Teaching Methodologies
The curricular unit “Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer” adopts a student-centered pedagogical approach, promoting active and integrated learning. The model combines the presentation of theoretical concepts with practical application in the classroom, ensuring that students develop both fundamental knowledge and problem-solving skills.
Lectures are structured to introduce the essential principles of Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer, using visual materials such as slides, diagrams, and animations to facilitate the understanding of abstract concepts, including viscosity, pressure, mass and energy conservation, laminar and turbulent flow, and heat conduction. These sessions aim to create a solid knowledge base, allowing students to establish connections between theory and practice.
Teaching is complemented by problem-solving sessions in which students actively and inquisitively participate in constructing solutions. In these activities, students apply learned concepts to real or simulated problems, such as calculating pressure losses, sizing pipelines, analyzing flow regimes, and one-dimensional heat conduction. The instructor acts as a guide, clarifying doubts, encouraging critical reflection, and promoting discussion among students, fostering collaborative learning and reasoned argumentation.
The methodology also emphasizes the progressive integration of concepts, enabling students to first understand theoretical fundamentals and subsequently develop analytical and practical skills through guided exercises. This gradual approach ensures consolidation of learning and strengthens students’ ability to model complex problems, interpret results, and propose viable solutions in engineering contexts.
The adopted pedagogical model fosters transversal competencies such as critical thinking, analytical reasoning, autonomy, organization, and scientific communication, all essential for professional engineering practice. The integration of theoretical exposition and applied practice creates a continuous learning cycle in which students test hypotheses, validate results, and reflect on the physical and mathematical mechanisms involved in the studied problems.
Thus, the teaching and learning methodology of the curricular unit ensures coherence with the learning objectives, enabling students to develop solid knowledge, practical application skills, critical analysis, and interdisciplinary competencies. The integration of theory, practice, and instructor guidance provides a dynamic, motivating, and structured learning environment, preparing students to tackle real engineering challenges related to Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer.
Learning Results
The objectives of the curricular unit focus on understanding the fundamental principles of Fluid Mechanics, including viscosity, pressure, conservation of mass and energy, viscous dissipation, and surface forces; applying these principles to the derivation of governing equations, notably Bernoulli’s equation and the Navier-Stokes equations in simplified cases; analyzing flow in pipes, distinguishing between laminar and turbulent regimes; calculating pressure losses and sizing fittings; and understanding the physical and mathematical mechanisms of Heat Transfer by conduction, convection, and radiation. Additionally, the unit aims to develop skills for modelling practical problems, interpreting results, and integrating Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer concepts in engineering contexts.
Program
1. Introduction to Fluid Mechanics: fundamental concepts, fluid properties, and units of measurement;
2. Fluid Statics: pressure, surface forces, buoyancy, and fluid equilibrium;
3. Fluid Dynamics: principles of mass, momentum, and energy conservation; Bernoulli’s equation and an introduction to simplified Navier-Stokes equations;
4. Flow in Pipes: laminar and turbulent regimes, Reynolds number, pressure losses in pipes and fittings;
5. Introduction to Heat Transfer: conduction, convection, and radiation mechanisms;
6. One-Dimensional Steady-State Conduction: analytical solutions and applications to practical problems;
7. Integrated Applications: basic sizing of flow systems and analysis of heat transfer in engineering contexts.
Curricular Unit Teachers
Belmiro Pereira Mota DuarteGrading Methods
- - Exam - 100.0%
Internship(s)
NAO
Bibliography
Munson, B. R., Young, D. F., & Okiishi, T. H. (2006). Fundamentals of fluid mechanics (5th ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
Çengel, Y. A., & Cimbala, J. M. (2006). Fluid mechanics: Fundamentals and applications. McGraw-Hill. (Tradução em português brasileiro disponível na biblioteca)
Massey, B. S. (2002). Mecânica dos fluidos (J. R. Guedes de Carvalho, Trad.). Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. (Original work published 6th ed., Mechanics of fluids)
Crowe, C. T., Elger, D. F., & Roberson, J. A. (2005). Engineering fluid mechanics (8th ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
Çengel, Y. A. (2003). Heat transfer – A practical approach (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill.
Incropera, F. P., DeWitt, D. P., Bergman, T. L., & Lavine, A. S. (2007). Fundamentals of heat and mass transfer (6th ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
Welty, J. R., Wicks, C. E., Wilson, R. E., & Rorrer, G. L. (2008). Fundamentals of momentum, heat, and mass transfer (5th ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
Holman, J. P. (2002). Heat transfer (9th ed.). McGraw-Hill.