Hands On CFD Educational Interface for Engineering Courses and Laboratories Frederick Stern IIHR Hydroscience Engineering The University of Iowa Tao Xing IIHR Hydroscience Engineering The University of Iowa Donald B Yarbrough Center for Evaluation and Assessment The University of Iowa Alric Rothmayer Aerospace Engineering Iowa State University Ganesh Rajagopalan Aerospace Engineering Iowa State University 1 Shourya Prakash Otta Aerospace Engineering Iowa State University David Caughey Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Cornell University Rajesh Bhaskaran Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Cornell University Sonya Smith Mechanical Engineering Howard University Barbara Hutchings Fluent Inc Shane Moeykens Fluent Inc Accepted for publication to Journal of Engineering Education Jan 2006 2 ABSTRACT This study describes the development implementation and evaluation of an effective curriculum for students to learn computational fluid dynamics CFD in introductory and intermediate undergraduate and introductory graduate level courses laboratories The curriculum is designed for use at different universities with different courses laboratories learning objectives applications conditions and exercise notes The common objective is to teach students from novice to expert users who are well prepared for engineering practice The study describes a CFD Educational Interface for hands on student experience which mirrors actual engineering practice The Educational Interface teaches CFD methodology and procedures through a step bystep interactive implementation automating the CFD process A hierarchical system of predefined active options facilitates use at introductory and intermediate levels encouraging selflearning and eases transition to using industrial CFD codes An independent evaluation documents successful learning outcomes and confirms the effectiveness of the interface for students in introductory and intermediate fluid mechanics courses Keywords Hands on CFD Educational Interface computer assisted learning simulation technology I INTRODUCTION There is no question of the need and importance of integrating computer assisted learning and simulation technology into undergraduate engineering courses and laboratories as simulation based design and ultimately virtual reality become increasingly important in engineering practice The scope of simulation technology is broad and covers computerized systems 3 computerized solutions of engineering problem formulations using mathematical physics modeling numerical methods and high performance computing all of which broadly influence all engineering disciplines Recent research has shown the effectiveness of computer assisted learning for accounting tutorials 1 food process design projects 2 electrical machines laboratories 3 the use of multi media courseware for bicycle dissection 4 and scrapers 5 and an on line internal combustion engine research facility using both computations and experiments 6 Systems based simulation technology has also been shown to be effective for chemical plant design 7 electronics laboratories 8 and chemical processes 9 including the use of commercial software for chemical processes 10 and educational computer programs for mechanical systems 11 and neural networks 12 Methods for assessing the effectiveness of using simulation technology in engineering education include student presentations surveys and interviews student performance including pre and post tests both with and without intervention statistical analysis and faculty perception With respect to employing simulation technology in the curriculum consideration must be given to issues of learning vs research objectives usability vs predetermined objectives and student demographics Previous studies focusing on use of simulation technology in education have shown enhancement of the curriculum 1 12 increased learning efficiency and understanding 6 7 8 10 effectiveness of novel and hands on learning methods 4 12 efficacy of combined physical and simulation laboratories 8 importance of user friendly interfaces 5 11 and positive student responses 6 Curricula must be developed for physics based simulation technology such as computational fluid dynamics CFD which is of present interest but diverse learning objectives and limited research both are complicating factors for successfully 4 incorporating CFD into the curriculum CFD is a widely used tool in fluids engineering with many specialty and commercial CFD codes in use through out the world covering many application areas The lack of trained users is a major obstacle to the greater use of CFD In parallel with the use of CFD for research and development activities over the past 35 years graduate student level CFD courses have become well developed and common in most engineering discipline graduate programs Intermediate and advanced level CFD courses teach modeling and numerical methods using textbooks computer programming assignments and specialty 13 15 or commercial software 16 18 These courses have a common objective of learning CFD for code development and applications in support of M S and Ph D thesis research More recently as CFD becomes pervasive in engineering practice and is expected to be used by engineers without post graduate education educators have additionally focused on teaching CFD at the undergraduate level Various curricula have been developed including CFD courses laboratories and or projects and multi media 19 20 studio models 21 16 18 and computerized textbooks 22 These curricula use both specialty 23 24 and commercial 17 18 25 26 software which is sometimes combined with experiments 16 27 Additionally the curricula frequently cover a diverse range of learning objectives A graduate student intermediate level CFD course is generally also open as a technical elective to undergraduate students while the curriculum is optimized separately for the graduate or undergraduate groups Integrating specialty or commercial CFD software for the non expert user into lecture and or laboratory courses can facilitate comparisons with experiments and analytical methods The objective is to enhance the curriculum through use of interactive CFD exercises multi media and studio models for teaching fluid mechanics including heat transfer and aerodynamics A limited 5 evaluation following the aforementioned methods shows promise with achievements as noted in the previously mentioned studies at both graduate and undergraduate
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