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Fluid
dynamics is the study of fluids in motion. The fundamentals of the study
of fluid flow were first investigated by Euler
and Bernoulli
in the 18th century. Since then the subject has been an active field of
research, and it remains so to this day. This is partly because of the
ubiquity of fluids around us. The engineering applications of the
subject are numerous and diverse : aircraft, ships and cars all move
through fluids, and so their design depends partly on an understanding
of the properties and behaviour of fluids. Air flows around buildings,
water flow through channels and the behaviour of gases in internal
combustion engines are some of the other examples of how fluid flow
affects our lives. Fluid dynamics also has important applications in
other areas of science, such as biology (blood flow in the body, insect
flight), meteorology (prediction of weather and climate), astronomy (gas
flows in galaxies, structure of stars) and oceanography (ocean
currents). Finally, in addition to its important applications, and
despite more than 200 years of study, our understanding of the physics
of fluid flow is still not complete. The basic equations describing
fluid flow, the Navier-Stokes equations, have been known for more than
150 years. However these equations are non-linear, and so exhibit a
complex variety of behaviour which is not easy to predict or even
describe. Analytical solutions to these equations are rare, particularly
in the complex regime of turbulence, and so to study fluid flows we must
use a range of techniques : analytical, experimental and computational.
The purpose of this website is to act as a repository for materials relating to the study of fluid dynamics. I lecture a number of modules at the School of Engineering and Computer Science, University of Exeter, and so this site contains resources developed for these courses (follow the "Courses" button on the toolbar on the right). However the site is not tied to the courses, and I am hoping that it will grow into a general resource for all those interested in the study of fluid flow. If you have comments on this site or would like to contribute in any way, please email me.
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