Advanced Fluid Mechanics

By Prof. Anubhab Roy | IIT Madras

Learners enrolled: 29

ABOUT THE COURSE:

This advanced course in fluid mechanics will cover the essential concepts and methods for understanding the flow of liquids and gases. We will apply fundamental fluid mechanics principles to flow scenarios from both engineering and natural environments. The goal is to develop a strong foundation in the physical principles governing fluid motion, enabling the students to analyze and conceptualize any flow situation they may come across. Students will study the key theoretical arguments and analyses needed to examine different flow systems, aiming to create a clear understanding of the phenomena and their interconnections

INTENDED AUDIENCE: Applied Mechanics, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Atmospheric and Ocean Engineering, Physics

PREREQUISITES: An introductory course in Fluid Mechanics

Summary

Course Status :	Upcoming
Course Type :	Core
Language for course content :	English
Duration :	12 weeks
Category :	Mechanical Engineering
Credit Points :	3
Level :	Postgraduate
Start Date :	21 Jul 2025
End Date :	10 Oct 2025
Enrollment Ends :	28 Jul 2025
Exam Registration Ends :	15 Aug 2025
Exam Date :	25 Oct 2025 IST
NCrF Level	4.5 — 8.0

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.

Page Visits

Course layout

Week 1: Introduction - What is a fluid? Continuum Hypothesis

Week 2: An introduction to tensors

Week 3: Fluid kinematics: Flow visualization, Decomposition of relative motion, Velocity gradient

Week 4: Conservation laws: Conservation of mass, momentum and energy, Constitutive equations

Week 5: Vorticity Dynamics: Kelvin's Circulation Theorem, Helmholtz Laws, Sources of vorticity production

Week 6: Irrotational Flows: Bernoulli's theorem, complex-variable formulation for plane potential flows, Added mass

Week 7: Viscous Laminar Flows - Steady: Fully Developed Flows, Low Reynolds number flows,

Week 8: Viscous Laminar Flows - Unsteady: Impulsively started plate/Oscillating plate, Vortex Sheet, Ekman Layer

Week 9: Boundary Layer Theory I: Prandtl’s BLT, Blasius solution,Falkner-Skan solutions

Week 10: Boundary Layer Theory II: von Karman momentum integral,Separation, Jets, Shear Layers and Wakes

Week 11: Geophysical Fluid Dynamics: Surface Gravity Waves,Boussinesq Approximation/Internal Gravity Waves, Coriolis Force/Rossby waves

Week 12: Hydrodynamic Instability: Kelvin Helmholtz Instability, Orr Sommerfeld Equation, Transition to turbulence

Books and references

Kundu, Pijush K., and Ira M. Cohen. Fluid Mechanics. 4th ed. Academic Press, 2008
Panton, Ronald L. Incompressible Flow. 3rd ed. Wiley, 2005
White, Frank M. Viscous Fluid Flow, McGrawHill, 3rd ed., 2017
Acheson, D. J. Elementary Fluid Dynamics, Oxford University Press, 1990.

Instructor bio

Prof. Anubhab Roy

IIT Madras

Prof. Anubhab Roy is an Associate Professor at the Department of Applied Mechanics and Biomedical Engineering at IIT Madras. He completed his Ph.D. at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bengaluru and was subsequently a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University in USA. He has been a faculty at IIT Madras since May 2016. He works in the area of geophysical multiphase flows. His group employs a combination of theoretical and numerical tools to understand the contribution of fine-scale processes, specifically, the role of instabilities and particle transport in atmospheric and oceanic flows.

Course certificate

The course is free to enroll and learn from. But if you want a certificate, you have to register and write the proctored exam conducted by us in person at any of the designated exam centres.

The exam is optional for a fee of Rs 1000/- (Rupees one thousand only).

Date and Time of Exams: October 25, 2025 Morning session 9am to 12 noon; Afternoon Session 2pm to 5pm.

Registration url: Announcements will be made when the registration form is open for registrations.

The online registration form has to be filled and the certification exam fee needs to be paid. More details will be made available when the exam registration form is published. If there are any changes, it will be mentioned then.

Please check the form for more details on the cities where the exams will be held, the conditions you agree to when you fill the form etc.

CRITERIA TO GET A CERTIFICATE

Average assignment score = 25% of average of best 8 assignments out of the total 12 assignments given in the course.
Exam score = 75% of the proctored certification exam score out of 100

Final score = Average assignment score + Exam score

Please note that assignments encompass all types (including quizzes, programming tasks, and essay submissions) available in the specific week.

YOU WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR A CERTIFICATE ONLY IF AVERAGE ASSIGNMENT SCORE >=10/25 AND EXAM SCORE >= 30/75. If one of the 2 criteria is not met, you will not get the certificate even if the Final score >= 40/100.

Certificate will have your name, photograph and the score in the final exam with the breakup.It will have the logos of NPTEL and IIT Madras .It will be e-verifiable at nptel.ac.in/noc.

Only the e-certificate will be made available. Hard copies will not be dispatched.

Once again, thanks for your interest in our online courses and certification. Happy learning.

- NPTEL team

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