M.E. Fluid Mechanics Courses

The following information is gathered from the latest edition of the On-line General Catalog of the University of California at Berkeley.

Each unit represents three hours per week of student work, including both class attendance and preparation. Most classes are offered for a fixed number of units. Others are offered for variable units, depending on the work done by the student.

To obtain the printed Schedule of Classes or General Catalog by mail, write to the ASUC Store, Attn: Mail Order Department, University of California at Berkeley; Berkeley, CA 94720. Call (510) 444-6296 for price information.

Mechanical Engineering 161
Applied Fluid Mechanics (3 units)

Course format: Three hours of lecture per week. Prerequisites: 105 and 106. Operating principles and characteristics of flow in conduits, lubrication systems, pumps, turbines and compressors will be described, and analyzed by application of concepts of potential flow, laminar viscous flow and turbulent flow.

Mechanical Engineering 162
Elementary Hydrodynamics (3 units)

Course format: Three hours of lecture per week. Prerequisites: Mathematics 53, 54. Engineering 117 recommended. This course provides an introduction to Classical Hydrodynamics aimed at senior undergraduate and first-year graduate students. The course is mainly theoretical and makes use of analytical techniques, especially complex variable theory, for solving two-dimensional and axisymmetric flow problems. Applications are made to flow past airfoils, hydrofoils, to internal channel flows, free streamline flows, and surface waves. Viscous effects are discussed briefly.

Mechanical Engineering 163
Engineering Aerodynamics (3 units)

Course format: Three hours of lecture per week. Prerequisites: 106. Introduction to the lift, drag, and moment of two-dimensional airfoils, three-dimensional wings, and the complete airplane. Calculations of the performance and stability of airplanes in subsonic flight.

Mechanical Engineering 165
Ocean-Environment Mechanics (3 units)

Course format: Three hours of lecture per week and one hour of laboratory. Prerequisites: ME106, CE100, or consent of instructor. Ocean environment. Physical properties and characteristics of the oceans. Global conservation laws. Surface-wave generation. Gravity-wave mechanics, kinematics and dynamics. Design consideration of ocean vehicles and systems. Model testing techniques. Prediction of resistance and response in waves - physical modeling and computer models. Cross-listed as E165.

Mechanical Engineering 167
Microscale Fluid Mechanics  (3 units)

Course Format: Three hours of lecture per week. Prerequisites: 105, 106, 109, Physics 7B or equivalent. Description: Phenomena of physical, technological, and biological significance in flows of gases and liquids at the microscale. The course begins with familiar equations of Newtonian fluid mechanics, then proceeds to the study of essentially 1-D flows in confined geometries with the lubrication equations. Next is a study of the flow of thin films spreading under gravity or surface tension gradients. Lubrication theory of compressible gases leads to consideration of air bearings. Two- and 3-D flows are treated with Stokes' equations. Less familiar physical phenomena of significance and utility at the microscale are then considered: intermolecular forces in liquids, slip, diffusion and bubbles as active agents. A review of relevant aspects of electricity and magnetism precedes a study of electrowetting and electrokinetically driven liquid flows.

Mechanical Engineering 213
Fluid Mechanics of Biological Systems (3 units)

Course format: Three hours of lecture per week. Prerequisites: 106 or equivalent; 265A or consent of instructor. Investigation of fluid mechanical aspects of various physiological systems including circulatory, pulmonary, and renal systems. Motion in the large and small blood vessels. Pulsatile and peristatic flow. Analysis of prosthetic devices. Fluid flow related to biological systems in bioprocessing application. Instrumentation for fluid flow measurements in biological systems.

Engineering 266A
Finite Difference Methods for Fluid Dynamics (4 units)

Course format: Three hours of lecture, three hours of laboratory, and one hour of voluntary discussion per week. Prerequisites: A graduate-level course in fluid dynamics or numerical methods for differential equations, or consent of instructor. [Formerly 266.] Application of finite difference methods to current problems of fluid dynamics, including compressible and incompressible flow.

Engineering 266B
Spectral Methods for Fluid Dynamics (4 units)

Course format: Three hours of lecture, three hours of laboratory, and one hour of voluntary discussion per week. Prerequisites: A graduate-level course in fluid dynamics or numerical methods for differential equations, or consent of instructor. [Formerly 266.] Application of spectral methods to current problems of fluid dynamics, including compressible and incompressible flow.

Mechanical Engineering 241A
Marine Hydrodynamics I (3 units)

Course format: Three hours of lecture per week. Prerequisites: E165 (ME165) recommended or graduate standing. Navier-Stokes Equations. Boundary-layer theory, laminar and turbulent. Frictional Resistance. Boundary layer over water surface. Separated flow modeling. Steady and unsteady flow. Momentum Theorems. Three-dimensional water-wave theory. Formulation of wave resistance of ships. Michell's solution. Wave patterns. Applications. Cross-listed as OE241A.

Mechanical Engineering 241B
Marine Hydrodynamics II (3 units)

Course format: Three hours of lecture per week. Prerequisites: ME241A recommended or CE200 or ME260A. Momentum analysis for bodies moving in a fluid. Added-mass theory. Matched asymptotic slender-body theory. Small bodies in a current. Theory of motion of floating bodies with and without forward speed. Radiation and diffraction potentials. Wave forces. Hydro-elastic formulation. Memory effects in time domain. Second-order effects. Impact hydrodynamics. Cross-listed as OE241B.

Mechanical Engineering 243
Advanced Methods in Free-Surface Flow (3 units)

Course format: Three hours of lecture per week. Prerequisites: ME241B recommended or CE200 or ME260A. Analytical and Numerical Methods in Free-surface Problems. Elements of inviscid external lifting and non-lifting flows. Analytical solutions in special coordinates systems. Integral-equation methods: formulations and implementations. Multiple-bodies Interaction problems. Free-surface Green functions in two and three dimensions. Hybrid integral-equation methods. Finite-element formulations. Variational forms in time-harmonic flows. Finite-difference forms, stability and accuracy. Boundary-fitted coordinates methods. Unsteady linearized wave-body interaction in time domain. Nonlinear breaking waves calculations. Particle dynamics. Extensive hands-on experience of micro-computers and/or workstations in developing solution. Cross-listed as OE243.

Mechanical Engineering 260A
Advanced Fluid Mechanics I (3 units)

Course format: Three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion per week. Prerequisites: 106; 185 (strongly recommended) or consent of instructor. Introduces the foundations of fluid mechanics. Exact flow solutions are used to develop a physical insight of the fluid flow phenomena. Rigorous derivation of the equations of motion. Incompressible and compressible potential flows. Canonical viscous flows.

Mechanical Engineering 260B
Advanced Fluid Mechanics II (3 units)

Course format: Three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion per week. Prerequisites: 260A or consent of instructor. Develops a working knowledge of fluid mechanics by identifying the essential physical mechanism in complex canonical flow problems which leads to simplified yet accurate formulation. Boundary layers, creeping flows, rotational flows, rotating flows. Stability and transition, introduction to turbulence.

Mechanical Engineering 261
Compressible Fluid Flow (3 units)

Course format: Three hours of lecture per week. Prerequisites: Graduate standing. Inviscid compressible flow. Steady one-dimensional, unsteady one-dimensional axisymmetric flows. Prandtl-Meyer flow and oblique shocks. Linearized supersonic and slender body theory. Similarity.

Mechanical Engineering 262
Theory of Fluid Sheets and Fluid Jets (3 units)

Course format: Three hours of lecture per week. Prerequisites: 185 and 106, or equivalents. Conservation laws in three dimensions for inviscid and viscous fluids. Direct formulation of non-linear theories for sheets and jets for these fluids with surface tension and gravity. Application to water waves, hydraulic jump, flow in waterfall, planing of a boat. Capillary instability in a viscous jet.

Mechanical Engineering 263
Turbulence (3 units)

Course format: Three hours of lecture per week. Prerequisites: 260A-260B or equivalent. Physics of turbulence: Summary of stability and transition. Description of turbulence phenomena. Tools for studying turbulence. Homogeneous turbulence, shear turbulence, rotating turbulence. Summary of engineering models. Discussion of recent advances.

Mechanical Engineering 264
Waves in Fluids (3 units)

Course format: Three hours of lecture per week. Prerequisites: 261. Propagation of linear and nonlinear waves in fluids. Wave interactions in gases including reflections and diffraction. Shock dynamics. Dispersion and dissipation analogy with surface water waves.

Mechanical Engineering 265
Viscous Flow (3 units)

Course format: Three hours of lecture per week. Prerequisites: 106 or equivalent. For fluid mechanics majors: 185 (which may be taken concurrently). Kinematics. The Newtonian fluid. Conservation equations. Flows with nearly constant viscosity and density. Vorticity Biot-Savart law. Dimensional analysis and similarity. Exact solutions. Thin layers; lubrication; laminar boundary layers. External creeping flows. Porous media.  

Mechanical Engineering 267
Geophysical Fluid Mechanics (3 units)

Course format: Three hours of lecture per week. Prerequisites: 265A or equivalent. An introduction to the fluid mechanics and atmospheric motions of the Earth's interior (mantle and core). Buoyant creeping flow. Rotation inside a sphere. Modes of wave propagation in rotation and stratified flows.

Mechanical Engineering 268
Physicochemical Fluid Dynamics (3 units)

Course format: Three hours of lecture per week. Prerequisites: Graduate standing; 151 or Chemical Engineering 171; or consent of instructor. Introduction to the fundamentals of momentum, heat, mass and electric charge transport in systems involving physicochemical forces. Derivation and use of conservation laws, constitutive equations and auxiliary relations to characterize and predict the behavior of industrial processes as well as biological and natural phenomena. Analysis of examples including multiple phases, interfacial phenomena, chemical reaction and non-Newtonian media.

Mechanical Engineering 269
Magnetohydrodynamics (3 units)

Course format: 3 hours lecture a week. pre-requisites: a graduate class in fluid or continuum mechanics, e.g. ME185 or ME260a. An introduction to the physics of MHD with applications to materials processing and to planetary dynamos. Governing equations & boundary conditions. Diffusion & convection of the magnetic field. Near equilibrium states: magnetohydrostatics and Alfven waves. Duct (Hartmann) flow. Suppression of natural convection by magnetic fields. Free-boundary problems at low magnetic Reynolds number (Rm): the levitation-melting problem; instability due to conductivity variations. Flow at large Rm: anti-dynamo theorems; dynamo models; the observed geomagnetic field; review of published computational studies of the geodynamo.

Mechanical Engineering 290C
Topics in Fluid Mechanics (3 units)

Course format: Three hours of lecture per week. Prerequisites: Consent of instructor. Lectures on special topics which will be announced at the beginning of each semester that the course is offered. Topics may include transport and mixing, geophysical fluid dynamics, biofluid dynamics, oceanography, free surface flows, non-Newtonian fluid mechanics, among other possibilities.

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