Abstract
AbstractA robust and intuitive understanding of fluid mechanics—the applied science of fluid motion—is foundational within many engineering disciplines, including aerospace, chemical, civil, mechanical, naval, and ocean engineering. In‐depth knowledge of fluid mechanics is critical to safe and economical design of engineering applications employed globally everyday, such as automobiles, aircraft, and sea craft, and to meeting global 21st century engineering challenges, such as developing renewable energy sources, providing access to clean water, managing the environmental nitrogen cycle, and improving urban infrastructure. Despite the fundamental nature of fluid mechanics within the broader undergraduate engineering curriculum, students often characterize courses in fluid mechanics as mathematically onerous, conceptually difficult, and aesthetically uninteresting; anecdotally, undergraduates may choose to opt‐out of fluids engineering‐related careers based on their early experiences in fluids courses. Therefore, the continued development of new frameworks for engineering instruction in fluid mechanics is needed. Toward that end, this paper introduces mobile instructional particle image velocimetry (mI‐PIV), a low‐cost, open‐source, mobile application‐based educational tool under development for smartphones and tablets running Android. The mobile application provides learners with both technological capability and guided instruction that enables them to visualize and experiment with authentic flow fields in real time. The mI‐PIV tool is designed to generate interest in and intuition about fluid flow and to improve understanding of mathematical concepts as they relate to fluid mechanics by providing opportunities for fluids‐related active engagement and discovery in both formal and informal learning contexts.
Highlights
In the United States, fluid science principles and fluids engineering applications are rarely, if ever, introduced at the secondary level; early undergraduate courses in fluid mechanics are commonly considered by students to be among the most challenging due to the abstract nature of fundamental fluids concepts and principles and the depth of mathematical background needed to solve fluids‐related engineering problems [4,38,51]
We found that available literature related to the development of mobile particle‐image velocimetry (PIV) learning tools for fluid mechanics education was limited, our literature search did reveal work related to the development of a mobile PIV tool for the industrial fluid mechanics application of measuring surface flows during extreme weather events such as floods [10]
Velocity vector field results reveal that the mobile instructional particle image velocimetry (mI‐PIV) test application vector field results provide an effective qualitative representation of the flow field when compared to the LG setup. mI‐PIV vectors computed from a single image pair show variation in magnitude of the velocity but not in the direction of the velocity
Summary
In the United States, fluid science principles and fluids engineering applications are rarely, if ever, introduced at the secondary (i.e., high school) level; early undergraduate courses in fluid mechanics are commonly considered by students to be among the most challenging due to the abstract nature of fundamental fluids concepts and principles and the depth of mathematical background needed to solve fluids‐related engineering problems [4,38,51]. Measurement accuracy/benchmarking, laser/optics system design and testing, and GII conceptual design; (b) enable upfront engagement of mI‐PIV stakeholders (i.e., research team, advisory board, and learners) within DBR iterative assessment process; and (c) introduce project team computer science developers to the requirements and nuances of PIV computational processes.
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