Introduction to Fluid Mechanics

Citation

Nakayama, Y. (2018). Introduction to Fluid Mechanics (2nd ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann.

Chapter Summary

The second edition runs to about 380 pages: 16 short chapters, answers to the problems, a list of symbols, a 16-page colour plate section and an index. Its author, Yasuki Nakayama, was a specialist in fluid mechanics and flow visualisation, a former president of the Visualization Society of Japan and a co-founder of the Journal of Visualization; the publisher notes that he died in 2016, before this edition appeared. The first edition (1999) was written with R. F. Boucher. The publisher describes the book as using clear images and animations of flow patterns to show the basic rules of fluid behaviour, giving everyday examples for context before more involved mathematical techniques, and offering exercises to test progress. The second edition is described as fully updated and expanded, with a reworked treatment of computational fluid dynamics based on discretisation methods.

Chapters 1–3: History of Fluid Mechanics; Characteristics of a Fluid; Fluid Statics

A short historical opening (seven pages), then the properties that make a substance a fluid and the mechanics of fluids at rest. These chapters supply the definitions and the pressure and hydrostatic results that the rest of the book builds on.

Chapters 4–5: Fundamentals of Flow; One-Dimensional Flow: Mechanism for Conservation of Flow Properties

The basic description of flow, followed by one-dimensional flow, which, as its full title states, is used to present the conservation of flow properties: the core principles applied in the chapters that follow.

Chapters 6–8: Flow of Viscous Fluid; Flow in Pipes; Flow in an Open Water Channel

The effects of viscosity, then their engineering consequences in the two classic internal and free-surface settings: flow through pipes and flow in open channels.

Chapter 9: Drag and Lift

The forces on bodies moving through a fluid, the topic where flow around objects is treated.

Chapters 10–11: Dimensional Analysis and Law of Similarity; Measurement of Flow Velocity and Flow Rate

Dimensional analysis and similarity, the basis for model testing, followed by a chapter on the experimental side of the subject: how flow velocity and flow rate are measured.

Chapters 12–14: Flow of Ideal Fluid; Flow of a Compressible Fluid; Unsteady Flow

Three chapters that extend the basic material: flow of an ideal (inviscid) fluid, compressible flow and unsteady flow. They are short, each about 15 to 20 pages.

Chapters 15–16: Computational Fluid Dynamics; Flow Visualization

The book closes with two methods chapters. Computational fluid dynamics, at 35 pages one of the longest chapters, which the publisher says was fully reworked for this edition around discretisation methods, introduces numerical solution of flow problems. Flow visualisation, the author's specialism, explains a range of traditional and computerised visualisation methods and how to choose among them.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–5: Foundations

• Fluid properties: the characteristics that distinguish fluids and govern their behaviour.
• Fluid statics: pressure and forces in fluids at rest.
• Conservation of flow properties: the principles introduced through one-dimensional flow.

Chapters 6–11: Viscous flow and engineering applications

• Viscous flow: how viscosity shapes flow, including in pipes and open channels.
• Drag and lift: the forces exerted on bodies by the surrounding flow.
• Dimensional analysis and similarity: reducing problems to dimensionless form and relating models to full-scale flows.
• Flow measurement: methods for measuring velocity and flow rate.

Chapters 12–16: Further topics and methods

• Ideal-fluid flow: flow treated without viscosity.
• Compressible and unsteady flow: flows where density changes or conditions vary with time.
• Computational fluid dynamics: numerical solution of flow problems by discretisation.
• Flow visualisation: making flow patterns visible, experimentally and by computer.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Visual approach from a visualisation specialist. The publisher stresses images and animations of flow patterns as the route into the subject, the book ends with a chapter on visualisation methods, and a colour plate section is included. The author's career in flow visualisation stands behind this emphasis.
• Wide coverage in a short book. Sixteen chapters in under 350 pages of text take in statics, viscous, pipe and channel flow, drag and lift, similarity, measurement, ideal, compressible and unsteady flow, and CFD, which suits a first course that needs breadth.
• Measurement and computation alongside theory. Separate chapters on flow measurement, CFD and visualisation give experimental and computational methods a place that a purely analytical introduction would not.
• Exercises with answers. Problems are included, with answers at the back of the book; the publisher says examples and exercises are drawn from a range of engineering fields.

Limitations

• Short chapters. Most chapters run to 15–35 pages, so each topic is introduced rather than developed; students preparing for examinations in a full engineering course may need more worked problems than a book of this size can hold.
• Advanced topics only introduced. Ideal-fluid, compressible and unsteady flow each receive about 15–22 pages, enough for a first acquaintance; students who need these topics in depth will need a fuller textbook.

Where It Fits in the Course

Nakayama is one of the two introductory books in the fluid mechanics list, and the one to choose for a compact, visual first textbook. Lauga's Fluid Mechanics: A Very Short Introduction is a conceptual overview with almost no calculation; read it alongside Nakayama's early chapters for the physical ideas, and use Nakayama for the methods and exercises. Young, Munson and Okiishi's A Brief Introduction to Fluid Mechanics and White and Xue's Fluid Mechanics are fuller engineering textbooks with larger problem sets: Nakayama works well as a first reading before them or as a visual companion while using one of them as the course text.

After the first course, Kundu, Cohen, Dowling and Capecelatro's Fluid Mechanics is the graduate-level treatment that takes viscous, ideal and unsteady flow much further, and Anderson's Fundamentals of Aerodynamics develops the material of Chapters 9 and 13 (drag and lift, compressible flow) for aerospace students.

How to Use This Book

The publisher addresses readers working with fluids for the first time in mechanical, civil, chemical, biomedical, aerospace and other branches of engineering. First-year calculus and introductory mechanics are a sensible background.

• Core first course: Chapters 2–10 (fluid characteristics and statics, fundamentals of flow, one-dimensional flow, viscous, pipe and channel flow, drag and lift, dimensional analysis). Chapter 1 is a short and optional historical introduction.
• Laboratory work: Chapter 11 on measuring velocity and flow rate, together with Chapter 16 on visualisation, before or during practical classes.
• Further topics by syllabus: Chapters 12–14 on ideal, compressible and unsteady flow; Chapter 15 on CFD as a first look before a dedicated computational course.

Use the figures and colour plates actively: before reading the equations of a section, describe in words what the pictured flow is doing. Work the end-of-chapter problems and check them against the answers provided, and supplement them with problems from a larger textbook where the course demands more practice.