Fluid Mechanics

I like this book much more than Fay or White or Batchelor. I used it in a graduate course on fluid mechanics - I wish I had used it in my undergrad classes - I would have understood the material much better.

Pijush Kundu's textbook has established itself as the standard in introductory fluid mechanics. While most fluid dynamics texts are based around engineering, this book is an excellent cross section for scientists hoping to gain a thorough intuition about the subject. In addition, the first few chapters offer intuitive explanations of such vector operators as div and curl. The idea of curl was a complete mystery to me until I read Kundu's explanation of vorticity. This book is a must have for any applied scientist working in the physical world.

This book is amazing. While accessible to anyone with a basic knowledge of physics, it is nonetheless a complete introduction to the science of fluid mechanics. It manages to give clear, complete explanations of concepts, while avoiding much of the tedious algebra and dry style of, say, Batchelor. Don't get me wrong though--Kundu is not lacking in rigor. As a first text to learn fluid mechanics from, to my knowledge, Kundu has no equal.

As a master in mechanical engineer, and working with technical education, I had studied most of the more popular textbooks on fluid mechanics before, and get used not to expect many from "new" textbooks on the subject.Although, when I came across this book, it was a little surprise. The text is very well written, and includes many advanced and interesting topics not found in other popular textbooks. It gives emphasis to qualitative explanation, and does not overwhelm you with lots of mathematics. The approach to subjects is very clever, insightful and meaningful.I dare to say it renewed my pleasure in reading, studying and teaching fluid mechanics. Thanks and congratulations to Professor Kundu.

This is one of the best introductory books from outside the engineering community that can be used by beginners. I learned the basic equations of fluid dynamics by self-study from chapters 3-4. Chapter 3 is an excellent discussion of kinematics, taking time to carefully examine the various components of the strain rate tensor (although I prefer to call it the deformation tensor): this important topic is often ignored in other texts. Chapter 4 gives the derivation of the conservations laws (mass, momentum, and energy balance; angular momentum and entropy) including the corresponding forms for a rotating frame of reference. The development of the basic equations in Chs. 3-4 is systematic and very appealing to someone with a physics background.The other chapters are: Vorticity Dynamics, Irrotational flow, Gravity waves, Dynamic similarity, Laminar flow, Boundary layers, Instability, Turbulence, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Aerodynamics, and Compressible Flow. Quite a range of material, all in one place. Overall, one of the best introductory books that I've seen.