Engineering Fluid Mechanics Reviews
Engineering Fluid Mechanics
Connecting the math and theory of fluid mechanics to practical applications can be a difficult process. Engineering Fluid Mechanics builds on the success of previous editions to help engineers learn how to apply concepts by keeping them engaged and active throughout the book. Simple and effective examples show how key equations are utilized in practice, and step-by-step descriptions provide details into the processes that engineers follow. Each chapter also outlines the three most important thin
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(out of 13 reviews)
Price: $ 134.99
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Review by A. Kalbag for Engineering Fluid Mechanics
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I took my undergrad fluid mechanics course using Crowe’s lightweight doorstop. I took the course from Dr. Crowe himself. He certainly knows his fluid mechanics but if you go by his course and this book then he does not seem the least bit interested in handing down his knowledge to his students. At the time, about 2 years ago I gave this a 3/5 rating based upon my own naive assumption that I had a solid undergraduate background in fluid mechanics thanks to diligently studying and reading everything in this text. But it really took a graduate level fluids course to make me realize the serious deficiencies in this textbook. Save your hard earned money this book deserves zero stars and here’s why:
The major drawbacks of the text are
1. No development of the differential forms of the govering equations. Conservation of mass, momentum and energy are all developed using the integral approach (via Reynolds Transport Theorem). He mentions the Navier-Stokes Equations in barely 2 pages and there is no further discussion about it. You could tear those pages out and you wouldn’t lose continuity in the book (pun intended). No theoretical development thereafter requires the Navier-Stokes Equations. No surprise that solutions to the Navier Stokes equations are not included except for Couette and Poiseuille flows which are developed without the classical methods of simplifying the NS equations.
2. Lack of substantial mathematical sophistication. Fluid mechanics is best described with vector calculus and differtial equation. Surely there are many problems that are solvable with algebraic methods but Crowe essentially avoids anything mathematical. Therefore problem sets are suitably simplified so as to be amenable by the simplest mathematics. This is partly a consequence of doing away with the differential approach.
3. No mention of stream functions or potential flows!
4. This book misleads the novice into thinking that the panacea of all fluid mechanics problems is Bernoulli’s equation. That is all you will really need to solve the problems in this text (apart from looking at the many tables, charts and graphs to find friction factors, drag coefficients, head loss factors and what have you). The unsteady form of Bernoulli’s equation is left out; a consequence of omitting potential flows. The reader isn’t told that Bernoulli’s equation is a simplification of Euler’s equations (only shown in streamwise co-ordinates) which are themselves a simplification of the Navier stokes equations.
5. There is very little development of fluid kinematics. No mention of the Langrangian derivative (and if there was it was again perfunctory and disposed off never to be recalled again). Vorticity is mentioned in passing and a few problems assigned which ammount to doing a bunch of cross products! The interplay between fluid rotationality (or irrotationality), viscosity (or lack of viscosity) and incompressibility and how they lead to the special (read: simpler) forms of the governing equations (namely Euler’s and Bernoulli’s equation) is omitted. Fluid element deformations and stress-strain arguments are left out in the cold (no need for them if you are washing your hands off of the differential approach).
5. Boundary layer theory is developed without stressing the classical length scale arguments that go into them, turbulence is restricted to using empirical correlations.
All these deficiencies in concept and mathematics were corrected only after I took a graduate level fluid mechanics course which essentially amounted me having to relearn everything considered “prerequisite” in addition to keeping up with the new material. Thoroughly deserves 0 stars. Don’t take my word for it, use the book preview at Amazon.com and check out the table of contents. I suggest comparing this with the highly recommended undergraduate texts by Fox & Macdonald, or Munson, Young and Okiishi, or Frank White’s excellent undergraduate text.
Review by ME for Engineering Fluid Mechanics
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This text is a great introduction to Fluid Mechanics. The derivations are very easy to follow, and the problems apply to many real life situations. For graduate students, it may be a little to light weight, but for undergrads it provides a broad base of information.
Review by David Kahler for Engineering Fluid Mechanics
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This text was used in a class where I was the teaching assistant. There were numerous complaints from students about how the text was difficult to follow, and in some cases the examples were even incomplete. This was a class for junior engineering students as a first thorough course in fluids, the text was not helpful. As a graduate student I found it to be a good reference of basic concepts (although, it was hard for me to follow some of the examples). It even goes in depth with many concepts. All in all it is a good basic reference, but totally inadequate for beginning instruction.
As a note to instructors, the solution manual is loaded with errors.
Review by for Engineering Fluid Mechanics
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Good textbook, good examples, and easy to read. Anyone with a solid physics & calculus background will be comfortable with this book.
Review by GottaLottaErr for Engineering Fluid Mechanics
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I had to buy this book for a course in fluid mechanics last semester, which turned out to be one of my favorite courses. That was due mainly to the fact that I had an amazing professor, but it was largely supported by the ease of use of this book. Reference sheets were quick and easy to use, and proved themselves invaluable when I had to look up numbers or equations in stressful times. The presentation of the material is very clear, and written in a way that is easy to understand so you can focus on the theory and the ideas, not on running to get a dictionary to look up big, complex words and their meanings (…not that an engineer would own a dictionary…or know how to use a non-internet-based one, lol).
WARNGING! CUIDADO! My only real point to pick with this book is that someone did a poor job editing it. The layout of the chapter problems is such that the diagrams for some are on different pages than the accompanying text, or located several problems before or after in the most awkward positions, meaning you really have to pay attention to the figure number to prevent drawing the wrong picture/information (which I have done several times).
And, to make matters worse, some problems actually don’t have all the info needed to complete them! Several problems had info cut off, or just not present, in their diagrams.
While those are just temporary, minor annoyances and shouldn’t deter anyone from buying this book, just be aware that they are present. That’s the only reason this got a 4 instead of a 5.