Understanding Aerodynamics: Arguing from the Real Physics Hardcover - 2012

A real understanding of aerodynamics must go beyond mastering the mathematical formalism of the theories and come to grips with the physical cause-and-effect relationships that the theories represent. In addition to the math, which applies most directly at the local level, intuitive physical interpretations and explanations are required if we are to understand what happens at the flowfield level. This book aims to promote such physical understanding.

Understanding Aerodynamics: Arguing from the Real Physics provides a more thorough review of the physical underpinnings of fluid mechanics than is typical of conventional aerodynamics books, and it covers topics specific to aerodynamics with greater physical rigor. Many of the discussions and explanations in the book are novel in the sense that they attempt to remedy incompleteness or inconsistencies in previously available sources. Examples include the discussion of how aerodynamics fits in with modern physical theory in general, the explanations and discussions of the "induction" fallacy, the effect of surface roughness on turbulent skin friction, the basic mechanism for the lift on an airfoil, and the global pressure and momentum-flux balances in the flowfield around a lifting 3D wing.

This book provides:

• An understanding of what the equations and theories of aerodynamics really mean
• Real physical explanations for aerodynamic phenomena such as lift
• Discussions of important topics that are often missing in other aerodynamics books, such a three-dimensional flow in boundary layers
• A broad view of the field and how it all fits together

Understanding Aerodynamics: Arguing from the Real Physics meticulously captures the results of the author's decades of pondering, discussing, and arguing the physical aspects of aerodynamic flows and is sure to help practicing engineers, as well as students, to gain a greater physical understanding of aerodynamics.