MEAE&M- 4260 Design of Mechanical Systems



MANE- 4260 Design of Mechanical Systems - Assignments

Introductory Memo

Write a memo to your faculty advisor describing your interests and capabilities in mechanical engineering design. This memo will be used to help decide which team assignment is best for you. The memo should be written in a narrative style and describe your expectations for your capstone design experience. What would you like to learn? It should specifically identify the project that is of most interest to you and explain why. What do you like to do? It should discuss your prior design experience and future career interests. What are your career goals? Attach a copy of your resume.

Team Semester Proposal

Your team should write a proposal that describes project objectives and plans for the semester. The introduction of your proposal should include a brief description of project background and present a statement of objectives. A statement of project background should include the scope of the effort involved, prior history related to the design effort, who are the expected end-users and present the motivations for why someone would be interested in actually sponsoring the design activity. Project objectives should describe anticipated improvements to performance parameters, special features, cost targets and expected timing for completion of the design activity.

Your proposal should include a section that describes in detail the customer requirements, preliminary specifications, related technology areas, and as appropriate, competitor benchmarks and a search of relevant patents. Critical design parameters should be presented with elaboration on why they are important and what challenges might stand in the way of accomplishing design objectives. This section of your proposal should generally address the questions of what is known versus what is not known about the current state of the art related to your design.

The final section of your report should outline a plan for accomplishing team objectives. You should reference your textbook (especially chapters 4 and 5) for guidance. The proposal should include a Gant chart with a description of how the team will organize both team and individual activities and include a detailed project budget. It should identify and request support for any special resources that are not readily available to the project team. Your plan should describe how the team expects to demonstrate (via engineering analysis and experiments) a practical “proof of concept” of the final integrated mechanical system design solution.

Status Reports

Your faculty advisor and/or sponsor will request regular (written and oral) status reports on your progress. Status reports may be requested from you as an individual and/or for the entire team. The exact form, content, and due date for the status report may depend upon the project, the particular stage of the project, and the preferences of the particular faculty advisor or sponsor. Oral status reports will include impromptu presentations during the open forum integration sessions and regular weekly meetings with your faculty advisor. Written reports will usually be requested in the form of a written memo.

Engineering Analysis and Calculations

Engineering analysis and calculations enable engineers to predict performance and choose acceptable values for design parameters. They are an essential part of the design process. In consultation with your faculty advisor, each student should select an element of their project that requires analysis and calculation. Each student will first perform a preliminary engineering analysis that clearly defines a problem and states design objectives, assumptions, basic principles, formulas, and constraints relative to the problem. The preliminary analysis will use estimated parameters to initially help to clarify and provide preliminary design direction. The final engineering calculation will provide refinements to the preliminary analysis and present a detailed design sensitivity analysis. Your faculty advisor will provide consultation and guidance for doing your analysis and calculation.

Technical Report Outlines

Reports should be professionally prepared documents that present a clear and comprehensive understanding of the system design concept, along with the development steps leading to the preferred system design. The technical rationale for the system concept versus other possible options should be clearly presented, in a straightforward and easily interpreted fashion. Engineering analysis, calculations, and experiments should be used to build confidence in design feasibility. The mid-term report provides an opportunity for the team to present necessary updates to the semester project proposal and serves as a foundation for the final technical report. A suggested outline for both the mid-term and final reports are shown below. The outlines are only provided for guidance, and can be modified depending upon project requirements.

Mid-Term Technical Report Outline

I. Abstract (or Executive Summary)

II. Table of Contents

II. List of Figures

1. Introduction

1. Background

2. Objectives and scope of effort

3. Summary of report sections

1. Technology Review and Specifications

1. End user requirements and functional analysis

2. Assessment of relevant technologies

3. Design targets and competitor benchmarks

4. Technical constraints and challenges

2. System Concept Development

1. Concept selection criteria

2. System concept sketches and/or schematics

3. Benefits of selected design as compared to alternate approaches

3. Engineering Analysis and Experiments

1. Purpose of analysis and experiments

2. Description of technical models

3. Results and conclusions

Summary and Conclusions

6 Recommended next steps and implementation plans

7 Significant accomplishments and challenges

8 Potential design improvements

Appendix A – Design Details

Function Block Diagram

Patent Search Details

System Concept Sketches & Options Matrix

Engineering Calculations

Experimental Plans, Data and Analysis

Appendix B – Resumes of Project Team Members

Appendix C – List of References

Final Technical Report Outline

I. Abstract (or Executive Summary)

II. Table of Contents

III. List of Figures

Introduction

11 Background

1. Objectives and scope of effort

2. Summary of report sections

1. Technology Review and Specifications

1. End user requirements and functional analysis

2. Assessment of relevant technologies

3. Design targets and competitor benchmarks

4. Technical constraints and challenges

2. System Concept Development

1. Concept selection criteria

2. System concept sketches and/or schematics

3. Benefits of selected design as compared to alternate approaches

3. Engineering Analysis and Experiments

1. Purpose of analysis and experiments

2. Description of technical models

3. Results and conclusions

4. System Level Design

1 Sub-system functional specifications

2 Physical system layout and architecture

3 Description of key system elements

5. Final Detailed Design

1. Specification of critical design parameters

2. Tolerance analysis on critical design parameters

6. System Evaluation, Test and Refinement

1. Performance test plans and results

2. Reliability and safety evaluation plans and results

3. Failure modes and effects analysis

7. Economic Analysis

1. Detailed final system cost estimate

2. Make-buy analysis on critical system elements

3. Project cash flow analysis

8. Summary and Conclusions

12 Recommended next steps and implementation plans

13 Significant accomplishments and challenges

14 Potential design improvements

Appendix A – Design Details

Function Block Diagram

Patent Search Details

System Concept Options Matrix

Engineering Calculations

Experimental Plans, Data and Analysis

System Schematics and Software

System Detail Design Drawings

System Element Cost Details

Failure Modes and Effects Analysis

Appendix B – Resumes of Project Team Members

Appendix C – List of References

Final Semester Memo

Write a final semester memo to your faculty advisor that summarizes your accomplishments during the semester.  Consider this assignment to be your opportunity to provide direct inputs to an individual performance appraisal that will be done by your faculty advisor.  You should include in your memo a brief statement of the original project objectives.  You should answer the following questions: How motivated were you to work on the project?  Were you really excited, moderately interested or somewhat apathetic?  What influenced your motivation level? How did things change as the semester progressed?  What do you think you learned? What kinds of challenges did you face?  Was the challenge level too high, just about right, or too low?  What were the obstacles to achieving your goals? What is your assessment of your individual performance? Did you play a special role? What kinds of significant contributions did you make toward achieving project goals? What would you do differently if you had the chance to do it again?  

Your memo (1 to 2 pages in length) should be written in a narrative style. Answer all of the questions.

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