Schedule of Classes

Nature of mechanical engineering as a profession and as a technological response to human needs. Emphases: design process, problem solving, and engineering experimentation.

Full-time cooperative education assignment for mechanical engineering students who alternate periods of full-time school with periods of full-time academic or career-related work in industry. Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory.

Computational techniques and programming methods for mechanical engineering problems.

Emphasis on concepts, laws, and problem solving methodology; properties of materials, especially gases and vapors; simple equations of state; 1st and 2nd laws; introduction to cycles and systems.

Continuation of ME 301 with emphasis on engineering applications: including more detailed analysis of vapor cycles, power cycles, refrigeration cycles, and heat pump cycles, enhanced second law analysis, and more complex processes that include mixtures, humidification, combustion, and equilibrium.

Theory and practice of measurements and instrumentation. Definition of a measurement system that meets specified needs: identification, selection, and specification of instrumentation components. Weekly laboratory.

Thermodynamics of fluid flow. Basic concepts of fluid mechanics; utility of the control volume approach to solving conservation equations governing the behavior of compressible and incompressible fluid flows. Design applications in thermal systems, aerodynamics, and convective heat transfer.

Engineering systems dynamics, including mechanical, electrical, fluid, and thermal elements. Concepts of modeling. Mathematical methods for understanding and creating desired response behavior of linear systems.

Application of stress analysis, deflection analysis, dynamic analysis, and materials to the design of mechanical components and machines. How available manufacturing processes influence nature of machine elements.

Kinematic and dynamic analysis and synthesis of mechanisms and machines; kinematics of linkages, cams and gearing systems; different analysis methods. Static and dynamic forces; balancing of rotating and reciprocating machines. Integration of these topics in solving open-ended design problems.

Understanding how atomic and crystalline structure influences the mechanical properties of metals, polymers, ceramics, composite, and biomedical materials. Thermal processes that influence the underlying structure of solids. Using materials in the engineering design process.

Student team investigations of thermal and mechanical systems emphasizing definition, planning, design, and execution of experiments involving system modeling and analysis. Written reports and oral presentations are required.

Team based investigations of open-ended engineering design problems. Each project will place an emphasis on problem definition, planning, analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and teamwork. The projects may involve experimentation and/or construction of models. Students enrolled in this course are required to be within 3 semesters of graduation and have a minimum ME GPA 2.25.

Steady state and transient conduction; external and internal forced convection and free convection; radiation; heat exchanger design.

Linear feedback control design and analysis for dynamic systems with applications; examples taken from applications encountered by mechanical and manufacturing engineers. Time and frequency response techniques. System performance analysis.

Design of mechanical systems and components enhanced by applications of computer graphics. Computer graphics hardware characteristics; transformation and projection geometry; space curves and surface presentations; solid geometric representations. User application CAD packages for finite element analysis and mechanisms and systems simulation.

Laws and concepts of classical thermodynamics: real gases and equations of state; availability; irreversibility; property relations; potential functions; equilibrium; multicomponent systems.

In-depth treatment of the three modes of heat transfer; design applications. Development of analytical and specific numerical skills needed for solving design problems involving heat transfer.

Mechanical behavior, analysis, and design of various advanced composite materials: introduction to composite materials and their applications; elasticity of anisotropic solids; micromechanics of fiber reinforced composites and particulate composites; short fiber composites; macromechanics of laminated composites; thermal stresses; failure criteria; fracture and fatigue, reliability, testing, and design of composite materials. Emphasis on developing simple microcomputer programs for analysis. Projects involve curing and testing composites.

Fundamental concepts and methods to analyze, model, and control robotic systems. Kinematics/dynamics, modeling and controller design of robotic arms, mobile robots, and drones. Plant visits to observe robots in action; hands-on practice using Arduino or Raspberry-Pi.

Theory of finite element methods and applications in mechanical engineering: review of matrix algebra and basic theorem of elasticity. Direct formulation of plane truss element and variational formulations of plane stress/strain, axisymmetric solids, flexural beam, and flat plate elements. Element analysis and isoparametric formulation. Applications to problems of stability, vibrations, thermal stress analysis, and fluid mechanics. Computer programming techniques.

Principles and practices of biomedical engineering for integration into design. The focus on human limits including physical, visual, cognitive and medical will serve as the basis for technology evaluations and case studies. Design and analysis with team-based, open ended client specific project.

Research on a project selected by student and advisor.