FUNDAMENTALS OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

 WHAT IS MECHANIAL ENGINEERING? 

Technically, mechanical engineering is the application of the principles and problem-solving techniques of engineering from design to manufacturing to the marketplace for any object. Mechanical engineers analyze their work using the principles of motion, energy, and force ensuring that designs function safely, efficiently, and reliably, all at a competitive cost.

Mechanical engineers make a difference. That's because mechanical engineering careers center on creating technologies to meet human needs. Virtually every product or service in modern life has probably been touched in some way by a mechanical engineer to help humankind.
This includes solving today's problems and creating future solutions in health care, energy, transportation, world hunger, space exploration, climate change, and more.

FUNDAMENTALS OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

The Fundamentals of mechanical engineering are:

Clearances and Tolerances

When designing any number of complex and precise parts, keeping in mind clearances and

tolerances is key. A tolerance in engineering terms is usually defined as the permissible limit or limits

of variation of a part.

This becomes important when you are ordering parts like nuts and bolts or trying to determine which

manufacturing process to use to create your design. Certain machines will have a maximum

tolerance and if you need a tighter tolerance, then you need to find a new machine. Clearances

naturally come out of tolerances. For example, you might know you must maintain a clearance of 2

cm + or - 1 cm. This clearance would likely be there to avoid friction or to avoid the part catching

another moving part. The tolerance of this clearance value would be 1 cm. All make sense?

Force, Pressure, and Friction

May the force, pressure, and friction be with you. Forces are the measure of mass times acceleration.
They are what determine our everyday life. Friction and pressure are both types of forces, often the
most discussed. Focusing on the latter, friction is the reason everything works the way it does.
Without it, we would all slide around endlessly like in a real-life pinball machine. Friction is a resisting
force exerted on an object when in contact with another object.
There is kinetic and static friction, which each usually has a different coefficient for a given surface.
Essentially, friction is a resisting force that can be variable based on surface properties, velocities,
and accelerations. The pressure is similar to friction in that it is a continuous force exerted against an
object when something is in contact with it. It is also given as a force on a specified area, think
pounds per square foot (psi).

Velocity and Acceleration

Velocity is the speed of something in a given direction. Velocity is generally a vector of sorts, meaning

that it has both a numerical speed value and a directional value. Acceleration, on the other hand, is

the change in velocity in a given time. In terms of physics, there can be both positive and negative

acceleration, negative often being called deceleration. Understanding these two concepts of velocity and acceleration are foundational to life as an

engineer. Every other principle, like work, energy, forces. everything, build off of your understanding of these concepts.

Work and Energy

Work builds off of the principles of force. If work is done on an object, a force is applied to that object

to move it a certain distance in a certain direction. Energy is the capacity of doing work. For example,

when you are in a car at the top of a roller coaster. You have a certain amount of energy, or potential,

to fall down the track and gain speed. As you begin to fall, your potential, or energy, begins to

decrease as the force of gravity begins doing work on you.

Think of energy as the currency to do work. Your manager pays you in energy and you in turn work

all day. Remember, that's just an analogy, we don't get paid in red bulls - at least I don't. These

principles aren't hard if you understand forces and ultimately accelerations, but like everything in

physics, it all builds on the previous principles.

Stress and Strain

Stress is the force per unit area and strain is the deviation or change in shape as a result of stress. In

other words, stress is the number of tests you have coming up when you are in college, and strain is how little free time you then have in your schedule. These concepts become really important in

material sciences. Their values will change for different materials, often referred to as maximum

stress and strain for a given material. Exceeding these maximum values often result in deformation

or part failure.

All of these concepts were physical in nature, and they involve a lot of math too. Many mechanical

engineers use these principles on a daily basis, although not always in the way you use them in

physics class in college. Most CAD programs and other computer tools will take the complexity out of

the calculation and determine all of these values automatically.

WHAT DO MECHANICAL ENGINEERS DO?

Mechanical engineering combines creativity, knowledge and analytical tools to complete

the difficult task of shaping an idea into reality.

Mechanical engineers have an enormous range of opportunity and their education mirrors this breadth of

subjects. Students concentrate on one area while strengthening analytical and problem-solving skills applicable to

any engineering situation.

Disciplines within mechanical engineering include but are not limited to:

1. Acoustics
2. Aerospace
3. Automation
4. Automotive
5. Autonomous Systems
6. Biotechnology
7. Composites
8. Computer Aided Design (CAD)
9. Control Systems
10. Cyber security
11. Design
12. Energy
13. Ergonomics
14. Human health
15. Manufacturing and additive manufacturing
16. Mechanics
17. Nanotechnology
18. Production planning
19. Robotics
20. Structural analysis. etc.,