Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics, 6th Edition

Book Preface

This book is intended for junior and senior engineering students who are interested in learning some fundamental aspects of fluid mechanics. We developed this text to be used as a first course. The principles considered are classical and have been well-established for many years. However, fluid mechanics education has improved with experience in the classroom, and we have brought to bear in this book our own ideas about the teaching of this interesting and important subject. This sixth edition has been prepared after several years of experience by the authors using the previous editions for introductory courses in fluid mechanics. On the basis of this experience, along with suggestions from reviewers, colleagues, and students, we have made a number of changes in this edition. The changes (listed below, and indicated by the word New in descriptions in this preface) are made to clarify, update, and expand certain ideas and concepts.

New to This Edition

In addition to the continual effort of updating the scope of the material presented and improving the presentation of all of the material, the following items are new to this edition. With the wide-spread use of new technologies involving the web, DVDs, digital cameras and the like, there is an increasing use and appreciation of the variety of visual tools available for learning. This fact has been addressed in the new edition by the inclusion of numerous new illustrations, graphs, photographs, and videos.

Illustrations: The book contains more than 260 new illustrations and graphs. These illustrations range from simple ones that help illustrate a basic concept or equation to more complex ones that illustrate practical applications of fluid mechanics in our everyday lives.

Photographs: The book contains more than 256 new photographs. Some photos involve situations that are so common to us that we probably never stop to realize how fluids are involved in them. Others involve new and novel situations that are still baffling to us. The photos are also used to help the reader better understand the basic concepts and examples discussed.

Videos: The video library for the book has been significantly enhanced by the addition of 80 new video segments directly related to the text material. They illustrate many of the interesting and practical applications of real-world fluid phenomena. There are now 159 videos.

Examples: All of the examples are newly outlined and carried out with the problem solving method of “Given, Find, Solution, and Comment.”

Learning objectives: Each chapter begins with a set of learning objectives. This new feature provides the student with a brief preview of the topics covered in the chapter.

List of equations: Each chapter ends with a new summary of the most important equations in the chapter.

Problems: Approximately 30% new homework problems have been added for this edition. They are all newly grouped and identified according to topic. Typically, the first few problems in each group are relatively easy ones. In many groups of problems there are one or two new problems in which the student is asked to find a photograph/image of a particular flow situation and write a paragraph describing it. Each chapter contains new Life Long Learning Problems (i.e., one aspect of the life long learning as interpreted by the authors) that ask the student to obtain information about a given, new flow concept and to write a brief report about it.

Fundamentals of Engineering Exam: A set of FE exam questions is newly available on the book web site.