Integration of Computational Fluid Dynamics in the Teaching of Electromechanical Engineering: An Approach to Improve Theoretical-Practical Learning
摘要
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has become an important tool in engineering, as well as in academic training in applied sciences. In this context, the present work exposes the development of a bank of numerical simulation practices oriented to the Electromechanical Engineering course, as a didactic complement of the Energy and Fluids Laboratory of the National University of Loja. The practices were integrated to three subjects: Fluid Mechanics (five guides), Heat Transfer (two guides) and Hydraulic Machines (two guides). The methodological process contemplated the analysis of the current curriculum, the socialization of objectives with responsible teachers, the mathematical modeling of each case and the implementation of simulations using student access software, including Autodesk Inventor, AutoCAD and ANSYS Fluent. The guides developed were complemented with multimedia resources elaborated with video editors. A standardized technical methodology was defined for each simulation, covering physical model design, geo-metrics generation, meshing, computational domain configuration, execution, post-processing and validation of results by comparison with specialized literature and experimental data. The perceived usability of the resource was evaluated by means of the System Usability Scale (SUS), applied to a sample of ten students. The average score obtained was 90.5, classified as excellent usability. The results show a satisfactory agreement between the simulations performed and the references consulted, as well as a significant acceptance of the resource from the end user’s perspective.