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MECH 4610 Introduction To Aerodynamics Fall 2014 Preliminary Test of Background Knowledge

The document contains a 16 question quiz on fundamental concepts in fluid dynamics and aerodynamics. It tests knowledge of topics like the conservation laws, continuity equation, types of forces acting on fluids, streamlines, velocity potential, Bernoulli equation, boundary layers, laws of thermodynamics, and the speed of sound. The questions are meant to assess the test taker's background knowledge at the start of an introductory aerodynamics course.

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55 views

MECH 4610 Introduction To Aerodynamics Fall 2014 Preliminary Test of Background Knowledge

The document contains a 16 question quiz on fundamental concepts in fluid dynamics and aerodynamics. It tests knowledge of topics like the conservation laws, continuity equation, types of forces acting on fluids, streamlines, velocity potential, Bernoulli equation, boundary layers, laws of thermodynamics, and the speed of sound. The questions are meant to assess the test taker's background knowledge at the start of an introductory aerodynamics course.

Uploaded by

YuHerry
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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MECH 4610 Introduction to Aerodynamics Fall 2014



Preliminary Test of Background Knowledge


The questions below are meant to serve as a brief survey of your background knowledge at
the start of the semester. Please write down brief answers as you know them, or after taking a
little time to look up material from previous courses.

1. Complete the following sentence: A fluid is any substance that

deforms continuously and permanently under the action of an (unbalanced) applied
stress.

2. In fluid dynamics, what are the fundamental conservation laws?

Conservation of mass, momentum, and energy.

3. What is meant by the continuity equation? What basic principles are used to derive it?

The continuity equation is simply a statement of the conservation of mass. Many
different forms exist. For this course, the most useful are those written as partial
differential equations (i.e. for a fluid particle). Allowing for possible changes in fluid
density (), it can be written as:

+ (

) = 0

If the density is constant, this reduces to

= 0 and the velocity field (

) is then
said to be divergence free. In Cartesian coordinates, this becomes:

= 0

4. The forces acting on a fluid are often classified as body forces and surface forces. What
exactly are these? Can you give an example of each?

Body forces are those that act at a distance and are dependent on the body mass.
Examples include buoyancy (which arises from gravity) and electromagnetic forces
for a conducting fluid.

Surface forces are those that act on a surface (either real or imaginary). Examples
include pressure, viscous forces, and surface tension.

5. What are the Euler equations? How about the NavierStokes equations?

Both are names given to the equations for conservation of momentum in a fluid. In
other words, they are both statements of Newtons second law for a continuum.

2

The NavierStokes equations are the full equations. For a Newtonian fluid (i.e. a fluid
whose shear stress is directly proportional to the shear strain rate that it experiences),
the NavierStokes equations, in vector notation, are:

(

) = +

+
2



where

represents body forces such as gravity, is the pressure, is the dynamic


viscosity, and
2
is the Laplace operator.

The Euler equations are the NavierStokes equations without the viscous terms (i.e.
without the rightmost term in the equation above). These equations can be used in
inviscid regions, where viscous forces are sufficiently small relative to other forces
(e.g. pressure forces) that they can be neglected to a good level of approximation.

6. What is a streamline? What is the stream function?

A streamline is a curve that is everywhere tangent to a velocity vector in a fluid
velocity field at a fixed instant in time.

The stream function, which is usually denoted by , is a two-dimensional function
that is used to encapsulate the two velocity components of a two-dimensional steady
incompressible flow. The stream function automatically satisfies mass conservation,
thus reducing the solution of the two-component velocity field to the solution of a
single function. This is done by writing the two velocity components as spatial
derivatives of the stream function: =

, =

. A convenient property of this


is that curves of constant are streamlines of the flow.

7. What is the velocity potential? For what types of flow is it defined/useful?

In an irrotational region of flow (i.e. in a flow region with negligible vorticity, or
negligible fluid particle rotation), the velocity vector can be expressed as the gradient
of a scalar function called the velocity potential . Regions of irrotational flow are
therefore also called regions of potential flow. Unlike the stream function*, the
velocity potential is not restricted to two-dimensional flows, i.e. it is valid for three-
dimensional flows, as long as the approximation of irrotationality is valid.

*Strictly speaking, the stream function is defined for two-dimensional flows as well
as for axisymmetric flows.

8. If a flow is inviscid, then the Bernoulli equation generally says something is constant
along a streamline. What is that something?

There are several names for this, but the most common are the Bernoulli head or
total pressure, written as +
1
2

2
+, where is the velocity magnitude and
is the vertical coordinate. In this course, we usually only need +
1
2

2
.


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9. Under what additional conditions can we say that that something in the preceding
question would be constant everywhere in the flow, i.e. not just along individual
streamlines but also across streamlines?

If the flow was irrotational. Irrotationality is a more stringent requirement than
inviscidness.

10. Why is it that, for an airplane to stay aloft in the sky (defying the law of gravity), it
always has to be moving? (Later in this course, we will see that moving too slowly or
moving too quickly could be dangerous.)

The mechanism for generating lift has to do with fluid motion, in such a way that a
pressure difference develops between the upper and lower surfaces of the wing.

11. Walking through water is much harder than walking through air. Why?

The density of water (1000 kg/m
3
) is about 830 times that of air (1.2 kg/m
3
).

12. By definition, the term boundary layer refers to a thin layer of fluid adjacent to a solid
surface (or a phase boundary between two different fluids). What happens in this
layer/region, and why is it so important?

The boundary layer (BL) is the region where much of the velocity variation takes
place, from zero velocity at the wall (because of the no-slip condition) to a higher
velocity in the freestream (far away from the wall). The velocity gradient at the wall
(usually ) determines the shear stress acting on the wall and hence the viscous
component of drag.

13. What is the first law of thermodynamics?

Energy is conserved. We may write = , where denotes an increment
and , , denote the internal energy, heat transfer (into the system) and work done
(by the system on the surroundings), respectively.

14. What is the second law of thermodynamics?

Entropy always increases. We can say that all real thermodynamic processes are
irreversible.

15. What is meant by the terms isentropic and adiabatic?

Isentropic = no change in entropy. Adiabatic = no heat transfer.

A process that is isentropic is one that is both adiabatic and reversible.

16. The speed of sound is important in aerodynamics. What exactly is sound, from a fluid
dynamics viewpoint?


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Sound can be thought of as being small pressure perturbations. The speed of sound is
the speed at which such perturbations propagate through a fluid medium. If an
airplane (or anything else for that matter) travels faster than the speed of sound, then it
will arrive at its destination unannounced i.e. you would see the airplane flying
past you before you could hear it.

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