My current teaching responsibilities include Introduction to Fluid mechanics (CE 3410), Stormwater management (CE 4470), and Environmental Fluid Mechanics and Hydraulics (CE 8680). However, I have also taught Engineering Mechanics – Statics (CE 2010), Engineering Mechanics – Dynamics (CE 2080), Numerical Methods in Civil Engineering (CE 4910), and Wind Engineering (CE 8070) while at Clemson.

In all of my classes I try to do as many demonstrations as possible to illustrate various flow phenomena. I write about them in my blog. Any suggestions for new demonstrations would be greatly appreciated, along with any comments on how to improve the existing demonstrations. Please email comments and suggestions to nbkaye@clemson.edu. Feel free to use any of the demonstrations described in the blog.

Introduction to Fluid mechanics (CE 3410)

This is a first course in fluid mechanics covering hydrostatics, kinematics, control volume analysis, conservation of volume, work-energy, momentum, dimensional analysis and flow similarity. These analysis techniques are then applied to drag, pipe flow, open channel flow, and pumps. The course has a laboratory component that covers the same topics. I recently gave up using a textbook and wrote my own homework problem sets. However, there are a lot of books that are all essentially the same. They all have their strengths and weaknesses and include:

Fluid Mechanics – Streeter, Wylie and Bedford
Engineering Fluid Mechanics – Crowe, Elger, and Roberson
Introduction to Fluid Mechanics – Fox and McDonald
Fluid Mechanics – White
Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics – Munson, Young, and Okiishi
Elementary Fluid Mechanics – Street, Watters, and Vennard
Mechanics of Fluids – Massey
Fluid Mechanics with Engineering Applications – Finnemore and Franzini
Fluid Mechanics Fundamentals and Applications – Cengel and Cimbala
Mechanics of Fluids – Shames
Fluid Mechanics – Hibbler

The books are, in principle, generic but tend to lean toward mechanical engineering applications with the exception of Streeter et al. and Finnimore & Franzini. However, these volumes are not maintained so there is little in the way of online support or fresh homework problems.

Stormwater management (CE 4470)

Stormwater management is concerned with controlling and managing rainfall runoff from land developments. The class follows on from CE 3420 Hydraulics and Hydrology. The focus is on water quantity management though water quality is briefly discussed. The topics covered include design rainfall events, standard hyetographs and runoff hydrographs, conveyance structures (gutters, culverts, pipes) and ponds (detention and retention). The course revolves around two group design projects. The first is focused on standard stormwater management site design and the second on the integration of low impact development (LID) techniques to re-do the initial design. There is no assigned textbook, though “Urban hydrology, hydraulics, and stormwater quality – Engineering applications and computer modeling” by Akan and Houghtalen is very useful. All the modeling is done using HEC-HMS developed by USACE. I prefer to use a bare-bones modeling tool as it forces the students to input everything and focus on how the models work rather than throw problems at a more sophisticated black box tool.

Environmental Fluid Mechanics and Hydraulics (CE 8680)

Environmental fluid mechanics encompasses a vast array of subjects, as illustrated by Joe Fernando’s epic two volume, 1,100 page, 81 chapter “Handbook of Environmental Fluid Dynamics”. This class scratches the surface of this field. The class has three components, flow phenomena, applications, and laboratory experiments. The flow phenomena section covers turbulent shear flows(turbulent jets, turbulent plumes, and gravity currents) and advection – diffusion. The impact of these flows is then discussed in the context of their application to pollutant dispersion in rivers, pollutant dispersion in the atmosphere, and modeling air flow in buildings. I am also in the process of adding a section on natural hazards modeling to look at wildfires and windborne debris. The class also goes down to the lab about 4-6 times a semester to run experiments on jets, plumes, gravity currents and point source dispersion. There is no single book that covers everything covered in this class. The following books were all useful in preparing class notes.

Buoyancy effects in fluids – Turner
Gravity currents – Simpson
Environmental hydraulics of open channel flows – Chanson
Turbulent jets and plumes: A Lagrangian approach – Lee and Chu
Environmental Physics – Boeker and van Grondelle
Mixing in Inland and Coastal Waters – Fischer, List, Koh and Imberger