Fluid Mechanics is a course that teaches the principles of how fluids behave in a given environment or circumstance. In this course we cover all things fluids ranging from reading and calculating manometers and venturi meters, to pump curves and pump system design.

Final ePortfolio Reflective Letter

Fluid Mechanics has been the most rewarding engineering course I have taken in my time at Old Dominion University. During this summer semester, I was certainly pushed to what I thought were my limits and was challenged to overcome them. As this is my second time taking Fluid Mechanics, I was very complacent during the beginning of the semester. I had the ideology of “this will be easy, I’ve already taken this class”, and “It’s okay to slack off a bit, you already learned this.” That behavior was nearly the reason for me needing to take this course for a third time. During the course of the class I believe that the quality of my assignments grew as time progressed. The first two tests went terribly grade wise earning a 56% and a 31% on them. Tests – Google Drive I felt very discouraged after learning that I earned a 31% on test two, but in the email that Professor Ayala sent out after grading the exams, there was a message at the bottom. That message read “For those of you who did not do well, you can still do this. And, as I said in my email on the 1st test, we should work closer. Please contact me. You have not done so.” Reading that made me feel that I could still somehow bounce back. With that in my mind for the remainder of the semester, I put in a lot more effort into my learning experience. I started to ask more questions, even the ones that may have been silly, but I did not want to sit quietly and continue to fail. My homework became more than just homework, enough so to the point that all of both of my tests following that were passing scores and I even earned the highest final exam score in the class at an 85% Tests – Google Drive
I believe that my learning is best demonstrated in the improvement in the quality of my homework. I began to take detailed notes at the beginning of my homework assignments, which truly facilitated a at the time of homework 8.2, I started to take notes to not only learn the material, but to understand what I was doing. Homework – Google Drive. The area in which I feel most successful was the final unit around pump systems. This summer I returned to my internship at the engineering firm RK&K (Rummel, Klepper, & Kahl) which is a civil engineering-based position in the water/wastewater division. For example, while learning about the Darcy-Weisbach equation for energy losses due to friction, I happened to be on a construction site visit for in which the contractor was fusing HDPE pipe. While observing the pipe fusing, I noticed that where two different spools of pipe met and were fused together, a small portion of the pipe created a hemispherical rim on both the outside and inside of the pipe. As those domes would cause energy losses as it would impede the flow of water slightly, it drove me to have a conversation with one of my engineer coworkers about the topic. During that conversation, she told me that those losses due to the beading of the pipe would be negligible. If I were in the position to have to take this course over again, I would stress to myself that starting early on studying and truly learning the material instead of trying to go through the motions as if it is a simple class will not work in any scenario.
After completing this course, I feel that my abilities as an engineer will forever be for the better. I learned better techniques for self-learning, and to question everything if the thought is in my mind. If I don’t have the answer I need, reaching out to someone who may is not a sign of weakness, which I feel is something a lot of students struggle to digest. My biggest accomplishment in this course was my final exam. I took a lot of time and care into trying to understand what it is that goes into pump system design and where I need to apply what techniques for solving for different things. Tests – Google Drive My strengths I feel come from my note taking and how it reflects when that knowledge is needed. Homework – Google Drive. On the first two units’ worth of tests, my note taking was nonexistent and I struggled a lot to do well, but as I started to incorporate more notes into my assignments, I started to drastically improve. My weaknesses I feel come from understanding manometers. A specific reference that comes to mind is the first question on test 1. Tests – Google Drive When attempting that problem I felt genuinely confident in my answer. When the results for the test came back, I was definitely shocked to see that I did nearly no part of it correct. Another weakness I know I have is assessing pressure at a point when there is no clear pressure given within the problem. Applying Bernoulli’s equation to solve for the pressure sounds easy enough, but I have a hard time identifying what I need to find in order to solve for that. Before taking this course, I assumed that this would be a near impossible class to pass, as it is seemingly portrayed as such by many of my peers who have already completed the course. After completing the course, I still do believe that to some extent, but I recognize that in order for this class to not seem as difficult as it can be, you have to put in the work on your own time in order to be successful in Fluid Mechanics.