Usage of A Virtual Environment to Improve the Teaching of Fluid Mechanics

Konrad Boettcher,Alexander Behr

doi:10.3991/ijoe.v16i14.16997

Konrad Boettcher, Alexander Behr

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3991/ijoe.v16i14.16997

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Abstract

<p class="0abstract">In many fields of study, physical sub-areas are treated mathematically in order to teach students the tools for optimization in their professional lives. This often means that the understanding of the physical interrelationships is left out in the cold. Practical experiments are often unsuitable for clarification, since important quantities in the mathematical formulation cannot be made visible in experiments (or only with extreme effort). Numerical calculations may show these quantities, but students cannot carry them out for themselves. For this purpose, the software Unreal engine 4 is used to create a virtual environment for fluid mechanics and compared with other methods to improve the teaching of the fundamentals of fluid mechanics. The virtual environment enables the students to influence the flow in order to experience and examine the basic physical effects. The results were used and evaluated in exercises and tutorials associated to the fluid mechanics course. Benefits for the use of virtual reality (VR) in teaching were ascertained.</p>

Highlights

Many influences of fluid mechanics are found in daily life like a flying bird or a curled shot of a football
Fluid mechanics is a quite complicated field of physics; it is related to applied mathematics
After the creation of virtual environments to improve the teaching of the fundamentals of fluid mechanics, a comparison with the creation of other teaching methods can be made

Summary

Introduction

Many influences of fluid mechanics are found in daily life like a flying bird or a curled shot of a football. Fluid mechanics is a quite complicated field of physics; it is related to applied mathematics. For an uncomplicated explanation of the physical background, schematic representations are used in textbooks or classic blackboard lectures. These depictions have the disadvantage of projecting reality onto a surface. The transition from three-dimensional to two-dimensional visualization inevitably increases the information density. This inevitably reduces the accessibility and clarity of the problem considered.

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