Imperial College London

This course introduces students to the practical elements of mechanical design and manufacture to prepare them for the project work. It explores the full extent of the design process from customer brief through to conceptual and detail design. The instruction extends to teaching practical manufacturing skills to enable students to make these designs themselves in the departmental workshops.

The course provides the fundamental theory for the design and analysis of (pseudo-) homogeneous chemical reactors. It considers ideal isothermal and non-isothermal reactor systems, and reactors involving non-ideal flow. Students learn to describe batch, semi-batch, and continuous reactor operation; homogeneous, and heterogeneous reactors; and ideal and non-ideal flow models. 

This course develops key mathematical and computational skills relevant to the wider mechanical engineering program. Topics include vector algebra, real analysis, limits, curve sketching, series, applications of integration, complex analysis, functions of more than one variable, matrix algebra, second order ordinary differential equations, and vector calculus. Practical implementation through programming is studied to solve problems selected from the topic areas.

The course introduces Mechatronics as a fundamental concept for modelling and designing machine systems, and to encourage electrical systems to be modeled in a manner compatible with mechanical systems using system concepts; to develop an ability to design, and select components for simple electromechanical systems; and to develop mastery of modelling concepts which have direct equivalents in mechanical systems theory, e.g. equivalent characteristics, operating diagrams, complex impedance.