Fluids Learning Discussion

In order to learn all of the competencies expected of a Mechanical Engineering graduate there are many different learning paths that will be taken by our program. One of them is learning discussions that the students and faculty will have together. Our first discussion was on the topic of fluids. Together with Dan we started to lay out a concept map for the course. To say the least we did not get too far along before getting into a very intense conversation dealing with the fluid property of density. We used the example of air. The air closest to the ground is the most dense. The reason for this it is heavier, having the highest oxygen content. This is why breathing gets harder as you move up in elevation. On hot days, air is less dense than it is on cold days. Airplanes often struggle in warm weather; because of the lower density the wings travel easier through the air and it is harder to create the same amount of drag and lift that there is on a cold day. The same principle says that a baseball will travel faster on a warm day. We also made the relation of this topic to snowmobile carburetors and the use of jetting. Jetting is simply a way to change the amount of air to fuel mixture entering the carburetor. In colder weather, a larger fuel jet is used to increase the amount of fuel going into the carbeurator to compensate the increased amount of Oxygen in the air. The machine would be running lean in this case if you did not jet. In the mountains a smaller jet is needed to limit the fuel to compensate the less dense air. Not jetting would result in a machine running rich, to much fuel for the amount of air. If you want to get a better understanding of density check this site out: http://www.bettinginfo.net/art41.html

proofed by Alex and Cory