Mechanical+Engineering

** - Education ** - Five years of study and result in:  - Bachelor of Science,  - Bachelor of Science Engineering,  - Bachelor of Engineering,  - Bachelor of Technology, or  - Bachelor of Applied Science  ** - Subdisciplines ** **-Mechanics **  - The study of forces and their effect upon matter. Typically, engineering mechanics is used to analyze and predict the acceleration and  deformation (both elastic and plastic) of objects under known forces (also called loads) or stresses. Subdisciplines of mechanics include: **- Statics **  <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> - The study of non-moving bodies under known loads, how forces affect static bodies  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;"> **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Dynamics ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> - The study of how forces affect moving bodies <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Mechanics and Materials ** - The study of how different materials deform under various types of stress - The study of how different materials deform under various types of stress - The study of the motion of bodies (objects) and systems (groups of<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> objects), while ignoring the forces that cause the motion. Kinematics is<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> often used in the design and analysis of mechanisms. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;"> **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Continuum Mechanics ** - A method of applying mechanics that assumes that objects are continuous (rather than discrete).
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Fluid Mechanics **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Kinematics **

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; vertical-align: baseline;"> ** - Mechatronics and Robotics ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Mechatronics ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> - Mechatronics is an interdisciplinary branch of mechanical, electrical and software engineering that is concerned with integrating electrical and mechanical engineering to <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> create hybrid systems. - Machines can be automated through the use of electric motors, servo-mechanisms, and other electrical systems in conjunction with special software. - Common Example: CD-ROM Drive - Mechanical systems open ad close the drive, spin the CD and move the laser, while an optical system reads the data on the CD and converts it to bits. - Integrated software controls the process and communicates the contents of the CD to the computer. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;"> **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Robotics ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> - The application of mechatronics to create robots which are often used in industry to perform tasks that are dangerous, unpleasant, or repetitive. - All robots are preprogrammed and interact physically with the world. - To create a robot an engineer typically employs kinematics (to determine the robot’s range of motion) and mechanics (to determine the stress within the robot). - Used extensively in industrial engineering - Save businesses money on labor, perform tasks that are too dangerous or too precise for humans to perform them economically, and to ensure better quality. - Companies employ assembly lines of robots, especially Automotive Industries and some factories are so robotized that they can run by themselves. - Outside the factory, robots been employed in a bomb disposal, space exploration, and many other fields.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; vertical-align: baseline;"> ** - Structural Analysis ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> - The branch of mechanical engineering (and also civil engineering) devoted to examining why and how objects fail and to fix the objects and their performance. - Structural failures occur in two general modes <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;"> **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Static Failure ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> - Occurs when, upon being loaded the object being analyzed either breaks or is deformed plastically, depending on the criterion failure. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;"> **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Fatigue Failure ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> - Occurs when a object fail after a number of repeated loading and unloading cycles. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Occurs because of imperfections in the object: - A microscopic crack on the surface of the object. - Will grow slightly with each cycle until the crack is large enough to cause ultimate failure. - Failure is not simply defined as when a part breaks, however; it is defined as when a part does not operate as intended. - Some system, such as the perforated top sections of some plastic bags, are designed to break. - If the system does not break, failure analysis might be employed to determine the cause. - Engineers often used online documents and books such as those published by ASM to aid them in determining the type of failure and possible causes. - Structural analysis may be used in the office when designing parts, in the field to analyze failed parts, or in laboratories where part might undergo controlled failure tests.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; vertical-align: baseline;"> ** - Thermodynamics and Thermo-Science ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> - Thermodynamics is an applied science used in several branches of engineering, including mechanical and chemical engineering. - The study of energy, it use and transformation through a system. - Engineering thermodynamics is concerned with changing energy from one to form to another. - Automotive engineers convert chemical energy (enthalpy) from the fuel into heat, and the into mechanical work that eventually turns the wheels. - Principles are used by mechanical engineers in the field of heat transfer, thermo fluids, and energy conversion. - Mechanical engineers use thermo-science to design engines and power plants, heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems, heat exchangers, heat sinks, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> radiators, refrigeration, insulation, and others. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; vertical-align: baseline;">** - Design and Drafting ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Drafting ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> - The means by which mechanical engineers design products and create instructions for manufacturing parts. - A technical drawing can be a computer model or hand-drawn schematic showing all the dimensions necessary to manufacture a part, as well as assembly notes, a list of <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> required materials, and other pertinent information. - Historically been a two-dimensional process, but computer-aided design (CAD) programs not allow the designer to create in three dimensions. - Instructions for manufacturing a part must be fed to the necessary machinery, either manually, through programmed instructions, or through the use of a computer- aided <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> manufacturing (CAM) or combined CAD/CAM program. - An engineer may also manually manufacture a part using the technical drawings, but this is becoming a increasing rarity, with the advent of computer numerically <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> controlled (CNC) manufacturing. - Used in nearly every subdiscipline of mechanical engineering, and by many other branches of engineering and architect. - 3D Models created using CAD software are also commonly used in finite element analysis (FEA) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD).

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; vertical-align: baseline;"> ** - Frontiers of Research ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> - Mechanical engineers are constantly pushing the boundaries of what is physically possible in order to produce safer, cheaper, and more efficient machines and <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> mechanical systems. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> - Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems - Micron-scale mechanical components such as springs gears, fluidic and heat transfer devices are fabricated from a variety of substrate materials such as silicon, glass, and <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> polymers like SU8. - Examples of MEMS components are the accelerometers that are used as car airbag sensors, modern cell phones, gyroscopes for precise positioning and microfluidic devices <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> used in biomedical applications. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Friction Stir Welding (FSW) ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> - A new type of welding, discovered in 1991 by The Welding Institute (TWI). - This innovative steady state (non-fusion) welding technique joins materials previously un-weldable, including several aluminum alloys. - Current uses of this technology to date include welding the seams of the aluminum main Space Shuttle external tank, Orion Crew Vehicle test article, Boeing Delta II and <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Delta IV Expendable Launch Vehicles and the SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket, armor plating for amphibious assault ships, and welding the wings and fuselage panels of the new  <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Eclipse 500 aircraft from Eclipse Aviation among an increasingly growing pool of uses. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Composites ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Composites or composite materials are a combination of materials which provide different physical characteristics than either material separately. - Carbon fiber reinforced composites, for instance, have been used in such diverse applications as spacecraft and fishing rods. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Mechatronics ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> - The synergistic combination of mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, and software engineering. - The purpose of this interdisciplinary engineering field is the study of automation from an engineering perspective and serves the purposes of controlling advanced <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> hybrid systems. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;"> **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Nanotechnology ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> - At the smallest scale, mechanical engineering becomes nanotechnology - One speculative goal of which is to create a molecular assembler to build molecules and materials via mechanosynthesis.

**<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Finite Element Analysis ** <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- This field is not new, as the basis of Finite Element Analysis (FEA) or Finite Element Method (FEM) dates back to 1941. - But evolution of computers has made FEM a viable option for analysis of structural problems. - Many commercial codes such as ANSYS, Nastran and ABAQUS are widely used in industry for research and design of components. - Other techniques such as finite difference method (FDM) and finite-volume method (FVM) are employed to solve problems relating heat and mass transfer, fluid flows, fluid surface interaction etc. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Biomechanics is the application of mechanical principles to biological systems, such as humans, animals, plants, organs, and cells. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> - Biomechanics is closely related to engineering, because it often uses traditional engineering sciences to analyse biological systems. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> - Some simple applications of Newtonian mechanics and/or materials sciences can supply correct approximations to the mechanics of many biological systems.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- Biomechanics **