Innovative fluid mechanics experiments for modern mechanical engineering program

One of the primary objectives of the Petroleum Institute (PI) is to prepare future mechanical engineers to assume successful career paths in the Oil and Gas industry. With this in mind, a state of the art core measurement laboratory represents an important facility for teaching use within a Mechanical Engineering Program. Such a facility has been developed at the PI, and is utilized at undergraduate level through a one semester dedicated course entitled Core Measurements. As part of this course, two innovative hands-on experiments related to experimental fluid dynamics are given, with the objective of familiarizing the students, through simple projects, on how to characterize fundamental fluid flow phenomena. A hands-on project consists of design, fabrication, data acquisition and validation of a simple experiment. In this paper an overview of two hands-on fluid mechanics based experiments are presented, with the specific educational objectives sought given. The first experiment investigates the dynamics of a jet flow inside a cylindrical enclosure, with the second experiment characterizing a single phase flow over a backward facing step. State of art measurement is used with flow visualization undertaken using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). Sample results are presented including the teaching strategy employed.