Mechanical engineering design requires a broad range of knowledge in machinery design, fabrication and production technologies, electrical machinery, thermal and fluid systems, hydraulics and pneumatics, material science, instrumentation and controls, CAD (Computer Aided Design) and CAE (Computer Aided Engineering) software packages. With this knowledge base, a graduate can design or improve existing designs of products and systems. Design offers an exciting and rewarding career providing the satisfaction of seeing a newly developed product from conception to production.
Mechanical engineers work in the automotive, aerospace, chemical, computer, communication, paper, and power generation industries. Mechanical engineers will be found in virtually any manufacturing industry. Increasingly, mechanical engineers are needed in the environmental and bio-medical fields. Indeed virtually every product or service in modern life has probably been touched in some way by a mechanical engineer.
Fluids are ubiquitous: the air we breathe, the rivers and lakes we live near, the water that comes from our faucets and the blood in our veins are all examples of fluids that are familiar to us. Describing how fluids behave is what Fluid Mechanics is all about. In essence, it is the science of liquids and gasses in motion. Just as knowledge of mechanics of materials (solid mechanics) allows engineers to design bridges and buildings, knowledge of how fluids behave enables engineers to design water supply systems, pumps, turbines, aircraft, and even biomedical devices such as artificial hearts.
Before one can study fluids in motion, however, one must have an understanding of fluid properties and fluid statics. The main properties of fluids of interest to civil engineers include density, viscosity, and surface tension. Fluid statics involves the study of forces exerted by a fluid at rest. These principles allow engineers to design dams, ships, and pressure vessels (Idelsohn, Oñate, Calvo, Del Pin, 2003).......
