MEAM 245:  Introduction to Flight

Directory (The links jump to the appropriate part of the page.)
Assignments
Exam Dates
Labs
Homework Solutions - Homework solutions will be placed on reserve in the Towne Library when the homework is returned to you.

Instructors:
Professor Ira M. Cohen, 306 Towne Building
email:  imcohen@seas.upenn.edu
phone:  215-898-7076

Bruce Kothmann, 320 Towne Building

email: kothmann@seas.upenn.edu

phone: 215-898-7106

Teaching Assistant:
to be assigned

Grader:

Niraj Inamdar

Office Hours:
Dr. Cohen: by appointment
Bruce Kothmann:

Lectures:  MWF 11-12

Lab:   101 Monday, 10 a.m.
           102 Tuesday, 8 a.m. - cancelled
           103 Wednesday, 9 a.m.
           104 Friday, 10 a.m. - cancelled
        Laboratories start Sept. 10th - Attend the laboratory for which you registered.

Lab Groups: The class is divided into 4 groups. Missing a laboratory will cost one letter in the course grade.

Course Structure

Texts:  John D. Anderson, Jr., Introduction to Flight, McGraw Hill, 5th Edition (hardback, paperbound, or on-line downloadable version)
             H. Tennekes, The Simple Science of Flight, MIT Press (paperback)
Syllabus:
         1.    Basic Concepts:  pressure, temperature, density, velocity, streamlines, forces.  Units of  measurement.  1 week.
         2.    The standard atmosphere.  1/2 week.
         3.    Basic conservation laws of fluid mechanics:  mass, momentum, energy.  2 weeks.
         4.    Compressibility and sound speed.  1/2 week.
         5.    Flow measurement:  Bernoulli's equation and manometry.  1 week.
         6.    Exam #1
         7.    Compressibility.  Duct flows.  Subsonic and supersonic flows.  Rocket nozzles.  2 weeks.
         8.    Effects of viscosity.  Introduction to boundary layers.  1 week.
         9.    Airfoils and wing theory.  Calculation of lift and moments. 2 weeks.
         10.  Exam #2
         11.  Aircraft performance:  thrust, power, rate of climb, ceiling, range and endurance.  2 weeks.
         12.  Stability and Control.  Static stability, pitching moment, longitudinal control.  1 week.
         13.  Aircraft propulsion.  Propeller theory for reciprocating engines, jet engines, rocket engines.  1 week.
         14.  Astronautics, Lagrange's Equations, vehicle trajectories, and orbits.
         15.  Final Exam

Grading
Exam 1: 25%
Exam 2: 25%
Final 50%.
Homeworks and labs can raise or lower the grade by one letter

Examination Dates:  October 17, November 19, Final - December 13
Special Note:  No lecture on Sept. 14 and Oct. 15 (fall break)

Additional reference materials:
    Fluid Mechanics Videos in SEAS Library:
            1.    Fundamentals of Boundary Layers; Boundary Layer Control; Flow Instabilities
            2.    Pressure Fields and Fluid Acceleration; Secondary Flow; Flow Visualization
            3.    Low Reynolds Number Flows; Surface Tension in Fluid Mechanics; Turbulence
            4.    Rheological Behavior of Fluids; Eulerian and Lagrangian Descriptions in Fluid Mech.;
                   Deformation of Continuous Media
            5.    Channel Flow of Compressible Fluid
            6.    Rotating Flows
            7.    Waves in Fluids
            8.    Stratified Flow
            9.    Vorticity:  Parts 1 & 2
            10.  Fluid Dynamics of Drag:  Parts 1, 2 & 3  (Especially Recommended)
            11.  Fluid Dynamics of Drag:  Part 4  (Especially Recommended)
            12.  Turbulent Flow; Aerodynamic Generation of Sound
            13.  Magnetohydrodynamics; Cavitation; Rarefied Gas Flows

Although these films are decades old, they remain excellent visualizations of the principles of fluid mechanics.  All but one are available for viewing on the MIT web site as follows: http://web.mit.edu/fluids/www/Shapiro/ncfmf.html.  The films are listed individually on the web site.

     On Reserve in SEAS Library
             1.    B. W. McCormack.  Aerodynamics, Aeronautics, and Flight Mechanics
             2.    J. D. Anderson.  Fundamentals of Aerodynamics
             3.    J. D. Anderson.  Introduction to Flight
             4.    S. W. Yuan.  Foundations of Fluid Mechanics
           5.    Liepmann and Roshko.  Elements of Gasdynamics
             6.    S. Goldstein.  Modern Developments in Fluid Dynamics
             7.    H. Schlichting.  Boundary Layer Theory
             8.    H. Emmons (ed).  Gas Dynamics
            9.    E. Becker.  Gas Dynamics
            10.  K. Oswatitsch.  Gas Dynamics
             11.  L. Howarth (ed).  Modern Developments in Fluid Dynamics: High Speed Flow
             12.  A. Shapiro.  The Dynamics and Thermodynamics of Compressible Fluid Flow
             13.  I. Cohen.  EM 640-641 Class Notes (1966-1967)
             14.  D. C. Leigh.  Nonlinear Continuum Mechanics
             15.  D. Meksyn.  New Methods in Laminar Boundary Layer Theory
             16.  R. S. Lenk.  Plastics Rheology
             17.  R. Aris.  Vectors, Tensors, and the Basic Equations of Fluid Mechanics
             18.  S. Flugge and C. Truesdell.  Editors, Encyclopedia of Physics, vol. VIII/I: Fluid Dynamics I,
                         Article by James Serrin.  Mathematical Principles of Classical Fluid Mechanics.
             19.  Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 1, 1969
             20.  J. P. Fielding, Introduction to Aircraft Design, Cambridge University Press
             21.  J. D. Anderson, Jr., A History of Aerodynamics, Cambridge University Press

Counterintuitivity of Fluid Mechanics:
Fluid Mechanics forces us to understand the underlying physics rather deeply because the results often defy our intuition.

1.  Infinitesimally small causes can have large effects (D'Alembert's Paradox).
2.  Symmetric problems may have non-symmetric solutions (Karman vortex street).
3.  Friction can make the flow go faster and cool the flow (subsonic adiabiatic flow in a constant area
     duct).
4.  Roughening the surface of a body can decrease its drag (transition from laminar to turbulent
     boundary layer separation).
5.  Adding heat to a flow may lower its temperature.  Removing heat from a flow may raise its
     temperature.  (One dimensional diabatic flow in a range of subsonic Mach number.)
6.  Friction can destabilize a previously stable flow (Orr-Sommerfeld stability analysis for a
     boundary layer profile without inflection point).
7.  Without friction, birds couldn't fly and fish couldn't swim (Kutta condition requires viscosity).
8. The best and most accurate visualization of streamlines in an infinite Re flow (inviscid) is in a Hele-Shaw apparatus at near zero Re.

Assignments

Some HW expectations

1) Follow the units through the problem, making sure they cancel properly.
For example, force should come out in Newtons or lbf, *not* lbm or Kg, or feet.

2) Do the problem in the units given in the problem. Don't convert to some other units (unless the given units are inconsistent, in which case pick the nearest consistent units, e.g. "feet/min" can become "feet/sec").
(This is purely a make-it-easy-for-the-grader thing. We really appreciate this.)

3) Don't give every digit on the calculator in your final answer. As a rule of thumb, two or three digits is enough.
Corollary: Use the best info possible within the calculation. You can build up round-off error really quickly if you truncate every number to two digits.
If you want to know how to do it right (and read a great story about the fate in store for those who don't take heed!) look here.

4) Staple your homework.

5) The penalty for late HWs will be 5 pts/day. (There are 10pts/problem.)

6) Solutions to homework problems will be on reserve in the SEAS Library when the homework papers are returned. (They will not be posted on the web site.)

Assignment Two:   Read Anderson Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Sections 4.1-4.4
                             Problems 3.2, 3.7, 3.8, 4.3, 4.4, 4.6
                             Read Tennekes, Chapter 2
                             View Video 11, 2

Assignment Three:  Read Anderson Chapter 4, Sections 4.5-4.10
                              Problems 4.8, 4.15, 4.19
                              Read Tennekes Chapter 3
                              View Video 5

Assignment Four:    Read Anderson Chapter 4, Sections 4.11-4.13
                              Problems 4.21, 4.22, 4.25, 4.28, 4.31
                              Complete Lab #1
                              View Video 1

Assignment Five:    Read Anderson Chapter 4, Sections 4.14-4.25, Chapter 5, Sections 5.1-5.6
                              Problems 4.34, 4.35, 5.2, 5.6 [use data for Re=5.7*10⁶], 5.8
                              View Video 9

Assignment Six:     Read Anderson Chapter 5, Sections 5.7-5.12
                             Problems 5.9, 5.10, 5.15, 5.18, 5.19
                             Read Tennekes, Chapter 4

Assignment Seven: Read Anderson Chapter 5, Sections 5.13-end, Chapter 6, Sections 6.1-6.3
                             Problems 5.21, 5.22, 5.26, 6.1

Assignment Eight:  Read Anderson through 6.8
                             Problems 6.3, 6.5
                             Read Tennekes, Chapter 5

Assignment Nine:  Read Anderson Chapter 6, Sections 6.9-6.15
                            Problems 6.7, 6.13, 6.16

Assignment Ten:   Read Anderson Chapter 6, Sections 6.16 - 6.25, Chapter 7, Sections 7.1 -7.7
                            Problems 6.18, 6.20, 7.2, 7.3
                            Read Tennekes, Chapter 6

Assignment Eleven:  Read Anderson Chapter 7, Sections 7.8-7.22, Chapter 9, Sections 9.1-9.3
                               Problems 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 9.1

Assignment Twelve:  Read Anderson Chapter 8, Sections 8.1-8.5, Chapter 9, Sections 9.4-9.17
                                Problems 9.2, 9.3, 9.4
 

Laboratories

Laboratory 1:  Flight Simulator.  Take off in a Cessna 182, climb to 1500 ft altitude, turn, and descend to land on the same runway. Flight instruction: Sept. 10, 12. Must sign in for one of the lessons. Must be completed by Oct. 12th.