Fluid Mechanics

by Pijush K. Kundu, Ira M. Cohen, David R. Dowling

Fluid mechanics, the study of how fluids behave and interact under various forces and in various applied situations―whether in the liquid or gaseous state or both―is introduced and comprehensively covered in this widely adopted text. Revised and updated by Dr. David Dowling, Fluid Mechanics, 5e is suitable for both a first or second course in fluid mechanics at the graduate or advanced undergraduate level.

Genres: Physics, Science, Reference, Technical, Nonfiction, Mathematics, Engineering

920 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1990

Reviews

[Mason · Rating 1 out of 5]

Caveats to this review: I only read chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 12, & 14 as was required for my grad school advanced fluids class. The homework assignments for this class were composed entirely of problems from the exercises section at the end of each of these chapters, so my thoughts on the book are also based on my experience with these problems. This book was clearly written with the expectation that the audience has a very strong foundation in linear algebra, multivariable calculus, and differential equations. I was quite rusty with these skills as it has been about 6 years since I took these classes in undergrad; and even though this was my fourth semester in grad school, my previous grad classes have not been as math intensive. The book also uses a lot of Einstein summation convention which I did not use in undergrad.

This book may be a useful reference for experienced fluid dynamicists. However, as a learning tool, I found it to be one of the worst textbooks I have ever read. The book is generally lacking in examples and visual representations of concepts. It skips countless steps and draws conclusions that are not sufficiently well supported for a work of technical writing, in my opinion. The writing feels clunky and disorganized, lacking a clear logical flow in many sections. The exercise problems frequently refer to terms that have not been previously introduced in the textbook (I checked because I have the pdf version). In some cases both within the contents of the chapters and between the contents and the exercises, different names are used for the same concepts without any explanation (examples: taylor microscale / taylor time scale & power spectrum / energy spectrum). I had to rely heavily on other resources including some of my undergrad textbooks to explain the same concepts this textbook attempted to convey. In summary: My opinion of this book is potentially biased by my rusty math skills, yet even when trying to not consider my own struggles with content, I found it to be an exceptionally poor piece of technical writing.

[Dani Hibatullah · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is super lazy with derivations

[Brendan]

This is a very physical book. Accompany it with Munson's Fluid mechanics for more examples and you will be in good shape.

[Prem Ojha]

i feel happy