Fundamentals of Compressible Flow Mechanics
The textbook covers the major topics one would expect in an introductory textbook. Major topics from an introductory compressible flow course like the speed of sound, Rayleigh and Fanno flow, variable area flows, normal and oblique shocks, and Prandtl-Meyer expansions have their own chapters. The book also includes a review of thermodynamics and basic fluid mechanics.
There are several chapters that do not appear in standard compressible flow textbooks. These chapters deal with evacuating chambers and isothermal flow but these chapters are not as polished as the more standard chapters. As a work in progress, there are some sections of the textbook which are unfinished or have notes to the reader to ignore incomplete sections.
The textbook only mentions computational fluid dynamics briefly in the introduction and does not have any in-depth material on CFD issues related to compressible flow.
The book has some compressible flow tables included within the body of the text, but no dedicated appendices like most compressible flow textbooks. The webpage for the textbook does have links to HTML, PDF, and the latex source files for compressible flow tables but they are on a supplemental download page and may not be immediately obvious to the reader. The download page also features a compressible flow equation reference and a computer program for gas dynamics calculations.
The book includes a good table of contents, list of figures, and list of tables. There is a subject index, but the coverage could be improved. For example, there is a chapter on Isentropic flow but the word isentropic does not appear in the subject index. There is also an authors index for readers that are interested in the work of a specific researcher.
The content of the book is generally accurate. I found no significant errors during my read-through, though over the course of the revision process typos have been found and corrected. Unfortunately, the textbook has not been updated since 2013 and there are still unfinished chapters included in the manuscript. In the main compressible flow chapters (normal and oblique shocks, Prandtl-Meyer expansion, Rayleigh and Fanno Flow, variable area flow, isentropic flow), the chapters are more polished and accurate.
When dealing with the mathematics and science of compressible flow, the text is unbiased. In the introduction and in some of the supplemental materials the author takes a more argumentative tone that may be off-putting to some readers.
I see no issues with the relevance or longevity of most of the text. The only places with issues are the unfinished chapters that are not part of a traditional compressible flow course. The revision log was active from 2006-2013, but updates to the main textbook page and to the text seem to have stopped. The source files for the textbook do not appear to be available on the main download page any longer, so anyone looking to modify or update the text may find it a challenge to do so.
The mathematics of the text are presented clearly and often in more detail than is found in other compressible flow textbooks. The text itself is written in a generally accessible style, but there are often typographical or grammatical issues that may distract the reader from the meaning of the text. A nomenclature is included at the beginning of the text but could be expanded to give more comprehensive coverage.
The book is consistent with terminology both internally and with generally accepted nomenclature. Important equations are consistently boxed and highlighted to set them off from the rest of the text.
The only significant inconsistency is in the state of the incomplete chapters, as they are significantly shorter and presented in less detail than the main compressible flow chapters.
The book is very modular and could be easily reorganized. Long chapters are broken up into sections and subsections. Example problems are spread throughout the text to break up explanations.
The organization of the book is logical with each chapter representing a major topic in compressible flow. Unlike most compressible flow textbooks, the tables for isentropic, normal shock, one-dimensional heat addition, one-dimensional friction, and Prandtl-Meyer expansions are not included as an appendix. Example table appears within the text, with the reader often referred to the Potto-GDC, a gas dynamics calculator available for download on the site, which can calculate the properties for a given case. There are supplemental tables available for viewing or download on the textbook webpage.
The most recent PDF version of the book has fewer interface issues and would rate a higher score on its own. Unfortunately, when performing a web search for the book, most readers will find the online textbook which has several significant issues. First, the book is several revisions behind the PDF version of the text. This could cause difficulties with students viewing the online textbook vs. the PDF version. Second, at the time of this review, the PDF download of the textbook does not seem to be available on the Potto project page. This reduced availability for the latest revision of the text greatly decreases the usefulness of the book as the later revisions added much-needed example problems and polish to the main compressible flow chapters.
If the availability of the latest PDF were corrected and the webpage updated, this score would increase.
The text has many grammatical and typographical errors throughout the text. Some of these issues were caught and corrected when the textbook was revised more frequently; however, a significant number of issues still remain. In the main compressible flow chapters, these issues are relatively minor but could confuse a first-time reader as they have to work harder to parse the text.
I did not find any issues with the cultural relevance of the text.
This review is for the PDF version 0.4.9.8. The online version of the textbook is several revisions behind and does not have many important revisions and content additions that the PDF version does. Unfortunately, the textbook website has not been updated since 2013 and the more recent PDF version is not available on the textbook webpage at the time of this review. It is a promising start to an open compressible flow textbook, but I would have reservations adopting it as a sole or primary text for a course until the availability issues were addressed.