Hopefully you were suitably inspired by "CFD Novice to Expert Part 1: Get Inspired" and that's why you are here now ready for part 2 of this 7-part series.

Pollen Floating on a Puddle

Fluid Dynamics 101

You've picked a great moment in human history to become a CFD expert. The internet provides virtually everything known about fluid dynamics since the dawn of time, but where to start? Wikipedia is always a good choice to start out on a knowledge quest and no less so for fluid dynamics. You don't need to dig into the equations, other than to be aware that most practical engineering fluid flow is well described by the Navier-Stokes equations.

It will pay you well to get a grasp of the types of fluid flow (e.g., incompressible, compressible, steady, unsteady, laminar, turbulent) and some of the terminology you will encounter (e.g., boundary layers, velocity, pressure, pressure coefficient, temperature, dimensionless units, Reynolds number, Mach number, lift and drag), which are covered in the Wikipedia fluid dynamics article.

Stay tuned for part 3 - Fluid Dynamics 201, which digs a little deeper into fluid dynamics.