Customer Reviews

Schaum's Outline of Fluid Dynamics (Schaum's)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Fluid mechanics is a vast field. It can be considered a branch of applied physics. Highly mathematical, as can be seen in the problems given in this book by Hughes. He takes you through the field, giving the salient equations used to describe various fluid phenomena.

Foremost amongst these is the Navier-Stokes equation. A nonlinear partial differential equation that describes the balancing or conservation of momentum and energy in a fluid. Most of fluid mechanics builds on Navier-Stokes. So you need to get your understanding of it down pat. The problems given for these should be tackled and hopefully solved by you, before going onto later sections in the book. You need a solid grasp of this. It can make the rest much easier.

Other chapters describe various important special cases. Like incompressible flow. Or one dimensional flow of a fluid that is compressible. Then expanding this discussion into 2 dimensions.

Boundary layer problems are also heavily studied. Important in practice, because these relate to the designing of surfaces of planes or boats or missiles. Which leads naturally into problems of turbulence.

Then what if the fluid is charged? Electromagnetic effects [currents] then come into consideration. So Hughes devotes a chapter to magnetohydrodynamics. Students of nuclear fusion or stellar evolution may find this chapter germane.

Overall, Hughes gives a broad span of the field. Many problems to sharpen your understanding.

I have this book first edition; this third edition is not much different from the first one. No CFD, no computer applications and almost the same subjects of 30 years ago. The chapters about MHD, non-newtonian flows and hyper-sonic flows are all but too short; they are almost useless.
There is a new chapter about waves which figures are not as good as the older ones.
Well, the book is cheap and certainly worths the price.

Used this as a supplementary text to try and bring in an alternative perspective to the material for my Thermals & Fluids class. I didn't actually use it during the time I was taking the class but after I skimmed through the text and it had more in the way of content then my actual textbook for the course had. I would recommend this to people who either want it to help them when learning the material or for professionals who just need a casual reference text for when they are working.

This book is useful for quick references but I wouldn't depend on it to pass a Fluid Mechanics course.