Undergraduate Major Mechanical Engineering

This course is an introduction to the fundamental concepts, principles, procedures, and computations regarding modern instrumentation and measurement systems. Students will gain a sound understanding of a language (LabVIEW ) used to describe modern instrumentation, measurement, and control systems and an appreciation of the various types of systems in common use in industry. Students will use this software to create virtual instruments. Particular emphasis will be given to electrical, mechanical, flow, and thermal measurement systems. The course will also cover statistical analysis to evaluate the quality of measurements, standard methods of characterizing measurement results, and methods for characterizing measurement system response. The students work in teams to conceive-design-implement-operate a project incorporating multiple sensors and data acquisition and analysis.

This course provides an introduction to the essentials of electrical engineering. Topics to be covered include resistive circuits, nodal and mesh analysis using Kirchhoff's laws, superposition, Norton & Th venin equivalences, capacitance & inductance, 1st order transient analysis, RC, RL & RLC circuits, Laplace transform, and frequency response. A simulation software package is employed throughout this course to analyze various electric circuits. An introduction to the selection and performance of electric motors is provided.

This course provides students an opportunity to model, analyze, and design control systems. It includes mathematical modeling of linear systems for time and frequency domain analysis, transfer function and state variable representations for analyzing control system's performance and stability; and closed-loop control design techniques by frequency response, and root-locus methods. It also involves computer programming and simulation exercises. This course gives a basic understanding and analysis tools of various control systems used in the aeronautical, mechanical, and electric and electronics industries.

This is the second course in the engineering design sequence and expands the capabilities introduced in EG110. Additional high-level software tools for use in interactive algorithm development, data visualization, simulation, and data analysis are introduced. Microsoft Project will be introduced as a project management tool for design projects. Team projects, presentations, and reports will continue as in EG110. Successful completion of the design project will require the team to integrate their mechanical design, manufacturing, project management, computer control system, programming, and presentation skills.

This course explores the definitions and concepts of forces and moments, and their applicability to the analysis of static, rigid mechanical systems. Specific topics include free body diagrams, resultants and equivalent force systems, static equilibrium, shear and bending diagrams, static analysis of trusses and frames, friction forces, and calculation of centroids and area moments of inertia.

This course provides an introduction to the concepts and applications of mechanics of fluid. The course begins by introducing the student to fluid properties. This is followed by a discussion of fluid statics, including pressure distribution and forces on submerged, curved and plane surfaces. The student will then learn how to derive and apply integral formulations of conservation of mass, momentum, and energy with emphasis on control-volume applications. Dimensional analysis is studied and applied. The latter part of the course focuses on pipe flows with consideration of head loss, use of the Moody diagram, and analysis of pipe networks. Finally, the concepts of drag and lift are introduced. Students will perform three laboratory experiments in this course.

This course enhances the students understanding of stress and strain, and their linear-elastic relationship through Hooke's Law. The stress induced in simple beams and columns, as subjected to axial, torsional, bending, and shear loading, is extensively covered. The concept of state of plane-stress, as a result of combined loadings (superposition), and transformation to principal components, is covered. Based on allowable stress, basic beam design is introduced. Methods to determine the deformation of beams and shafts are covered. The concepts are supported by software-based stress analysis and the application of computational software in structural design.

This course develops the student's ability to solve non-equilibrium problems, extending mechanics beyond statics to the mechanics of motion. Vector analysis, trigonometry, and calculus are used to analyze advanced problems involving motion. The first component of the course covers particle motion (translational motion kinematics, kinetics via general equations of motion, energy methods, and conservation of momentum). Particle dynamics are explored by analyzing data from an actual flight in an instrumented airplane. The second component of the course covers rigid body motion (translational and rotational kinematics, kinematics via general equations of motion, energy methods, and conservation of momentum). A final course team project deals with the analysis of a complex dynamics problem.

This course provides the materials science and engineering background that can be applied to structural/thermal analysis, and material selection. The course focuses on metallic materials and process-structure-property relationships, with some reference to ceramics and polymers. Part 1 emphasizes the fundamentals of materials science such as atomic structure, arrangement, and movement and is supported by a laboratory exercise in microscopy and grain size. Part 2 emphasizes the relationship between micro-structure and material properties, with a focus on mechanical and thermal behavior, including an introduction to fracture mechanics. Two laboratory exercises support the testing and characterization methods associated with property measurement. Part 3 introduces the processing and application driven selection of materials, including metals, ceramics, and polymers. The focus is on the required mechanical or thermal properties for basic designs by way of a defined performance metric.

This course provides the student with a working knowledge of thermodynamic concepts and the problem solving ability to set up and apply the appropriate laws in the thermodynamic analysis of engineering systems. Energy, heat, and work are defined and used in the First Law of Thermodynamics. Other thermodynamic properties and equations of state are introduced with emphasis on tabular and graphical forms for simple compressible systems and on the ideal gas. Phases and phase transitions are discussed and energy analysis of both open and closed systems is examined. The Second Law of Thermodynamics and the property entropy are introduced, and their macro and microscopic implications are discussed. Emphasis is placed on the consequences of irreversibility and the limitation this places on the behavior of engineering systems.

This course is the third course in the five-semester design sequence and provides a concurrent engineering design experience. In concurrent engineering design all phases of product development are considered simultaneously. This is an approach that is being used in industry to improve quality and reduce design cycle time. Students will continue to build their design experience from the previous two design courses. Working directly from their solid model data bases they will perform finite element analysis (to determine stresses and deformations), motion and dynamic analysis, manufacturing simulation, CNC code generation for use with lathes and milling machines, assembly modeling and tolerance checking, as well as drafting and documentation. As in the previous two design courses, teamwork, report writing, and oral presentation skills will be stressed. Principles of ethical reasoning will be introduced to develop an understanding of the relationship among societal needs and the constraints imposed on engineers in addressing those needs. The basics of statistics will also be covered including descriptive statistics (constructing frequency tables, histograms, finding mean, standard deviation, and Z scores), inferential statistics including confidence intervals, and linear and quadratic regression.

This course focuses on the application of the fundamental laws of thermodynamics (learned previously in Thermodynamics I) to the analysis of energy conversion devices, systems, and processes, such as internal combustion engine, gas turbine, vapor power generation, and refrigeration. Factors that govern energy conversion processes and impact efficiency of those processes are studied in detail. In addition, gas mixture properties, air-conditioning psychrometrics, and fundamental compressible flow theory are also covered.

This course is a continuation of Materials Science and Mechanics of Materials I. It investigates material failure mechanisms such as yielding under combined loading, brittle fracture, and fatigue. Additional topics covered by the course include analysis of thick-walled pressure vessels, rotating disks, press fits, and contact stresses. In addition, failure theories, safety factors, and stress concentration are covered topics. Finally, the course includes an introduction to stress analysis utilizing commercial computational software and an associated fatigue-based structural design and analysis project.

This course concerns the analysis, selection, and design of industrial components such as shafts, gears, bearings, springs, and fasteners used in mechanisms and machines. The fundamentals of machine design, including the design process, failure prevention under static and variable loading, and characteristics of the principal types of mechanical elements are covered. A practical approach to the subject through a wide range of real-world applications is presented; and the link between design and analysis is addressed.

This course covers advanced kinematics and kinetics and the associated dynamical analysis of mechanisms. The kinematic analysis approaches are applied to mechanisms such as multiple degree of freedom planar mechanisms and cam-followers. The courses also covers vibrational analysis of rotating machinery and dynamic balancing. Vibrations of rotating members are supported by a lab component.

In this course students learn how to design, evaluate, and implement experiments, and analyze the resulting data. The professional presentation and reporting of experimental results are addressed. Uncertainty analysis techniques are covered in detail. General uncertainty analysis is introduced as a means to evaluate a proposed experiment. Both the Taylor Series and Monte Carlo methods for estimating error propagation are covered. Hypothesis testing procedures for one-sample and two sample data comparisons are covered in detail. Factorial experiment design and analysis are also introduced. Students apply these theories in a final project.

This course provides theory and application of steady heat conduction in solids, involving contact resistance, thermal networks, and fin arrays. Transient heat conduction in solids, involving lumped system analysis, similarity solutions for semi-infinite domains, and general 1D transient solutions per Heisler Charts. Related topics include external, internal, and natural convection, with coverage of boundary layer theory and correlation equations, and thermal radiation with application to heat exchange between black and gray bodies. Select exercises are supported by Numerical Simulations to compare results and enhance conceptual understanding. Finally, the theoretical content is supported by a substantial Lab component which also involves Numerical Simulation exercises.

This course provides theory and practical application examples on the design of thermo-fluid systems. Topics include measurement and of non-Newtonian viscosity, design and analysis of piping systems and networks, pumps and fan characterization and selection, boiling and condensation in heat exchange, and heat exchanger design. The course involves significant commercial software utilization, a lab component, and a paper-study project focusing on analysis of a thermo-fluid system design.