Published on: January 13, 2025

AAE Teaching Seminar: Michael Wadas - 1/23

AAE Teaching Seminar: Michael Wadas - 1/23

Event Date: January 23, 2025
Time: 3:30PM - 4:20PM
Location: ARMS 1021 or Webex
Priority: No
College Calendar: Show

The Bernoulli Equation

MICHAEL WADAS Faculty Candidate - AAE Open Search

ABSTRACT

The Bernoulli equation is an explicit algebraic relationship linking pressure to velocity, providing enormous utility for engineering problems involving incompressible, inviscid flows. In this lecture, this important equation will be derived by integrating the momentum equation along steady streamlines. The limitations of the Bernoulli equation will be illustrated through the assumptions required in its derivation, while its utility will be demonstrated with examples involving low-speed aircraft and application to an ongoing research project. The lecture builds on the early instruction of a typical undergraduate course on fluid dynamics, including the definitions of the momentum equation and streamlines. An example further connects to hydrostatics. Familiarity with basic calculus and algebra is assumed.

BIOGRAPHY

Michael Wadas is the Cecil and Sally Drinkward Postdoctoral Scholar in the Mechanical & Civil Engineering Department at Caltech, where he is advised by Tim Colonius and Joseph Shepherd. His research combines theory, simulations, and experiments for the study of both high-energy-density and classical fluid flows and has led to techniques for strengthening laser-driven shock waves, an experimental platform for generating vortex rings from shocked interfaces, a novel interpretation of clumping in circumstellar environments, and an enhanced understanding of instability mechanisms in accelerated interfacial flows. Michael received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University in 2017 and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2023.