A Laminar Flow Facility with Laser-based Visualization for Enhancing Undergraduate Fluid Mechanics Instruction

（59）本项目涉及层流设备的开发，以提高科罗拉多大学本科流体力学课程的概念理解。该设备包括一个基于激光的流动可视化系统，使学生能够直接可视化通常难以观察的基本和复杂的流动现象。流动设施和可视化系统是根据斯坦福大学作为教育工具试点的设施和技术改编的。PI教学实验室的现有设施使学生能够研究湍流；新的流动设施设计用于产生层流和过渡流。学生可以可视化和量化层流和过渡射流、边界层和流过障碍物（包括非定常尾迹）的各个方面。科罗拉多大学的一名工程评估专家参与了对该设施作为学习工具的有效性的评估。评估工具包括调查、开放式访谈、笔试和课程评估。利用这笔赠款开发的设备正在用于开发多媒体教育内容，以便在两项由美国国家科学基金会赞助的活动中向全国传播：TeachEngineering数字图书馆（用于K-12教育）和多媒体流体力学CD-ROM系列（用于本科教育）。

Discipline: Engineering-Other (59)This project involves the development of a laminar flow facility to enhance conceptual understanding in the undergraduate fluid mechanics curriculum at the University of Colorado. The facility includes a laser-based flow visualization system, enabling students to directly visualize basic and complex flow phenomena that are typically difficult to observe. The flow facility and the visualization system are being adapted from facilities and techniques that were piloted as educational tools at Stanford University. Existing facilities in the PI's teaching laboratory enable students to study turbulent flow; the new flow facility is designed to produce laminar and transitional flows. Students can visualize and quantify aspects of laminar and transitional jets, boundary layers, and flows past obstacles (including unsteady wakes). An Engineering Assessment Specialist at the University of Colorado is involved with an assessment of the effectiveness of the facility as a learning tool. Assessment tools include surveys, open-ended interviews, written tests, and course evaluations. The equipment developed with this grant is being used to develop multi-media educational content for National dissemination in two NSF-sponsored activities: the TeachEngineering digital library (intended for K-12 education) and the Multi-Media Fluid Mechanics CD-ROM series (intended for undergraduate education).