Engineering Fluid Mechanics (H1029)

15 credits, Level 5

Autumn teaching

This module introduces the basic concepts of fluid mechanics with applications in the field of engineering in mind. It teaches the fundamental techniques used to understand the behaviour of fluids at rest and in motion.

Many engineering applications/devices need to interact with a fluid medium (air, water, other...) in order to achieve a desired objective. For example, an aircraft moving in air, a ship sailing on water, or a wind turbine extracting power from wind. In each of the above and many other scenarios an engineer needs to understand the behaviour of the fluid when it interacts with the device in order to fully characterise the performance of the device. Fluid mechanics fundamentals are essential to achieve this.

As an engineer, one needs to tackle fluid related phenomena to design useful applications, be it in the field of transport, energy, medicine, sports or everyday household appliances. Without a good understanding of the fundamentals of fluid mechanics it would be practically impossible to produce successful designs.

This module takes you, step-by-step, from basic A-level physics and related mathematics to the theory and equations that describe stationary and moving fluid. You'll be introduced to practical applications of such theories to simple everyday examples involving fluid flow. The knowledge learned here is essential for understanding further applied topics in the Mechanical/Automotive BEng/MEng courses such as thermal power cycles and computational fluid mechanics and also for carrying out fluid mechanics based final-year projects.

Teaching

100%: Lecture

Assessment

20%: Coursework (Test)
80%: Examination (Unseen examination)

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 33 hours of contact time and about 117 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2023/24. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to COVID-19, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let our applicants know of material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.

Courses

This module is offered on the following courses: