RESEARCH TRENDS IN FLUID MECHANICS EDUCATION: A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35631/IJMOE.831127Keywords:
Bibliometric Analysis, Engineering Polytechnic Education, Fluid Mechanics, Scopus, VOSviewerAbstract
Fluid mechanics is a fundamental subject in engineering education, particularly in polytechnic and technical institutions where strong integration between theoretical understanding and practical application is required. Despite its importance, research related to fluid mechanics education remains scattered across different publication sources, themes, and countries, making it difficult to obtain a clear overview of its development. Therefore, this study aims to analyse the research trends in fluid mechanics education through a bibliometric approach using data retrieved from the Scopus database. A total of 7,415 documents were analysed using descriptive bibliometric indicators and visual mapping through VOSviewer. The analysis focused on annual publication trends, country contributions, keyword occurrence, source titles, productive authors, and co citation patterns by countries. The results show an overall upward trend in publication output, with the United States emerging as the dominant contributor in terms of productivity and citation influence. Keyword analysis revealed that the field is strongly centred on fluid mechanics, engineering education, students, curricula, and teaching, while the VOSviewer network further highlighted the growing presence of technology related themes such as computational fluid dynamics, e-learning, and computer aided instruction. In addition, the publication landscape is strongly supported by conference proceedings, especially in engineering education platforms. The main benefit of this paper is that it provides a structured overview of the intellectual development, thematic directions, and global research patterns of fluid mechanics education. The findings offer useful guidance for lecturers, researchers, and curriculum developers, particularly in polytechnic institutions, in identifying important teaching trends, strengthening instructional design, and exploring new research directions in fluid mechanics education.
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