Handbook

ZEIT4013 is a 6 Unit of Credit elective course that investigates in detail the fluid dynamic phenomena that occur at hypersonic speeds, concentrating on problems in the areas of atmospheric entry and supersonic combustion propulsion.  The course aims to provide students with practical skills in analytically and computationally predicting important behaviours of hypersonic flows.

The course follows on from the third-year aerodynamics course ZEIT3503, but no prior knowledge of compressible flow is assumed.  It is important for students to remember the Navier-Stokes equations from second and third year fluids courses, as these are fundamental to explaining the behaviour of hypersonic flows.

The course assumes that the students have a preliminary knowledge of fluid mechanical principles, acquired in the two second-year core fluids courses for aeronautical and mechanical engineers, ZEIT2500 and ZEIT2503. Some computer programming experience in the MATLAB environment is highly recommended, as the assignment work in this course is heavily based around MATLAB.