Mechanical Engineering
The Mechanical Engineering program has been developed to meet the educational needs of professionals working within discipline. The graduate courses in the program will be taught by WPI faculty in Newport, RI with the use of distance learning technology to accommodate for those traveling on business. Anyone with an undergraduate degree is welcome to apply for admission into the program. All of the courses will carry graduate credit and can be applicable to a Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering, upon admission into the degree program. For more information, please contact Rachel Yamartino at +1-508-831-6222 or riy@wpi.edu.
Mechanical Engineering
ME 532 Continuum Mechanics: January 2007
ME 5310/MTE 510 Principles of Materials Science and Engineering: April 2007
ME 531 Applied Elasticity: September 2007
ME 533/CE 524 Finite Element Method and Applications: January 2008
ME 5360/MTE 560 Materials Performance and Reliability: April 2008
ME 532. Continuum Mechanics
Emphasis on the distinction between general principles that apply to all deforming materials and the specific constitutive assumptions that are made when modeling material behavior. The course includes a brief review of the necessary mathematics and then proceeds to the kinematics of deformable media, the concepts of stress and stress transformations, and the general balance laws. The remainder of the course deals with general constitutive theory and constitutive relations for selected materials that have relevance to structural, fluid dynamics, materials processing and materials handling.
ME 5310/MTE 510. Principles of Materials Science and Engineering
This course provides a comprehensive review of the fundamental principles of materials science and engineering. The classical interplay among structure- processing-properties-performance in materials including plastics, metals, ceramics, glasses and composites will be emphasized. The structure in materials ranging from the subatomic to the macroscopic, including nano-, micro- and macromolecular structures, will be discussed to highlight bonding mechanisms, crystallinity and defect patterns. Representative thermodynamic and kinetic aspects such as diffusion, phase diagrams, nucleation and growth, and TTT diagrams will be discussed. Basics of elasticity, plastic deformation and viscoelasticity will be highlighted. Salient aspects pertaining to the corrosion and environmental degradation of materials will be discussed. This course will provide the background for students in any engineering or science major for future course and research work in materials. (Prerequisites: senior or graduate standing in engineering or science.) Offered each year.
ME 531. Applied Elasticity
This course is intended for students with undergraduate backgrounds in mechanics of materials. It includes two- and three-dimensional states of stress, linear and nonlinear measures of strain, and generalized Hooke's Law. Also covered are exact solutions for bending and torsion: thick-walled pressure vessels, rotating disks, stress functions for two- and three-dimensional problems and bending and torsion of unsymmetric beams.
ME 533/CE 524. Finite Element Method and Applications
This course serves as an introduction to the basic theory of the finite element method. Topics covered include matrix structural analysis variation form of differential equations, Ritz and weighted residual approximations, and development of the discretized domain solution. Techniques are developed in detail for the one- and two-dimensional equilibrium problem. Examples focus on elasticity and heat flow with reference to broader applications. Students are supplied microcomputer programs and gain experience in solving real problems. (Prerequisites: Elementary differential equations, solid mechanics and heat flow.)
ME 5360/MTE 560. Materials Performance and Reliability
The failure and wear-out mechanisms for a variety of materials (metals, ceramics, polymers, composites and microelectronics) and applications will be presented and discussed. Multi-axial failure theories will be discussed. A series of case studies will be used to illustrate the basic failure mechanisms of plastic deformation, creep, fracture, fatigue, wear and corrosion. The methodology and techniques for reliability analysis will also be presented and discussed. A materials systems approach will be used. (Prerequisites: ES 2502 and ME 3023 or equivalent, and senior or graduate standing in engineering or science.)
Last modified: December 19, 2006 15:15:01