An Electric Simulator to Solve Education Engineering Problems in Fluid Mechanics

Electrical analogy, which is used to solve numerical problems in fluid mechanics, is used here to solve the classical problem of Couette flow between two parallel plates, Hagen-Poiseuille flow in a pipe and the transient free convection flow along a semi-infinite vertical wall. The nonlinear system of partial differential equations is numerically solved by the Network Simulation Method, based on thermo-electric analogy. A simulator of electrical devices, permits the direct visualization of the local and/or integrated transport variables (temperatures, velocities, concentrations, and fluxes) at any point or section of the medium. At the same time, the solution for both transient and steady-state problems is obtained, the only requirement being finite-difference schemes for the spatial variable. This educational tool is seen to be very useful for solving numerical problems in engineering and can be used to graduate in the University. (c) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 21: 748-757, 2013