The branch of engineering concerned with the design, construction, and operation of machines of all types. It is also concerned with the production and application of mechanical power. Hence mechanical engineers design, operate, and test engines that produce power from steam, petrol, nuclear energy, and other sources, and a wide range of associated equipment. The field became a separate branch of engineering when steam power was introduced into manufacturing in the 1800s.
Mechanical engineering is a professional engineering discipline that involves the application of principles of physics for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. Practitioners of mechanical engineering, known as mechanical engineers, use these principles and others in the design and analysis of automobiles, aircraft, heating &
Development of mechanical engineering
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Before the Industrial Revolution, most engineering was restricted to military and civil uses. "During the early 19th century in England mechanical engineering developed as a separate field to provide manufacturing machines and the engines to power them. In the United States, the first mechanical engineering professional society was formed in 1880, making it the third oldest type of engineering behind civil (1852) and mining & "The first schools in the United States to offer an engineering education were the United States Military Academy in 1817, an institution now known as Norwich University in 1819, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1825.
Education
A Bachelor of Arts (BA) or Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in mechanical engineering is offered at many universities in the United States, and similar programs are offered at universities in most industrialized nations. In the U.S., mechanical engineering programs typically take four to five years and result in a B.S.M.E./B.A.M.E., or Bachelor of Science/Arts in Mechanical Engineering. Most mechanical engineering programs are accredited nationally by ABET to ensure similar course requirements and standards between universities. The ABET website lists 276 accredited mechanical engineering programs as of June 19, 2006.
Some mechanical engineers go on to pursue a postgraduate degree such as a Master of Engineering/Master of Science, a Master of Engineering Management, a Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering or an Engineer's degree. To become a licensed Practicing Engineer, an engineer must
pass the comprehensive FE (Fundamentals of Engineering) exam, work a given number of years as an Engineer in Training (EIT), pass the PE (Practicing Engineer or Professional Engineer) exam.The purpose of this process is to ensure that engineers possess the necessary technical knowledge and real-world experience to engineer safely. Not every mechanical engineer chooses to become licensed; A distinction similar to practicing engineer status is the Chartered Engineer ('CEng') status awarded by some European, Asian and Oceanic engineering organizations. "In most modern countries, certain engineering tasks, such as the design of bridges, electric power plants, and chemical plants, must be approved by a Professional Engineer or a Chartered Engineer." Chartered Engineer)
Mechanical engineering coursework
American Universities offering accredited programs in mechanical engineering are required to offer several major subjects of study, as determined by ABET. Fundamental subjects of mechanical engineering typically include:
statics & dynamics strength of materials solid mechanics, instrumentation and measurement, thermodynamics, heat transfer, energy conversion, and refrigeration / air conditioning, fluid mechanics and dynamics, mechanism design (including kinematics and dynamics), manufacturing technology or processes, engineering design, mechatronics and/or control theory, drafting or CAD/CAM.Mechanical engineers are also expected to understand and be able to apply basic concepts from chemistry, chemical engineering, electrical engineering, and physics. Most mechanical engineering programs include several semesters of calculus, as well as advanced mathematical concepts which may include differential equations and partial differential equations, linear and modern algebra, and differential geometry, among others.
In addition to the core mechanical engineering curriculum, many mechanical engineering programs offer more specialized programs and classes, such as mechatronics / robotics, transport and logistics, cryogenics, fuel technology, automotive engineering, biomechanics, vibration, optics and others, if a separate department does not exist for these subjects.
Most mechanical engineering programs also require varying amounts of research or community projects to gain practical problem-solving experience. Mechanical engineering students usually hold one or more internships while studying, though this is not typically mandated by the university. The total number of mechanical engineering jobs in 2004 was projected to grow 9 to 17%, with average starting salaries being $50,236 with a bachelors degree, $59,880 with a masters degree, and $68,299 with a doctorate degree. This places mechanical engineering at 8th of 14 among engineering bachelors degrees, 4th of 11 among masters degrees, and 6th of 7 among doctorate degrees in average annual salary.
Process of Mechanical Engineering
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The process of mechanical engineering is optimization: engineers strive to optimize the cost, producibility, durability, safety, and overall usefulness of objects.
Tools and Work
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Modern analysis and design processes in mechanical engineering are aided by various computational tools including FEA, CFD, and CAD/CAM.
Subdisciplines
The field of mechanical engineering can be thought of as a collection of many mechanical disciplines. Some of these subdisciplines are unique to mechanical engineering, while others belong to mechanical engineering and one or more other disciplines. Most work that a mechanical engineer does uses skills and techniques from several of these subdisciplines, as well as specialized subdisciplines. Several specialized subdisciplines are discussed at the end of this section
Mechanics
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Solid MechanicsMechanics is, in the most general sense, 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, the study of non-moving bodies under known loads Dynamics (or kinetics), the study of how forces affect moving bodies Mechanics of materials, the study of how different materials deform under various types of stress Fluid Mechanics, the study of how fluids react to forces. Note that fluid mechanics can be further split into fluid statics and fluid dynamics, and is itself a subdiscipline of continuum mechanics. The application of fluid mechanics in engineering is called hydraulics. Continuum mechanics is a method of applying mechanics that assumes that objects are continuous.Uses
Mechanical engineers typically use mechanics in the design or analysis phases of engineering. If the engineering project were the design of a vehicle, statics might be employed to design the frame of the vehicle, to evaluate where the stresses will be most intense.
Uses
Mechanical engineers typically use kinematics in the design and analysis of mechanisms. Robotics
Mechatronics is an interdisplinary branch of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and software engineering that is concerned with integrating electrical and mechanical engineering to create hybrid systems.
Uses
Mechatronics is currently used in the following areas of engineering:
Automation, and in the area of robotics. Servo-Mechanics Sensing and Control Systems Automotive engineering, in the design of subsystems such as anti-lock braking systems Computer engineering, in the design of mechanisms such as hard drives, CD-ROM drives, etc. To create a robot, an engineer typically employs kinematics (to determine the robot's range of motion) and mechanics (to determine the stresses within the robot).Uses
Robots are used extensively in Industrial engineering.
Structural failure analysis
Structural failure analysis or just failure analysis is the branch of mechanical engineering devoted to examining not only why but how objects break or otherwise fail.
Uses
Failure analysis is often used by mechanical engineers after a failure has occurred, or while performing maintenance. This differs from the other subdisciplines of mechanical engineering, which are generally employed before any parts have been fabricated.
Thermodynamics and thermo-science
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of ThermodynamicsThermodynamics is a branch of both mechanical engineering and Chemical Engineering.
Uses
Thermodynamics principles are used by mechanical engineers in the fields of heat transfer, thermofluids, and energy conversion.
Drafting
Drafting or technical drawing is the mean by which mechanical engineers create instructions for manufacturing parts. A U.S. mechanical engineer or skilled worker who creates technical drawings may be referred to as a drafter or draftsman (or, more correctly, draftsperson). Optionally, an engineer may also manually manufacture a part using the technical drawings, but this is becoming an increasing rarity, except in the areas of applied spray coatings, finishes, and other processes that cannot economically be done by a machine.
Uses
Drafting is used in nearly every subdiscipline of mechanical engineering, and by many other branches of engineering and architecture.
List of specialized subdisciplines
The following is a list of some additional subdisciplines and topics within mechanical engineering. These topics may be considered specialized because they are not typically part of undergraduate mechanical engineering requirements, or require training beyond an undergraduate level to be useful.
Acoustical Engineering Aerospace Engineering Alternative Energy Automotive Engineering Biomedical Engineering Computer-Aided Engineering Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) Nanotechnology Nuclear Engineering Piping Power Generation Engineering Based Programming Robotics* *Robotics is also listed as a general subdiscipline, but because of the breadth of the subject it may require many years of advanced training to be useful to a particular field.Frontiers of research in mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is not a static field of engineering. Mechanical engineers are constantly pushing the boundaries of what is physically possible in order to produce safer, cheaper, and more efficient machines and mechanical systems. Some technologies at the cutting edge of mechanical engineering are listed below (see also exploratory engineering).
Nanotechnology
At the smallest scales, mechanical engineering becomes nanotechnology and molecular engineering - one speculative goal of which is to create a molecular assembler to build molecules and materials via mechanosynthesis.
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