An Introduction to Fluid Mechanics: Sixth Edition - Merle C. Potter

This textbook can be used for the first required course in fluid mechanics. It can be used in any curriculum: mechanical, civil, chemical, aerospace, or a general required course for all engineers. The course can be taught using the more conventional elemental approach for pipe flow, channel flow, and flow between cylinders. This textbook adopts a judicious approach, minimizing mathematical intricacies to ensure that the book is accessible for all students. The text has been designed to allow students to better understand the fundamentals, aided by numerous examples and home problems. Students often find it quite difficult to understand many concepts encountered in fluid mechanics, such as laminar flow, the entrance region, the separated region, and turbulence. The book ensures that these concepts are presented correctly and in an easy-to-understand format. To mention a few, the turbulent entrance region is only for large Reynolds numbers although not many texts mention this, the separated region and the wake are often confused, and laminar flow and turbulent flow definitions usually lack clarity. This book elucidates derivations and phenomena in a manner that renders them comparably more comprehensible than those presented in other textbooks. This book uses a student-friendly format to ensure easy understanding.