COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS AS AN ALTERNATIVE REPRESENTATION OF PHYSICAL PHENOMENA FOR AN ITERATIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) is an alternative representation of the physical phenomenon in engineering education. The method will replace the hardware-based laboratory in education as the computation power increases and became more available. However, CFD is a cross disciplinary field with its roots in computer science, programing, fluid mechanic, and visualization. Nevertheless it is utilized in almost all disciplines, in each viewed as the exceedingly self-directed and constructivist form of learning. Currently the desired proficiency in the fundamentals and conversant is conquered through instruction followed by practice “learning by doing”. This method has been considered to be a superior pedagogic method in this field and closely woven into the fabric of demonstrative activities of the learners with honors from centuries ago. During the last decade, a variety of frameworks have been employed to enhance the ease of use of the tools in numerical prediction and data applications. However, the educational aspect of CFD, though evolving with notable precincts, has been left unaddressed. There are not effective teaching and learning methods guaranteeing the utilization of high level cognitive process by students. In addition, there is a fundamental lack of definition of terminology in this field as well as in other educational technologies as a whole. The neglect has widened the gap concerning tools and their execution environments, stifling advances in research and education. This work is dedicated to identify the project works that best exemplify the CFD regardless the discipline in which the students are trained. Numbers of problems covering all aspects of CFD were design, offered and executed by students. Students undertook the problem in groups and reported the results. The progress of the work monitored and the best exercise which cutch the student’s interests and covered cross-disciplinary nature of the CFD were identified. The important properties of these project works were mapped and will be tested once more in upcoming teaching events.