THE ROLE OF CASE STUDIES IN CFD EDUCATION

The user-friendliness of commercial CFD software has improved dramatically in the last ten years. The potential now exists for engineers with an under-graduate education to use the software for guiding design decisions. To realize this potential, educa-tors must ensure that graduating students have a solid understanding of algorithm operation, mod-elling limitations, and the fluid mechanics of com-plex flows. The present work shows how case studies can be used by instructors of undergraduate level CFD courses to develop and reinforce student understanding of com-plex flow physics. The case studies are presented as mysteries that incite the students ’ interest. With CFD visualization, the case studies and related con-cepts can be developed with relatively little lecture time