Let’s Rock The Boat: Evaluating The Concept Of Stability In Fluid Mechanics

As an upper level civil engineering course, Fluid Mechanics often presents concepts that are unfamiliar to engineering students, at least to the level of understanding expected in the course. Many of these fundamentals concepts are critical to success in the course, but are frequently difficult to visualize simply with figures and equations. Additionally, many laboratory exercises for students involve a “cookbook” type approach – which increases the chance of the attainment of reliable results, but inhibits curiosity and decreases the development of an independent engineering formation of ideas associated with problem solving. A possible solution to both issues is the incorporation of in class activities which illustrate fundamental concepts, engage students in an active learning environment, and allow for the students themselves to create a testing program. The complication lies in determining a suitable topic and in creating an activity broad enough to allow for creative testing development but narrow enough to insure at least a marginal level of reliable results. The topic chosen by the authors was that of stability – one of the basic fundamental concepts in fluid mechanics. Working in groups of four to five students, the class was asked to develop an independent testing program that addressed the qualitative effects of adjusting weight in any one, or a combination of multiple, different directions (i.e. adjustments in the x, y, and / or z plane) on a floating object. Students were given supplies to create a model barge: a Styrofoam brick, cardboard sticks, modeling clay and containers sufficiently large to allow for floatation and movement when the barge was placed inside. No restrictions were placed on the direction in which the brick was to be placed in the water, the number and location of masts, or the number, magnitude and location of weight(s). Students were told the activity was to be summarized in a one-page paper, including testing procedure, results, and conclusions and were allowed thirty minutes for experimental setup, testing, and clean-up. Determination of student comprehension was assessed through both the summary paper, as well as an exam question. Results showed a high level of understanding, both in the short term, as concluded with the paper outcomes, as well as long term retention, validated with testing results. Quantitative analysis can easily be incorporated into the program by providing measuring instruments (rulers, calipers, and a balance) if a more robust study is desired.