The Civil Engineering program at Gonzaga University includes a laboratory course that provides instruction in fluid mechanics, hydrology, hydraulics and environmental engineering. This course will be made more effective by introducing new equipment that allows students to perform activities which combine "seeing" by using flow visualization, "doing" by using data acquisition systems (DAS) in flow models or field measurement exercises and "thinking" by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis to simulate flow. This same equipment will be used to perform in-class activities that will make the instruction more vivid in the fluid mechanics course. The new equipment will allow velocity and turbulence to be measured easily. Video cameras will be used by student during demonstrations to provide a record of the work and to increase student interest and participation. In elective CE courses, flow model equipment will be used to clarify the complex behavior in alluvial channel hydraulics. Students will be able to measure the scour at differently shaped piers at various velocities. In another course, water quality (WQ) sensors will be used to collect data from local streams and lakes using the PC-based DAS. Students will benefit from making WQ calculations using "real" WQ data collected in these local water bodies. This equipment will also accommodate inter-disciplinary use by students in the Mathematics and Computer Science (MCS) Department who will use the equipment as an illustration of a physical process that can be simulated by sophisticated numerical models. Results from the CFD software can be directly compared to the physical flow situation. The CFD software can also be used to support senior projects for CE, ME and MCS students.
