Physics of non-steady state diffusion of lightweight atoms in a heavy atom matrix. Introducing an open-source tool for simulated-experiments in fluid mechanics

Abstract: The practice-based learning methodologies offer to undergraduate professors different ways to illustrate certain general physic principles. Traditional experimental workbenches have been extensively used during decades for academic lessons in order to complete theoretical dissertations or lectures, aiming at assuring an adequate understanding. The high cost of materials and laboratory equipment, the excessive preparation time, and the difficulty for carrying out offsite-campus replications by students, are disadvantages that can discourage of trying new kinds of experimental tasks. This paper gives insight of simulated experiment possibilities through an open-source-based computational suite in teaching fluid mechanics. Physics underlying diffusion of a light specie in a heavier atom matrix, as function of time and position, were explained to students as an example to teach them the Fick's Second Law expression. We present a docent step-by-step programme, scheduled in three sessions. The expected solution is firstly explained and then compared both to a real case, by published results, and to the virtual-classroom experiment, by resolving a differential equation with numerical schemes. Students were able to make their own hypothesis, change input parameters, and contrasting their initial assumptions.