Last week I got back after three weeks in East Africa – my first international travel since the COVID-19 pandemic started. I had some out-of-the-ordinary encounters with fluid flow. So, I decided this month to depart from my usual tech-centric format and have some fun. Here are some brief topics I will discuss and a few photos I took…
- Open Channel Flow – The Great Migration of wildebeest across the Mara River
- Buoyancy Effects – A hot air balloon trip over the Serengeti
- High Speed Propulsion – A cheetah catches a Thomson gazelle
- Cooling Water Spray Systems – Elephants and zebras cooling off in a watering hole
- Mass Transfer – Newborn lion cubs being transported by their lioness mother
- Geothermal Engineering – A gorilla family near some volcanoes
Open Channel Flow – The Great Migration of wildebeest across the Mara River
Location – Tanzania, north Serengeti National Park
We saw five wildebeest crossings. We saw crocodiles. But we did not see crocodiles catch any poor wildebeest. The Great Migration happens in July-September when over a million wildebeest cross the Mara River in search of better grazing areas.
Buoyancy Effects – A hot air balloon trip over the Serengeti
Location – Tanzania, north Serengeti National Park
We took an incredible one-hour hot air balloon trip at dawn over the Serengeti.
High Speed Propulsion – A cheetah catches a Thomson gazelle
Location – Tanzania, eastern plains of Serengeti National Park
We came across this cheetah just after she had successfully hunted a Thomson gazelle. The gazelle was still intact. We watched her for 90 minutes until she had eaten enough – at which point she just walked away. Then the scavengers showed up (vultures and hyena) which we watched for another 90 minutes. At the end of the 3 hours the only thing remaining of the “tommy” was a skull and horns. The hyenas ate all the bones.
Cooling Water Spray Systems – Elephants and zebras cooling off in a watering hole
Location – Tanzania, Tarangire National Park
Mass Transfer – Newborn lion cubs being transported by their lioness mother
Location – Tanzania, eastern plains of Serengeti National Park
Geothermal Engineering – A gorilla family near some volcanoes
Location – Rwanda, Volcanoes National Park (first national park in all of Africa)
Good thing we chose the “short hike” to see the gorillas as it ended up being 6 miles (10 km) through a jungle in the rain forest with a vertical rise of about 800 ft (250 m)!
AFT President & Founder | ASME Fellow - Trey founded AFT in 1993. He was the original developer of AFT Fathom (including the GSC and XTS modules), AFT Arrow and AFT Impulse. He was active in software development until 2011 and still works with the development team in addition to managing AFT. He has taught hundreds of training classes on AFT’s software products in twelve countries across every populated continent. He worked previously for General Dynamics in cryogenic rocket design and Babcock & Wilcox in steam/water equipment design. He holds a BSME (1985) and MSME (1986), both from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is a registered Professional Engineer.