Autumn 2021
Prof. Krishnendu Sinha
Author: Ayush Sarraf
Pre-requisite courses: AE 223, AE 225, AE 236
Pre-requisite skills: No hard prerequisite, but knowledge of either coding or simulation tools preferred
Course Content: Starts with a review of basics of gas dynamics, hypersonic flows, turbulence modeling and computation fluid dynamics. CFD topics such as grid refinement and convergence, explicit and implicit time-integration and mesh metrics are a few among the many topics that are covered. Then research topics such as re-entry capsule, nozzle flows: laminar and turbulent boundary layer, turbulence models, jet exhaust plumes and other high speed flow phenomena are discussed in detail. One can check the ASC course description to get detailed contents.
Coure Evaluation: 3 project presentations - 85% Attendance - 5% Peer review and class participation - 10%
Information about Projects/Assignments: One semester-long project was the main crux of the course. The project could be either based on simulations, code development or simply a paper review. Simulation and code development projects could be done in groups of 2 while paper review was needed to be done individually. There were three presentation based on motivation, procedure and results involved in the project and each had a viva after the presentation.
Overall Course Difficulty: 4/5
Average Time Commitment: 2-3 hours/week
Attendance Policy: No DX grade but marks was allotted to attendance and class participation.
General funda: Do attend the lectures regularly and ask questions in the class. Also, choose the project topic of your interest, sensibly so that it can be completed by the end of the semester. Work regularly on the project.
Professor’s Teaching Style: The lectures were very well-paced and fairly descriptive with some advanced topics highlighted at the end for self-research. Recordings of the lectures were provided before hand and the prof later discussed the content in the class hours.
Should you do this course?: Anyone who is enthusiastic about CFD and want to learn about the physical interpretation of different numerical methods used to solve the fluid mechanics equations.