(148f) Integrating Computational Transport Phenomena Into the Undergraduate Engineering Curriculum

The field of Computational Transport Phenomena (CTP) or, equivalently, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), has advanced to the point where commercial software can readily be integrated into the undergraduate STEM curriculum. CTP methods provide a powerful and intuitive means to understand the consequences of common assumptions used to analyze the transport of momentum, energy, and mass in complex and simple geometries. Although current CTP technologies can simulate a wide variety of physical problems encountered in engineering and in other disciplines, the use of advanced computational methods in the undergraduate engineering curriculum is not as widespread as it should be. 

The proposed presentation will discuss how CTP methods can be used to support student learning and intuition of transport phenomena by simulating the consequences of balance principles, constitutive models, boundary conditions, and initial conditions. Selected examples will be presented where CTP has been employed in the undergraduate curriculum to support specific learning objectives. The presentation will also discuss technical and practical barrier problems that limit the introduction and use of advanced computational methods into the undergraduate curriculum.