[pdf] An Introduction to Mechanical Engineering

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This textbook will introduce you to the ever-emerging fi eld of mechanical engineering and help you appreciate how engineers design the hardware that builds and improves societies all around the world. As the title implies, this textbook is neither an encyclopedia nor a comprehensive treatment of the discipline. Such a task is impossible for a single textbook, and, regardless, our perspective is that the traditional four-year engineering curriculum is just one of many steps taken during a lifelong education. By reading this textbook, you will discover the “forest” of mechanical engineering by examining a few of its “trees,” and along the way you will be exposed to some interesting and practical elements of the profession called mechanical engineering.

This textbook is intended for students who are in the fi rst or second years of a typical college or university program in mechanical engineering or a closely related fi eld. Throughout the following chapters, we have attempted to balance the treatments of technical problem-solving skills, design, engineering analysis, and modern technology. The presentation begins with a narrative description of mechanical engineers, what they do, and the impact they can have (Chapter 1). Seven “elements” of mechanical engineering are emphasized subsequently in Chapter 2 (Mechanical Design), Chapter 3 (Professional Practice), Chapter 4 (Forces in Structures and Machines), Chapter 5 (Materials and Stresses), Chapter 6 (Fluids Engineering), Chapter 7 (Thermal and Energy Systems), and Chapter 8 (Motion and Power Transmission). Some of the applications that you will encounter along the way include sustainable urban infrastructures, virtual and rapid prototyping, nanomachines, internal combustion engines, robotics, sports technology, magnetic resonance imaging, advanced materials, jet engines, micro-fluidic devices, automatic transmissions, and renewable energy. 

What should you be able to learn from this textbook? First and foremost, you will discover who mechanical engineers are, what they do, and what technical, social, and environmental challenges they solve with the technol ogies they create. Section 1.3 details a “top ten” list of the profession’s achievements. By looking at this list, you will recognize how the profession has contributed to your day-to-day life and society around the world in general. Second, you will find that engineering is a practical endeavor with the objective of designing things that work, that are costeffective to manufacture, that are safe to use, and that are responsible in terms of their environmental impact. Third, you will learn some of the calculations, estimates, and approximations that mechanical engineers can perform as they solve technical problems and communicate their results. To accomplish their jobs better and faster, mechanical engineers combine mathematics, science, computer-aided engineering tools, experience, and hands-on skills.

You will not be an expert in mechanical engineering after having read this textbook, but that is not our intention, and it should not be yours. If our objective has been met, however, you will set in place a solid foundation of problem-solving, design, and analysis skills, and those just might form the basis for your own future contributions to the mechanical engineering profession.

 

 

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