CAD to properly
discretize the problem, fluid mechanics to properly understand the
governing phenomena behind the problem, numerical methods to understand
how these fluid dynamic problems are numerically solved and finally,
experimental techniques in fluid mechanics to understand the underlying
errors in reference values used for validation. This makes it difficult
for educational departments to assume the full load of this education.
Nonetheless, with the open course ware proposed online, a compilation of
valuable material allows the students to get a feel for this new
technology through unstructured personal assignments.
We believe a good way of handling such a course is to make it as
practical and hands-on as possible with constant references to the
fundamental aspects previously mentioned. As such, this course is
organized around a set of tutorials to be run with different software
applications, some of them free, others with free academic licences and
others which are proprietary.
This course is one iniative of the UPM Education Innovation Group on CFDs ("Grupo de Innovación Educativa en Computación y Mecánica de Fluidos")
OBJETIVES: KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS
The objective of this course is to provide a practical introduction
to the use of CFD codes in Engineering. The students will acquire skills
in modelling and 3D geometry meshing which they will use to run panel
method codes used in the computation of potential flows around a body
(special emphasis will be given to problems with a free surface). These
modelled geometries will also be used in finite element, finite volume
for viscous flow computations and meshless codes.
TEACHING MATERIAL
The course is organized in 3 main sections:
1. Panel Methods (BEM)
2. Finite Element Method (FEM)
3. Finite Volume Method (FVM)
The material for this course consists of exercises and tutorials used
in the CFD WORKSHOP and the ATHENS course UPM41
(http://www.athensprogramme.com/catalog/show/859) together with new
material created specifically for this course.
EVALUATION ACTIVIVTIES OR PRACTICAL TASKS
A set of exercises provided with each tutorial and aimed at
self-assessing any new assimilated capabilities is to be completed by
the student.