II. Introduction#
II.1. Purpose of the course#
The course Introduction Mechanical Engineering gives, as is clear from the name, an introduction to the field of Mechanical Engineering. This includes the skill of designing and manufacturing machines and equipment. In order to come up with an instrument knowledge, of a large number of subareas is required. Many of these subareas, such as mechanics, materials science, manufacturing engineering, control engineering, hydrodynamics, thermodynamics, automotive technology and construction engineering, are discussed during the curriculum. For you as a student, these courses seem to stand on their own, but the mutual coherence becomes increasingly clear as your study progresses. This course teaches, among other things, through:
Lectures with guided selfstudy
Practical sessions
Challenge Based Learning (CBL)
The course has the following general (learning) goals in mind:
Learning objectives lectures and practical sessions
To actively introduce the student to the various subareas of mechanical engineering.
Let the student experience the applicability and usefulness of knowledge from those subareas based on practical examples.
Recapitulate and activate mathematical and physical prior knowledge (from pre-university education).
Levelling the differences in prior knowledge between students.
Show the student that designing a high-tech product consists of many partial design problems, which can be of different nature.
To teach the student to place a partial design problem and its solution in the original context.
Giving the student insight into the continuation of his/her mechanical engineering education.
Giving the student some insight into the possible nature of the work of a graduated mechanical engineer.
Learning objectives truss structure case
The students are able to design a 3D truss structure.
The students are able to analyze the mechanical properties of the structure in order to improve the design.
The students learn to operate (make first experience with) computer programs to analyze the mechanical properties of complex structures.
The students can build the designed truss structure with the supplied materials
In short, this course aims to show the core of mechanical engineering in a nutshell and to furthermore show that mechanical engineering is a very exciting field.
II.2. Setup of the course#
To achieve the above learning objectives, the course is set up as follows. Mechanical engineering is first explored globally. Which disciplines can be distinguished? In the following lectures, most disciplines are introduced. In this course the principles of those theories are explained. In part that means repeating the high school material, in part that means a supplement to the high school substance. Subsequently, the theories are applied to characteristic design problems for that discipline.
II.3. Structure of the course#
Each chapter in the lecture notes covers one discipline of mechanical engineering. Below you can see an overview of the disciplines that are discussed:
Simple devices, applications of the work-energy principle
Mechanics & Materials
Flow
Heat
Dynamics
Control technology
Each chapter is structured as follows:
Introduction
The introduction briefly explains what the discipline in question is concerned with.
The scope of the discipline is illustrated with a few examples.
Theory and examples
The principles of the theory that is important for this discipline are discussed.
The theory is further explained with a few examples and you are already introduced to applying the theory.
To be continued
It is indicated which matters have been simplified in this course.
It is indicated which lectures and subjects you can still expect in the remainder of your studies.
Based on examples, an idea is sketched of current developments within the disciplines.
Guided Self Study material.
Bundle of excercises to familiarize yourself with the lecture material and prepare for the exams.
Check out the content pages bundled with this sample book to see more.