McLean D. Understanding Aerodynamics: Arguing from the Real Physics

John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2013. — XXV, 550 p. — ISBN 978-1-119-96751-4.A real understanding of aerodynamics must go beyond mastering the mathematical formalism of the theories and come to grips with the physical cause-and-effect relationships that the theories represent. In addition to the math, which applies most directly at the local level, intuitive physical interpretations and explanations are required if we are to understand what happens at the flowfield level. This book aims to promote such physical understanding.
Understanding Aerodynamics: Arguing from the Real Physics provides a more thorough review of the physical underpinnings of fluid mechanics than is typical of conventional aerodynamics books, and it covers topics specific to aerodynamics with greater physical rigor. Many of the discussions and explanations in the book are novel in the sense that they attempt to remedy incompleteness or inconsistencies in previously available sources. Examples include the discussion of how aerodynamics fits in with modern physical theory in general, the explanations and discussions of the "induction" fallacy, the effect of surface roughness on turbulent skin friction, the basic mechanism for the lift on an airfoil, and the global pressure and momentum-flux balances in the flowfield around a lifting 3D wing.This book provides:
An understanding of what the equations and theories of aerodynamics really mean.
Real physical explanations for aerodynamic phenomena such as lift.
Discussions of important topics that are often missing in other aerodynamics books, such a three-dimensional flow in boundary layers.
A broad view of the field and how it all fits together.
Understanding Aerodynamics: Arguing from the Real Physics meticulously captures the results of the author's decades of pondering, discussing, and arguing the physical aspects of aerodynamic flows and is sure to help practicing engineers, as well as students, to gain a greater physical understanding of aerodynamics.Series Preface.Introduction to the Conceptual Landscape.
From Elementary Particles to Aerodynamic Flows.
Continuum Fluid Mechanics and the Navier-Stokes Equations.
The Continuum Formulation and Its Range of Validity.
Mathematical Formalism.
Kinematics: Streamlines, Streaklines, Timelines, and Vorticity.
The Equations of Motion and their Physical Me.
Cause and Effect, and the Problem of Prediction.
The Effects of Viscosity.
Turbulence, Reynolds Averaging, and Turbulence Modeling.
Important Dynamical Relationships.
Dynamic Similarity.
“Incompressible” Flow and Potential Flow.
Compressible Flow and Shocks.
Boundary Layers.
Physical Aspects of Boundary-Layer Flows.
Boundary-Layer Theory.
Flat-Plate Boundary Layers and Other Simplified Cases.
Transition and Turbulence.
Control and Prevention of Flow Separation.
Heat Transfer and Compressibility.
Effects of Surface Roughness.
General Features of Flows around Bodies.
The Obstacle Effect.
Basic Topology of Flow Attachment and Separation.
Wakes.
Integrated Forces: Lift and Drag.
Drag and Propulsion.
Basic Physics and Flowfield Manifestations of Drag and Thrust.
Drag Estimation.
Drag Reduction.
Lift and Airfoils in 2D at Subsonic Speeds.
Mathematical Prediction of Lift in 2D.
Lift in Terms of Circulation and Bound Vorticity.
Physical Explanations of Lift in 2D.
Airfoils.
Lift and Wings in 3D at Subsonic Speeds.
The Flowfield around a 3D Wing.
Distribution of Lift on a 3D Wing.
Induced Drag.
Wingtip Devices.
Manifestations of Lift in the Atmosphere at Large.
Effects of Wing Sweep.
Theoretical Idealizations Revisited.
Approximations Grouped According to how the Equations were Modified.
Some Tools of MFD (Mental Fluid Dynamics).
Modeling Aerodynamic Flows in Computational Fluid Dynamics.
Basic Definitions.
The Major Classes of CFD Codes and Their Applications.
Basic Characteristics of Numerical Solution Schemes.
Physical Modeling in CFD.
CFD Validation?
Integrated Forces and the Components of Drag.
Solution Visualization.
Things a User Should Know about a CFD Code before Running it.