Incompressible Flow

by Ronald L. Panton

Publisher: Wiley-Interscience
ISBN: 047126122X

Check price @ amazon.com , amazon.ca , amazon.co.uk

Book Description

This updated and revised edition of Dr. Ronald L. Panton's Incompressible Flow provides readers with an exceptionally clear, unified, and carefully paced introduction to advanced concepts in fluid mechanics. Dubbed by one reviewer as "the most teachable book on the market," it begins with basic principles and then patiently develops the math and physics leading to the major theories. Throughout, a unified presentation of physics, mathematics, and engineering applications is achieved, and the text is liberally supplemented with helpful exercises and example problems.

Laying the foundation for a thorough understanding of incompressible flow, Dr. Panton devotes the first third of the book to a precise formulation of the physical concepts and mathematical equations governing compressible viscous flows of Newtonian fluids. This part of the book includes chapters on the thermodynamics of simple materials and the mathematics of vector and tensor analysis.

The book's coverage of stream functions and the velocity potential features special approaches in which stream functions can be extended to other coordinate systems. Dr. Panton also emphasizes the physical interpretation of vorticity dynamics by deftly combining vorticity, associated controlling processes, and the laws that govern them.

Subsequent, more detailed coverage of incompressible flow is organized into the various Reynolds number regimes. The discussion of moderate Reynolds number flows introduces a finite difference numerical technique and reviews classic results for flow over a cylinder, including results from large eddy simulations. High Reynolds number flows that is, inviscid flows and boundary layers are given a unified treatment over the course of several chapters so as to emphasize their interconnection. The chapter on low Reynolds number flows emphasizes the different singular natures of two- and three-dimensional external flows and reviews a number of recent results concerning internal flows. Dr. Panton concludes by introducing students to the nomenclature and contemporary concepts used in stability, transition, and turbulenc fields in which recent progress has occurred.

Incompressible Flow, is the ideal choice for graduate-level fluid mechanics courses offered in mechanical, aerospace, and chemical engineering programs.

Incompressible flows are flows of gases or liquids for which changes in density are not relevant to the physics of their interactions with solid bodies. Occupying as it does a central position in the science of fluid dynamics, the study of incompressible flows is fundamental to a wide array of scientific and engineering disciplines, including hydraulics; hydrodynamics; aerodynamics; hydrology; mechanical, aerospace, and chemical engineering; and many others.

New features of Incompressible Flow, Third Edition include:

• Expanded, separate chapters on the lubrication approximation and Stokes flows
• New chapters on surface tension–driven flows and micro/nano flows
• Two examples of boundary layers beginning at infinity: plane flow on a wall that is under a plane aperture, and plane flow on the wall under a sluice gate
• Greater emphasis on the strain vector and how it's used to interpret vorticity stretching and turning
• A derivation of the mechanical energy equation for a region with arbitrary motion, illustrating how moving boundary work and flow work are convenient concepts but not basic physical ideas
• Modern measurements of the pipe flow friction factor
• Expanded details on the mathematics of E2E2Y operator
• The Jeffrey-Hamel solution and its limits with Reynolds number

Table of Contents

• Partial table of contents:
• Continuum Mechanics.
• Thermodynamics.
• Vector Calculus and Index Notation.
• Kinematics of Local Fluid Motion.
• Basic Laws.
• Some Incompressible-Flow Patterns.
• Dimensional Analysis.
• Compressible Flow.
• Incompressible Flow.
• Streamfunctions and the Velocity Potential.
• Vorticity Dynamics.
• Flows at Moderate Reynolds Numbers.
• Asymptotic Analysis Methods.
• Kinematic Decomposition of Flow Fields.
• Ideal Flows in a Plane.
• Boundary Layers.
• Low Reynolds Number Flows.
• Introduction to Stability and Transition.
• Introduction to Turbulent Flows.

About the Author

RONALD L. PANTON, PhD, is J. H. Herring Centennial Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin. He is a member of the ASME Fluid Mechanics Committee and served a term on the AIAA Fluid Dynamics Technical Committees. He is a former associate editor of the Journal of Fluids Engineering.

Dr. Panton received his doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley. He also holds degrees in mechanical engineering, engineering, and mathematics from the University of Wisconsin and Wichita State University. Early in his career, he worked for five years in the aircraft industry and with the U.S. Air Force. He was involved in the prediction of engine performance and analysis of flight test results on a Mach 2 fighter aircraft and worked on the X-15 Research Rocket Plane project.

The principal investigator on over thirty research grants, Ronald L. Panton has focused his research activities primarily on fluid flows and acoustics. He has conducted experimental, theoretical, and numerical studies on a wide variety of projects. His research in turbulent wall layers has centered on correlation laws for mean and fluctuating quantities, in particular, the wall pressure statistics. Other work deals with interaction of turbulence, orifices, and acoustic resonators.

Customer Reviews

I used this book for a first course in fluid mechanics at graduate level. Initially, one may feel repelled at the arrangement of topics in the book, but once accustomed to this type of layout in graduate level texts( for e.g "Transport Phenomena" by Bird et al), it is a pleasure to read and learn therefrom.

What makes this book unique is that the author has successfully managed to describe important ideas with minimal description and mathematical jargon. However, for a novice in fluid mechanics(at a graduate level), reading this book without any interaction with a fluid mechanician(research worker/professor) might be a difficult task.

We used this text in my first graduate course in fluid dynamics. The text was an excellent supplement to the lecture series it accompanied. The derivations were clear, useful, and covered a large range of material. It should serve as an excellent reference for future coursework as well.

One of the bests books for graduates who are studying or researching fluid dynamics. Except for its price, it can't be better.