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Demonstration of core knowledge

The following section demonstrates the core knowledge that I am qualified to graduate from Mechanical Engineering graduate program.

This section will focus on two different fields:

· Material properties and Selection

· Simulation of processes

In Material properties and Selection field, the main concept is to identify the different properties of material to meet the requirement of the design. This is the early step for mechanical engineer to select the material for manufacturing products, which means by obtaining this knowledge I am capable of implementing what I learn to help designing a product for a company. For example, the core knowledge that I obtained in one of my graduate classes can demonstrate this field. The final project of the class, shown in Fig 1., is the standard procedure of early design that will be used for manufacturing industries. The result of the project shows that I am capable of using the trade-off plot which include several factors density, Young’s modulus, yield strength, and cost to identify the material that meet constrains and objectives of the design. Moreover, understanding the definition of each material property and the corresponding limitation. Such as density will affect the mass and volume and yield strength indicates the limit if elastic behavior are the basic and also the requirement of being a master student of mechanical engineering.

Fig. 1 Material Selection Trade-off Plot

For the second field, Simulation of processes, before any complex or costly manufacturing process. It is indispensable to run the simulation before the actual process. Not only the error can be predicted in the result of the simulation but the overall result of the end product. For example, the casting process for an impeller, a rotor with blades used to increase the pressure and/or flow of a fluid, is challenging and also easy to fail. However, with the help of simulating the process, shown in Fig. 2 &3, the failure of the casting process is able to be predicted by identifying the location of maximum principle, which the growth of the crack will occur in direction perpendicular to, and maximum normal stress, which the failure will occur, to improve the actual casting process and prevent the failure of a process.

Fig. 2 Identidy the maximum principle stress Fig. 3 Identify the maximun normal stress

Both two fields listed above, Material properties and Selection and Simulation of processes,

demonstrate the essential core knowledge that I obtained while studying master of mechanical engineering. The first enable me to determine which material is the most suitable for the product, which allow me to work as a design engineer. The latter help me simulate the manufacturing process which can also help me with my future to work as a process engineer.

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