Fluid Mechanics > Dynamics of Fluids > Bernoulli's Principle, Flow Rate, Hagen-Poiseuille Equation, Viscosity
Highlights:
Fluid dynamics in the context of normal and diseased physiology in the human cardiovascular system
Abstract:
This unit presents fluid dynamics of incompressible fluids in the context of the analyzing the human cardiovascular system, using a series of conceptual questions and problems suitable for large classroom instruction, with follow-up homework problems. Students learn to differentiate between viscous and nonviscous flow and to identify the settings in which each is an appropriate model. The unit applies nonviscous flow to the disease of aortic valve stenosis and viscous to atherosclerosis. Data from human cardiology studies are integral to the problems solved.
Resource Types:
Homework, Instructor supplement, In-class activity, Clicker question, Lecture materials, Pre-class assignment
Authors:
John W. Hirshfeld Jr., MD
Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
TOPICS
Physics Topics:
Life Sciences Topics:
Human and Animal Physiology > Cardiovascular System > Cardiovascular Disorders, Healthy Cardiovascular Function
FILES
Fluid dynamics with applications to cardiology
Fluid dynamics with applications to cardiology
INSTRUCTOR GUIDE
IMPLEMENTATION
Duration: 3 sessions of 50 minutes per session.
Equipment required: No equipment needed
Basic implementation tips & tricks: Students need to be prepared for qualitative reasoning about models with different functional forms (i.e. comparing a quadratic function to a linear function). They also need to be prepared for context-rich problems that involve interpreting data. If up to this point in the semester, students have only done traditional end-of-chapter homework problems which require little thought or modeling, they will be overwhelmed by the assigned homework problems. Likewise, they need to be prepared for homework that expects them to explain their reasoning rather than just doing a calculation.
How does this resource fit into the flow of your course? Fluid dynamics is the final unit of the course, serving as a kind of capstone that pulls together many preceding ideas in mechanics, as well as offering a remarkable application to human health and disease.
PEDAGOGY
Pedagogical approach: Just-in-time Teaching
Skills / Competencies: Functional dependence; Multiple representations; Evaluating models
What insights or realizations do you hope students gain from this resource? We hope that students realize how critically important fluid dynamics is to understanding human health and disease, and that viscous and nonviscous flow models apply to different parts of the human cardiovascular system. We hope they understand how to differentiate which model is appropriate based on the geometry of the particular part.
Why is this resource useful to life sciences students? See above. Also, the applications in this unit draw on actual patient data (anonymous of course) and allow students to analyze real medical results in terms of the physics they are studying.
DISCUSSION
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SUBMISSION DETAILS
Copyright: 2019 Catherine Crouch, Ben Geller, John W. Hirshfeld Jr., MD
CC: BY-NC-SA - Attribution, No Commercial uses and Share Alike. Derivative works must have the same licenseLast Edit Date: July 5, 2019
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