MEAM 435/545 Course Homepage

University of Pennsylvania
School of Engineering and Applied Science

Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics
MEAM 435/545: Aerodynamics
Spring 2006

Table of Contents
Please do not print this material on the SEAS or CETS printers.

Course Description

Syllabus
Prerequisites
Meeting Time
Grading Policy
Textbook
Homework

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Course Description

Review of fluid kinematics and conservation laws; vorticity theorems; two-dimensional potential flow; airfoil theory; finite wings; oblique shocks; supersonic wing theory; laminar and turbulent boundary layers.

Fluid mechanics forces us to understand the underlying physics rather deeply. This is because the results often defy our intuition.

Examples
1. Infinitesmally 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 adiabatic flow in 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.

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Course Syllabus

Introductory material
Aerostatics
Dimensional analysis

Basic conservation laws
    Mass
    Momentum
    Energy
    Boundary conditions

Kinematics
Streamlines, streaklines, path lines
Derivative following the particle

Basic theorems
     Euler momentum integral
    Bernoulli (momentum)
    Bernoulli (energy)
    Vorticity theorems
        Bjerknes' theorem
        Helmholtz theorem
        Vorticity and stagnation pressure
    Circulation and lift

Irrotational constant density flows
    Special solutions
    Flow about a body
    Doublet
    Vortex
    Cylinder flow
    Bound vortex--Kutta condition
    Superposition for flow over arbitrary bodies
    Method of images

Aerodynamic characteristics of airfoils
    Thin airfoil theory
    Symmetric airfoil
    Cambered airfoil
    Flapped airfoil

Finite wing theory

Viscous effects--introduction to boundary layers
    Rayleigh problem
    Boundary layer on a flat plate
        Blasius similarity solution
        Displacement thickness
    Effect of pressure gradient
    Falkner-Skan similarity solution
    Karman-Phlhausen integral method

Instability and transition

Turbulence
    Tube and channel flows
    Boundary layers
    Effect of pressure gradient

Compressible flow
    Plane waves
    Isentropic compression and expansion--Prandtl-Meyer Flow
    Shocks--normal and oblique
    One dimensional gasdynamics
        Conservation Laws
        Isentropic nozzle flows
        Friction in ducts
        Heating in ducts

Compressible potential flow
Linearized theory
Prandtl-Glauert transformation

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Prerequisites

Prerequisite(s): MEAM 302. This course is cross-listed with an advanced level undergraduate course. It may be taken by M.S.E. students for credit. M.S.E. students will be required to do some extra work, they will be graded on a different grade scale than undergraduate students and they will be required to demonstrate a higher level of maturity in their class assignments. MEAM doctoral candidates will not be permitted to count this course as part of their degree requirements.

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Course Meeting Time

Mondays and Wednesdays, 8:30-10:00 a.m.
Room 305 Towne Building.

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Grading Policy

Homeworks: +/- one letter
Midterms: 50%
Final: 50%

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Required Textbooks

and Books/Tapes on Reserve in Library

Required Text:

A.M. Kuethe and S.Y. Chow, Foundations of Aerodynamics, J. Wiley & Sons.
H. Tennekes, The Simple Science of Flight, MIT Press.

Books in Towne Scientific Library on Reserve for Fluid Mechanics Courses:

B.W. McCormick, Aerodynamics, Aeronautics, and Flight Mechanics
J.D. Anderson, Fundamentals of Aerodynamics
J.D. Anderson, Introduction to Flight
J.D. Anderson, A History of Aerodynamics
S.W. Yuan, Foundations of Fluid Mechanics
Liepmann and Roshko, Elements of Gasdynamics
S. Goldstein, Modern Developments in Fluid Dynanics
H. Schlichting, Boundary Layer Theory
H. Emmons (ed), Gas Dynamics
E. Becker, Gas Dynamics
K. Oswatitsch, Gas Dynamics
L. Howarth (ed), Modern Development in Fluid Dynamics: High Speed Flow
L. Prandtl and O. G. Tietjens, Fundamentals of Hydro- and Aeromechanics (Dover)
L. Prandtl and O. G. Tietjens, Applied Hydro- and Aeromechanics (Dover).
A. Shapiro, The Dynamics and Thermodynamics of Compressible Fluid Flow
I. Cohen, EM 640-641 Class Notes (1966-1967)
D.C. Leigh, Nonlinear Continuum Mechanics
D. Meksyn, New Methods in Laminar Boundary Layer Theory
R.S. Lenk, Plastics Rheology
R. Aris, Vectors, Tensors, and the Basic Equations of Fluid Mechanics
S. Flügge and C. Truesdell. Editors, Encyclopedia of Physics, vol. VIII/I:
Fluid Dynamics I, Article by James Serrin, Mathematical Principles of Classical Fluid Mechanics
Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. I, 1969