Mechanical Engineering

This course introduces students to the fundamentals of continuum mechanics that underpin the theoretical understanding of many engineering disciplines and to demonstrate how problems in continuum mechanics can be solved using numerical techniques. Particular attention is paid to the theory and implementation of the finite element method. The course provides the theoretical basis for higher level courses on applications of finite element methods and finite volume methods and is a companion module to Fluid Mechanics and Stress Analysis. 

Biomechanics, as a growing field of engineering, has many applications in the health and sport sectors. This broad field of study includes the design of artificial implants, the development of human tissues in the lab, the measurement of human movement and the detection and treatment of pathological conditions, the understanding of the performance of our muscles and how to employ it in sport, the diagnosis of injuries, the imaging of biological tissues and the detection of their pathological state, etc. In this course, the fundamental principles of biomechanics and their application to real life situations will be covered including: basic understanding of the application of mechanical principles in biology, understanding of anatomical and biomechanical terminology, application of biomechanical principles to human movement, basic understanding of the mechanical properties of biological tissues and the techniques used to determine them, and more recent advanced topics such as mechanics of cells, tissue imaging and tissue engineering. Participants should have successfully completed courses in engineering mechanics and materials science and possess knowledge on programming software.

This lecture provides the basics of areodynamics of bluff bodies, ground vehicles and buildings. The focus is on passenger cars. The students will be enabled to analyze and identify sources of aerodynamics forces for these objects in order to improve performance, reduce energy consumption or to incease passenger comfort. The methods include wind tunnel experiments and numerical simulation (CFD). The students will be trained in reading and summarizing scientific publications through presentations.

The course deals with flows around blunt (bluff) bodies, which either move along the ground (e.g. automobiles, trucks, trains) or lie stationary in the path of a flow (e.g. buildings). The content include: - Introduction to the aerodynamics of blunt bodies. - Fundamental mechanisms for lift and drag of automobiles. - Methods of reducing drag by means of lift production. - Aspects to the design of automobiles taking into account the flow around and through the body. - Overview of numeric and experimental methods of investigation. - Introduction of the aerodynamics of high-speed trains - Introduction to aerodynamics of buildings and environment Experiments with a 25% scaled car model will be carried out in the large wind tunnel of the TU-Berlin.

Motion planning is a fundamental building block for autonomous systems, with applications in robotics, industrial automation, and autonomous driving. After completion of the course, students will have a detailed understanding of: Formalization of geometric, kinodynamic, and optimal motion planning; Sampling-based approaches: Rapidly-exploring random trees (RRT), probabilistic roadmaps (PRM), and variants; Search-based approaches: State-lattice based A* and variants; Optimization-based approaches: Differential Flatness and Sequential convex programming (SCP); The theoretical properties relevant to these algorithms (completeness, optimality, and complexity). Students will be able to: Decide (theoretically and empirically) which algorithm(s) to use for a given problem; Implement (basic versions) of the algorithms themselves; • Use current academic and industrial tools such as the Open Motion Planning Library (OMPL).

It provides a unified perspective on motion planning and includes topics from different research and industry communities. The goal is not only to learn the foundations and theory of currently used approaches, but also to be able to pick and compare the different methods for specific motion planning needs. An important emphasis is the consideration of both geometric and kinodynamic motion planning for the major algorithm types.

This course covers of the fundamentals of heat and mass transport phenomena, which is useful to several engineering designs. The course studies the basic concept of heat transfer, including conduction, convection and radiation. Then it addresses the applications of the concept to industrial designs, such as heat exchanger, boiler and condenser. 

This course develops the understanding, securely based on materials science, of various common failure modes, the reasons for their occurrence and how we seek to avoid failure by design. This course enables students to predict component failures under multiaxial loading conditions due to yielding, fracture, fatigue and creep mechanisms and to identify these failure mechanisms in practice, and to design against them.

This course introduces students to the principles and methodologies under the hood of typical CFD software. Major topics include numerical discretization, stability and accuracy analysis, and methods for solving incompressible viscous fluid flow and convective heat transfer problems. Students write a code/script to solve simple fluid problems. Students gain a working knowledge of the basic principles of fluid flow simulation and implementation of computational methods in solving complex problems. The course requires students to take prerequisites.

This course covers basic mechanical engineering knowledge and theory of mechanics of materials, and how they are used to solve practical engineering problems. Topics include introduction to statics, concept of stress and strain, analysis of stresses and deflections in a loaded beam, torsion of a circular bar as well as analysis of frames and machines. The course requires students to take prerequisites.

This course introduces the concept "Design for X" (DfX), which is well established within product development. In any product development project, it is essential to ensure that the product satisfies the functions it is designed for. But many other issues are caused by, or affect the properties of the product: is the product reliable, sustainable, is it easy to assemble, and inexpensive to manufacture? In this course, the following "design for Xs" are included: design for manufacturing and assembly (DFMA), design for additive manufacturing (DFAM), robust design, design for environment (DFE), and design to cost (DtC).

In this research course, students chose from a range of research topics in various academic fields and receive one-on-one training from an experienced mentor who helps them refine research ideas, formulate questions, define methods of data collection, execute a plan, and present findings. Students review background information for their project, summarize its key outcomes, write a clear and concise research paper or report, and present results orally.