This study describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of an effective curriculum for students to learn computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in introductory and intermediate undergraduate and introductory graduate level courses/laboratories. The curriculum is designed for use at different universities with different courses/laboratories, learning objectives, applications, conditions, and exercise notes. The common objective is to teach students from novice to expert users who are well prepared for engineering practice. The study describes a CFD Educational Interface for hands‐on student experience, which mirrors actual engineering practice. The Educational Interface teaches CFD methodology and procedures through a step‐by‐step interactive implementation automating the CFD process. A hierarchical system of predefined active options facilitates use at introductory and intermediate levels, encouraging self‐learning, and eases transition to using industrial CFD codes. An independent evaluation documents successful learning outcomes and confirms the effectiveness of the interface for students in introductory and intermediate fluid mechanics courses.

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ASEE Annual Conference, Nashville, TN, 22-25 June 2003 Division for Experimentation and Laboratory-Oriented Studies (DELOS)Simulation technology is integrated into undergraduate engineering courses and laboratories through the development of teaching modules (TM) for complementary computational fluid dynamics (CFD), experimental fluid dynamics (EFD), and uncertainty analysis (UA). TM include three parts: (1) lectures on CFD and EFD methodology and standard procedures and UA; (2) CFD templates for academic use of commercial industrial CFD software; and (3) exercise notes for use of CFD templates and complementary EFD and UA. The commercial industrial CFD software is FLUENT http://www.fluent.com/, which is widely used in many industries and universities and is a partner in the project. Initial TM are based on those developed as "proof of concept" at The University of Iowa from 1999 to present, as updated and currently being used (http://www.icaen.uiowa.edu/~fluids/). Recently, project expanded under sponsorship National Science Foundation Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement -Educational Materials Development Program to include faculty partners from colleges of engineering at large public (Iowa and Iowa State) and private (Cornell) and historically minority private (Howard) universities for collaboration on further development TM, effective implementation, evaluation, dissemination, and pedagogy of simulation technology utilizing web-based techniques. The evaluation plan includes collaboration with

Traditional fluid mechanics textbooks are generally written with problem sets comprised of closed, analytical solutions. However, it is recognized that complex flow fields are not easily represented in terms of a closed solution. A tool that allows the student to visualize complex flow phenomena in a virtual environment can significantly enhance the learning experience. Such a visualization tool allows the student to perform open-ended analyses and explore cause-effect relationships. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) brings these benefits into the learning environment for fluid mechanics. With these benefits in mind, FlowLab was introduced by Fluent Inc. in 2002. FlowLab may be described as a virtual fluids laboratory - a computer-based analysis and visualization package. Using this software, students solve predefined CFD exercises, either as homework or in a supervised laboratory or practicum setting. Predefined exercises facilitate the teaching of fluid mechanics and provide students with hands-on CFD experience, while avoiding many of the difficulties associated with learning a generalized CFD package. A new fluid mechanics textbook is scheduled for release in early 2005. This book includes FlowLab as a textbook companion, where student-friendly CFD exercises are employed to convey important concepts to the student. Because of the unique design of end-of-chapter homework problems in this book and the intimate coupling between these problems and the CFD software, students are introduced to engineering problems and concepts, as well as to CFD, via a structured learning process. The CFD exercises are not meant to stand alone; rather, they are designed to support and emphasize the theory and concepts taught in the textbook, which is the primary learning vehicle. Each homework problem has a specific fluid mechanics learning objective. Through use of the software, a second learning objective is also achieved, namely a CFD objective. The scope, content, and presentation of these CFD exercises are discussed in this paper. Additionally, one of the exercises is explained in detail to show the value of using CFD to teach introductory fluid mechanics to undergraduate engineers.