Development of Virtual Labs for Fluid Mechanics and Aerodynamics Courses

Continuously increasing student enrollment in engineering programs presents a significant challenge for laboratory courses, where equipment and physical space are limited. The result is that lab groups become unmanageably large, hindering student engagement and forcing many students to be observers of the experiment thus forfeiting the learning opportunity to gain meaningful hands-on experience. At Purdue University, the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AAE) and the School of Mechanical Engineering (ME) are addressing this issue by developing Virtual Labs for their fluid mechanics and aerodynamics courses. The Virtual Labs use simulations to produce an environment that resembles the physical lab experience. In addition to promoting student conceptual understanding, Virtual Labs can provide students opportunities for sustained interaction with the experiment to discover the impact of various physical parameters on the dynamics of the flow and the behavior of the system. A wind tunnel Virtual Lab developed in AAE and ME is presented and is used to supplement an existing hands-on lab where the students study wakes behind cylinders and spheres. Ongoing work on developing a modular undergraduate fluid mechanics course using integrated physical and virtual labs is discussed.