ACADEMIA

Fluent announced its contribution to the new undergraduate engineering textbook by James Wilkes; Fluid Mechanics for Chemical Engineers, Second Edition, with Microfluidics and CFD, published by Prentice Hall. This Second Edition is a revision of the best selling fluid mechanics book for chemical engineers. Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan, Dr. Wilkes has authored several textbooks in the area of numerical methods and this latest book provides a comprehensive overview of numerical methods specific to the field of fluid mechanics. The book is a comprehensive text that offers an understanding of fluid mechanics essential for the chemical engineer. Thorough and clearly written, it gives the undergraduate and first-year graduate student a complete overview of this essential topic by providing numerous real-world chemical engineering examples and problems of increasing detail and complexity. Dr. Chi-Yang Cheng, of Fluent Inc., was invited by Dr. Wilkes to write a completely new chapter for the 2nd Edition, introducing CFD and FlowLab (Fluent's educational CFD software product). Dr. Cheng's chapter presents an overview of numerical methods specific to CFD. Four FlowLab-based CFD exercises are reviewed in the chapter to reinforce important underlying concepts as well as the best methods of practice with CFD software in chemical engineering: -- Developing Flow in a Pipe -- Pipe Flow through Sudden Expansion -- Flow in a Mixing Elbow -- Flow Over a Cylinder "Professor Wilkes has been very active in promoting the integration of computational tools into the chemical engineering curriculum, especially fluid mechanics, throughout his academic career. The quality, depth, and elegant style of his presentation of fluid mechanics and CFD methodology in this book are self-evident. I believe this new edition will be a very substantial addition to the fluid mechanics literature," said Dr. Cheng. "I have many years of college teaching experience myself, and it is generally understood that an ideal CFD teaching tool must be powerful and simple to use so that the critically important message we are trying to pass to the students is not overwhelmed by the complexity of the tool. FlowLab is a very good package to meet both of these requirements." "The use of CFD examples in the classroom really makes the subject come 'alive,' because the previous restrictive necessities of 'nice' geometries and boundary conditions and constant physical properties can now be lifted," stated Dr. Wilkes. "As a consequence, a variety of more practical examples can now be investigated, and the student can concentrate more on seeing and interpreting the physical aspects of the fluid-flow patterns, rather than solely being wrapped up in the mathematics of the solution. Now that the k-E turbulence method is available in PC-based software, turbulent flows can be investigated in more complex and practical situations, even including recirculating flows that involve, for example, convection of turbulence and jet mixing."