ENCN242-21S2 (C) Semester Two 2021

Fluid Mechanics and Hydrology

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 19 July 2021
End Date: Sunday, 14 November 2021
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 1 August 2021
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 1 October 2021

Description

Fluid Properties. Hydrostatics. Mass, energy and momentum fluxes. Applications to hydraulic systems. Water resources and global climates. Stream and groundwater flow.

Fluid Mechanics and Hydrology is the first compulsory course on fluid mechanics in the undergraduate curriculum for civil and natural resources engineering students.
The course is split into two self-contained sections that reflect a general philosophy of the course.

The course aims to provide undergraduate civil and natural resources engineers with an understanding of, and an ability to solve, standard hydraulics problems that a practising hydraulics engineer might encounter. This includes the determination of hydrostatic forces on structures, the modelling of single pipe systems and the determination of surface runoff from storm events. At the same time the course aims to provide you with an understanding of the fluid properties and fluid flow principles that underpin all types of fluid motion. The conservation laws of mass, energy and momentum will be the foundation upon which more complex behaviour such as shockwaves in pipes, effluent dispersion and gravity currents are built. Fluid mechanics and hydraulics courses in the third professional year, and at graduate level, extend on these principles, providing students with experience and problem solving ability in a range of typical applications.

Learning Outcomes

  • In completing this course we (the students and staff involved) aim to have achieved the following:

  • You (the students) have an appreciation of the role of fluid mechanics and hydrology in Civil and Natural Resources Engineering.

  •  You understand fluids properties and their importance to modelling fluid behaviour.

  •  You can model (and hence predict) the impact of stationary fluids on associated boundaries. You can extend these concepts to deal with issues of object stability under submerged and floating conditions, and in addition fluid bodies subject to accelerations.

  •  You can qualitatively describe fluid flow phenomena in such a way that assumptions, which aid the modelling of flow behaviour, become obvious.

  •  You can apply the conservation laws (mass, momentum and energy) to model fluid flows, making effective use of control volumes and the integral forms of these laws.

  •  You can employ the conservations laws to model and design single pipeline systems and understand how to use energy concepts in the selection of pumps and turbines. You can demonstrate this knowledge in a real laboratory pipe system.

  •  You can use historical flood flow data and/or rainfall data to estimate the design flood flow for a catchment of known physical properties.

  •  Most importantly you can apply the concepts above to model a broad range of relatively simple hydraulic and hydrological problems (including those that you may not have seen before).

Prerequisites

Subject to approval of the Dean of Engineering and Forestry

Restrictions

ENCI241

Timetable Note

This is a lecture and tutorial-based course scheduled for the second semester. The course will be taught in two different formats. The first part of the course (weeks 1-9) will be taught using a flipped classroom format, where detailed recorded lectures of the material you are learning each week are provided on Learn and students are expected to review these in preparation for each week according to the schedule provided in Section 6 of this outline.

Each week will begin with a summary lecture and this lecture will run through the main concepts you have to learn for the week. Note that you are expected to have watched all the lectures for the week prior to this lecture so you are ready to ask questions during the lecture.

You are assigned a series of tutorials (with groups of 60 or so students) in lieu of traditional lectures for the remainder of the week. In these tutorials we will work through problems together to help you apply and learn the material you have watched in the lectures. You will need to submit your tutorial solutions for marking at the end of each session. You are assigned to particular tutorial sessions and submission of your tutorial in the wrong session will not be marked.

It is important to note that the tutorial sessions are designed to be introductions into the topics and your expertise in the material must be gained through further practice by working through the problem set questions and talking part in the online pipe design problems. Simply turning up to the tutorials each week will not provide you sufficient knowledge to pass this course.

The latter part of the course (weeks 10-12) will be presented in a traditional lecture/tutorial format with 4 hours of lectures per week supported by additional tutorial sessions.

Laboratory sessions will be run during the afternoons of the fourth term. These laboratories are designed to provide you with practical experience of fluid flows that will be discussed during the lectures.

The topics to be covered in lectures, together with the time and lecturer allocated to each, are listed in the following table.

Topic                    Time (hours)/stream                         Lecturer
Introduction                    1                                           Davidson

Fluid Properties               7                                           Davidson

Fluid Statics                   12                                          Davidson

Kinematics &Conservation Laws  12                               McConnochie

Pipe Systems                    6                                          McConnochie

Hydrology                        10                                         de Vries

A detailed laboratory timetable will be provided. Attendance at laboratories is compulsory. If you cannot attend your timetabled laboratory class you must arrange to swap with somebody in another session of the same laboratory.

Course Coordinator / Lecturer

Craig McConnochie

Lecturers

Mark Davidson and Tonny de Vries

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage 
Exam 40%
Pipeline laboratory 5%
Hydrology Project 5%
Test 40%
Tutoriasl submission 10%


Test and Exam: The test and exam are worth 80% of the final grade. The test will consist of a few problems and student solutions will be provided after the test session. These problems will be marked and returned to the students within approximately 3 weeks. The test will be conducted under conditions normal for an examination.

The solutions prepared by the students must be legible and well presented. Poorly presented material will be given 0 marks. If you suspect there is an error in the test or exam, you must make a reasonable assumption and proceed with the question. If there was indeed an error, you will not be penalised. Applications for aegrotats or special consideration based on errors in the test/exam questions will not be accepted.

Tutorials: Weekly tutorial submissions provide an opportunity for students to implement the ideas presented during lectures, with support from staff and tutors. They normally take the form of a problems class, where one or two questions are set and solutions are collected at the end of the tutorial session. Each tutorial is worth two marks. Students who are unable to complete the question, but are able to make a reasonable attempt at the question(s) will receive one mark for the tutorial session. The tutorials also provide an important opportunity for students to discuss difficulties associated with the material presented in the lectures directly with the lecturer.

As with the test, the solutions prepared by students must be legible and well presented; poorly presented material will be given 0 marks.

1. You cannot pass this course unless you achieve a mark of at least 40% in each of the mid-semester test and the final exam. A student who scored 35-40% in either the test or exam, but performs very well in the other, may be eligible for a pass in the course.

2. All assignments must be submitted by the due date. Late submissions will not be accepted. If a student is unable to complete and submit an assignment by the deadline due to personal circumstances beyond their control they should discuss this with the lecturer involved as soon as possible.

3. All assignments can be done individually or in pairs. If done in pairs a single submission for marking is required and both students receive the same mark. It is important that both students play an equal role in completing the assessment as the internal assessment is designed to prepare you for the formal assessments.

4. All laboratory reports must be done individually

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $986.00

International fee $5,500.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Civil and Natural Resources Engineering .

All ENCN242 Occurrences

  • ENCN242-21S2 (C) Semester Two 2021