Courses | VD Academic Affairs

Nuclear fission, reactor criticality, reactor power and rating, fuel consumption and burn up, fuel cycles, reactor operation and radiation shielding, conversion, and breeding, fast reactors, nuclear power plants, power generation, heat transfer in nuclear reactors, thermodynamic power cycles, economics of nuclear power plants.

Modes of heat transfer, basic design methods of heat exchangers, classification of heat exchangers, heat transfer and flow friction characteristics, compact, shell-and-tube and plate-type heat exchangers performance analysis, fouling and its effect on the life cycle analysis, maintenance methodology, flow-induced vibration and noise in heat changers.

Principles of airflow and airflow measurement techniques. Industrial process exhaust systems. Selection and design of exhaust hoods (general and specific applications). Make-up and supply air ventilation systems. Dilution ventilation systems. Selection and design of ducts, fans, stacks, and air cleaners. Monitoring and testing of ventilation systems.

systems.

Thermo-Fluid Engineering

The student undertakes an independent project (theoretical and/or experimental) under the supervision of a faculty adviser. The objective is to provide the student with an opportunity to integrate and apply the knowledge gained throughout his/her course of study in an actual problem. The student must document his/her study in a technical report and give an oral presentation of the results.

Review of Newtonian mechanics. The principle of virtual work. D'Alemberts principle. Hamilton's principle. Lagrange's equations of motion. Case of impulsive forces. Conservation laws. Ralyleigh's dissipation function. Hamilton's equations. Motion relative to rotating frames. Rigid body dynamics. Gyroscopic effects. Canonical transformations. The Hamilton-Jacobi equation.

Stress and strain in two and three dimensions. Plane theory of elasticity. Failure theories. Stress concentration. Residual Stresses. Thermal stresses. Contact stresses. Impact loading. Fracture mechanics and design. Fatigue and cumulative damage. Structural instability. Experimental stress analysis. Energy approach and numerical methods. Case Studies.

Lagrange's equations. Response of multi-degree- of-freedom systems. Vibration of continuous systems. Approximate solutions. Introduction to nonlinear vibrations. Introduction to random vibrations. Spectral analysis.

General concepts in the dynamic analysis and design of machines, with reference to machine tools. Structure compliance, integrity, static and thermal deformations, structure design concepts. Drive systems, slides and bearings. Feed drives. Types of control systems; numerical, adaptive and computer control. Steady and dynamic cutting forces. Dynamics of machine tools. Receptance concept. Interaction between cutting and structural response. Machine tool stability. Vibration reduction of machine tools in the design stage and in the field. Design for fabrication by bonding.

Computer Graphics including solid modeling and image synthesis, curve and surface description, 3-D transformations. Use of prepackaged software. Review of optimization techniques: linear, non- linear and dynamic programming. Design applications in mechanical engineering systems.

Mechanical behavior of materials: elastic and plastic behavior, yielding fracture, crack propagation, fatigue, creep. Behavior at low and high temperatures. Engineering properties of metallic and non-metallic materials. Functional requirements of engineering materials. Material selection process, criteria and techniques. Aspects of design for selection. Applications: material selection for springs, fasteners, gears, bearings etc. Material selection for abrasive-wear and corrosion- resistance applications. Case studies.

Component factors in durability and reliability. Reliability concepts and assessments. The performance requirements. Static and dynamic reliability models. Random variables in design. Sampling estimation and confidence. Maintainability down-time and repair-time. Design factors determining down-time. Maintainability prediction. Maintainability and reliability in contracts. Maintenance handbook.

Survey of single-variable unconstrained optimization methods. Multi-variable unconstrained optimization. Single and multi-variable constrained optimization techniques. Applications from mechanical design, vibrations, solid mechanics, and thermal fluid systems.

An upper division of graduate technical elective treating topics in Engineering mostly not covered in other courses, chosen at the discretion of the Graduate Program Committee.