This course focuses on the technology, operation and analysis of thermal power, fuel cell, renewable, combined heat and power systems, and energy storage, with a focus on environmental and societal awareness. Topics include: first and second law analysis, exergy, (electro) chemistry, plant subsystems and integration, environmental impacts, life-cycle assessment.
Review of mass, momentum, and energy conservation; boundary layers; laminar/turbulent flow; dynamic similarity; turbomachinery; and Navier Stokes equations. Exact solutions to the Navier Stokes equations for irrotational flows. Thin airfoil theory and finite wing aerodynamics. Design of wind tunnel experiments (sensor selection, model considerations, empirical corrections, scaling laws, types of wind tunnels). Fundamentals of hydro turbine design, selection, and performance evaluation.
Advanced materials for engineers with emphasis on the production, structure, property, function relation of a number of advanced materials for biomedical and aerospace applications. Topics include ultra-light materials, biomaterials, composites, refractory materials and coatings for high-temperature applications, thin film shape memory alloys.
Development of the theory and application of concepts related to Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The course will focus on applications in structural mechanics, heat transfer, and fluid dynamics. A combination of theoretical derivations and practical applications using commercially available FEA and CFD codes will be used throughout the course.
Development of the theory and concepts related to both rigid and flexible multibody dynamics. The course will focus on applications in structural mechanics and analysis.
The course will introduce digital control systems design including sampling, z-transform, root locus techniques, frequency response, and implementation of digital controllers with applications to modern, real-world engineering problems such as robotics and automation. The course will include a brief review of continuous time control.
A broad and application-based overview of the concepts, methodologies, and techniques that can be used to make more effective engineering decisions in the presence of uncertainty. Students will learn about the challenges faced by engineering designers and decision-makers, including the concepts of risk, utility, and uncertainty. Students will also be exposed to tools that can be used to make better decisions with respect to how to design, manufacture and operate engineering systems.
This course implements modern computational methods to solve practical engineering problems relating to the fields of numerical solutions to partial differential equations, statistical analysis of data sets, and state space modeling of linear systems. The course is primarily taught using Matlab, although other languages may be used based on student experience.
An independent engineering project in an area of mechanical engineering focused on a topic chosen by the student and completed in a two-quarter sequence. The first quarter (MEGR 5990) consists of selecting a project topic, conducting necessary background research, collecting preliminary data, and then presenting a project proposal to the ME faculty for approval. The second quarter (MEGR 5991) is focused on executing the project as proposed by producing experimental results or developing a prototype engineering solution to the problem proposed, and then documenting the project in a written report.