ENME404-25S2 (C) Semester Two 2025

Aerodynamics and Ground Vehicle Dynamics

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 14 July 2025
End Date: Sunday, 9 November 2025
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 27 July 2025
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Sunday, 28 September 2025

Description

Aerofoil theory; Flat plate lift and drag; Aerofoil lift and drag; Predicting aerofoil data with Xfoil; Boundary layer theory; Aircraft performance; Stability and control in flight; Wind tunnel testing; Glider design, build and test; Propeller design; BEMT method; High speed (compressibility) effects; Wheeled ground vehicles: load transfer, tyre design, traction and rolling resistance, aerodynamics, suspension, steering, and potential flow.

This course teaches the fundamental understanding, and some of the design skills, required for aerodynamic design in the aviation and automotive industries, with relevance also to the wind and hydroelectric power industries. The course strengthens skills required for almost any industrial application with moving fluids.

For the Mechanical Engineering Aerospace Minor, students must select two of the following options: ENME404, ENME460, ENGR401, and Special Topics 2024 ENME422 and ENME488.

Learning Outcomes

  • Washington Accord (V4) Summary of Graduate Attributes attained in this course:
     WA1 – Engineering Knowledge
     WA2 – Problem Analysis
     WA3 – Design/Development of Solutions
     WA4 – Investigation
     WA5 – Tool Usage
     WA8 – Individual and Collaborative Teamwork
     WA9 – Communication

  • Course topics with Learning Outcomes (and Washington Accord (WA) and UC Graduate Attributes) identified.

    1. Forces and moments on aerodynamic surfaces
            1.1. Solid grasp of the fluid dynamics underlying aerodynamics and methods for computing the pressure distributions and total lift, drag and moments (WA1, WA2)
    1.2. Able to find and manipulate empirical data to estimate drag and lift on simple bodies (WA2, WA3)
            1.3. Knowledge of the relationship between flying vehicle configuration, control surface layout and stability (WA2)
    2. Fixed-wing aircraft: performance, and stability and control
            2.1. Ability to choose an appropriate airfoil for a specific application (WA3) (EIE3)
            2.2. Ability to design a body enclosing a given envelope for low aerodynamic drag (WA3, WA4) (EIE3)
            2.3. Ability to design and construct simple lightweight hand-launched gliders (WA3, WA4)
            2.4. Designing and constructing optimal systems with limited resources (WA3, WA4) (EIE3)
            2.5. Ability to estimate thrust, power, range, endurance and speed in flight (WA4, WA5) (EIE4)
    3. Compressible flow and propulsion
            3.1. Ability to calculate basic parameters in adiabatic duct flow relevant to propulsion nozzles, and properties upstream and downstream of normal shock waves (WA4, WA5) (EIE4)
    4. Fixed-wing transonic and supersonic flight
            4.1. Knowledge of the basic design characteristics of fixed-wing craft flying at Mach numbers greater than 0.3 (WA2)
    5. Ground vehicle (GV) dynamics
            5.1. Knowledge of the fundamental forces governing GV performance in acceleration, braking and cornering, their relationship to load distribution and tyre properties (WA2)
    6. Laboratories / Practical exercises
            6.1. Wind tunnel operation.
            6.2. Construction and optimization of simple hand-launched gliders, guided by calculation and experience with prototypes (WA2, WA3, WA9, WA10) (EIE3)
            6.3. Communicating complex concepts to peers both in written and oral form (WA10) (EIE2)
    • University Graduate Attributes

      This course will provide students with an opportunity to develop the Graduate Attributes specified below:

      Employable, innovative and enterprising

      Students will develop key skills and attributes sought by employers that can be used in a range of applications.

Prerequisites

Restrictions

Course Coordinator

For further information see Mechanical Engineering Head of Department

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $1,268.00

International fee $6,238.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Mechanical Engineering .

All ENME404 Occurrences

  • ENME404-25S2 (C) Semester Two 2025