This investigation examines one course in an integrated college curriculum, beginning at the freshman year, which builds upon typical freshman CAD experience to allow students to gain the mechanical design and analysis skills necessary for entry level engineers. To realize the design of complex mechanisms requires a suite of skills ranging from concept development to failure analysis. In this case study, MSC-ADAMS software is used within a rotor dynamics course to model practical gear boxes. After preliminary kinematic design of a practical gearbox using CAD software, students were asked to analyze expected vibration signals of an ideal and defective gear transmission in order to quantify machinery health monitoring metrics. Five types of gear boxes based on practical designs, among which three are planetary gear trains, were investigated for the class. The students verified their models by comparing the simulation results with the outputs from simplified theoretical parametric mathematical models of the system and by building rapid prototype models. The signals of dynamic forces in both time domain and frequency domain under different loading conditions were analyzed for gear fault detection. As a consequence of incorporating this software, students were able to analyze the steady state and transient loading of a complex mechanism as part of a design, build, and analysis scenario using practical components.

Engineers are problem solvers. They graduate from school with a diploma and a set of "tools". A challenge to the engineering teacher is not only to introduce these tools in a classroom setting, but to offer experience in their use in addressing problems suggestive of what might be seen in industry. This paper offers a look at one mechanical design teacher's response to this challenge in estimating the stress response of an object to external load. The challenge to teaching the use of a computer tool is establishing the value of that tool's prediction of response by developing a habit of questioning the results of simulations made with it. This paper addresses this challenge through a comparative discussion of the results of using different computer programs to estimate the stress performance of the same object to the same loads and boundary conditions. The stress performance of a cantilevered beam and a triangular bracket are estimated using textbook equations the "Analytical" approach) and two differently-formulated finite element analysis programs (the "Numerical" approach) to provide estimates of the same structural response. A conclusion of this paper is that a person using finite element analysis software to estimate the structural response of an object should first have an idea of the magnitude of the expected response using basic engineering principles before using more advanced computer simulation and, then compare the estimates before taking a position on their acceptability.

Sometimes students have difficulty overcoming misconceptions. This is critically important in the classroom environment when it is quite possible for students to tune out the instructor because they think they understand the subject matter well enough. By the time they realize that there's a fundamental flaw in their thinking they have miss so much material that it is very difficult for them to recover. To overcome this problem educators involved in the NSF project Cultivating Authentic Discourse for the 2020 Engineer use counterintuitive (CI) examples in the classroom. These CI problems ask students a question, require them to find an answer and defend it. The instructor uses MSC Adams to demonstrate the solution; which usually is something unexpected. Using CI examples students realize their knowledge is incomplete or erroneous. This realization causes many students to "wake up" and pay more attention. As a corollary to CI problems, simple design problems are used to help make fundamental concepts more understandable. The principal objective is to present students with a phenomena that is not intuitive and ask students to apply a fundamental concept to explain the behavior. To ensure that students recognize when their explanation is satisfactory, they use MSC Adams to implement their design. This paper presents one example of one of these design problems. Students are asked to "design" a wind-up toy that jumps up from a table, turns a flip in mid air and lands back on the table.

A novel course in computational multi-body vehicle dynamics was offered in Fall-08 at ASU-Engineering Technology Dept. This course was well received not only by the students but also by practicing engineers. This course titled 'MET 591: Advanced Vehicle Dynamics' used MSC products for projects and homework. The students worked on real life projects as the part of course. The course material was developed with the help and assistance of MSC's university program and Coventry University in UK. During the course, a MSC Software-Hands-on Workshop was organized that helped students and local industries to understand and appreciate the 'power of simulation'. In this paper, the course outline, structure, student and industry feedback, outcome and evaluation data is presented.

Over the last decade, simulation-based engineering in the form of virtual prototyping has been increasingly utilized by engineers in the design process of mechanical systems. This is due to economic factors such as cutting physical prototype costs and reduced time to market. Thus it is vital that the next generation of engineering students is not only aware of virtual engineering, is able to use it effectively in design and analysis. This is the motivation of the course "Kinematics and Dynamics of Machine Systems" offered at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

The main goal is to review and reinforce the students' understanding of kinematics and dynamics of multibody systems with immediate application to the study of machines. The course places an equal emphasis on gaining both an analytical understanding and insight/intuition on the subject. The material presented in the class emphasizes the analytical component of the subject, while homework assignments, particularly through coding and ADAMS modeling assignments, encourage the students to see beyond equations and abstract constructs. Students are taught how to model/simulate/analyze mechanical systems in ADAMS, the most widely used mechanical system simulation software package. Class projects encourage students to use the knowledge gained from the course and apply it to a problem of their choice. In the past, ADAMS has been used in variety of ways for these projects.

An important element for engineering students who want to be challenged is giving them an opportunity to conduct out of class research. This approach enables them to apply their classroom knowledge to projects that relate to the 'real world.' This presentation addresses one such independent research project: Modeling a 3D defined, kinematic platform in which the purpose was to remain relatively level on the surface of a ship, such that an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) helicopter could easily land. Working on this project gave an undergraduate student the opportunity to take what she had learned in her kinematics and dynamics classes from theory to practice using systems modeling in MSC.ADAMS. A primary concern for undergraduate research is in scoping the problem. The literature review and research was limited to the movement of waves, the degrees of freedom (DOF) required, and extrapolating from existing, multi-motion platforms. She determined that ideally three DOF inputs were needed: heave, pitch, and roll. A company was discovered that markets such mechanical platforms (Moog Inc.). One of their simplest platforms utilized four DOFs: heave, pitch, roll, and surge. This platform was adopted for modeling in this project and was modeled in ADAMS View. Many iterations of the model and inputs were used to ensure correct joint configuration to obtain the desired DOFs and movements. Presented are the scoping of the undergraduate project, its relationship to the undergraduate curriculum offerings, organizational tools used to model the platform, and conclusions derived from this undergraduate research experience.

This is a paper about teaching undergraduate and graduate students how to design machines and vehicles using state of the art tools which complement the basic principles learned in kinematics and kinetics of rigid and flexible bodies. The author relates his experiences in teaching and students reactions over several years using MSC software products for the design and analysis of machines, kinematic linkages, and ground and space vehicles. Starting with the basic principles presented in a basic dynamics course, the author takes the reader through courses such as Dynamics of Machinery (ME115), Vehicle Design (ME143) and Finite Element Modeling (ME272) to illustrate how students at CSUS acquire the necessary skills for performing dynamics analysis to find the velocities, accelerations and forces generated by machines and vehicles in motion. Using the software capabilities students start with solid models and transform them into dynamic computational models of mechanisms, linkages and assemblies of rigid and flexible multi-bodies in order to calculate the forces, stresses, deformations generated during operation. These models are then transformed into Finite Element Transient Models in order to complete a design cycle. The software used is: SOLIDWORKS, WORKING MODEL2D, NASTRAN, PATRAN, ADAMS, NASTRAN4D, and SIMULINK.

University of California-Davis (TX)
Dr. Nesrin Sarigul-Klijn, Professor
Coupling High Fidelity Computations in Teaching in Aerospace, Mechanical, Biomedical and Electrical Engineering Fields: Case Study using MSC Software

This paper is based on the author's experience over a decade using high fidelity computational tools in teaching undergraduate and graduate level courses. The courses are Computational Methods in Nonlinear Mechanics; Advances in Finite Elements and Optimization; Structural Dynamics and Aeroelasticity; Finite Elements in Structures; and Flight testing of no-human on board vehicles. The approach taken is uniform in that the lectures cover the fundamental concepts relevant to each subject. Students are not allowed to use high fidelity tools for solving regular homework sets in which they acquire the theoretical background. In addition to these regular homework assignments there are computer labs at undergraduate courses in which students use NASTRAN, PATRAN, FLIGHT LOADS, and DYTRAN. In graduate classes there are no formal labs; however students may use these tools to work on their term papers. Student body in the graduate classes come from Mechanical, Aerospace, Biomedical and Electrical Engineering programs in which the author is a faculty member of these graduate groups. Flight test course uses these high fidelity tools in a way that after the design and analysis, manufacture/actual flight tests are conducted at the Scaled Model Aerospace Research and Testing Laboratory (SMARTLAB) facilities. Based on student questionnaire and the letters send by the students from their first jobs following graduation; the approach used in teaching clearly benefits students. This is because their newly acquired knowledge is reinforced by usage of the high fidelity computational tools. Details of laboratory assignments as well as samples from term papers and flight test will be provided. Coupling high fidelity computational tools in teaching made students familiar with the state-of-the art techniques, and increased students' interest in these subjects. Many continued their thesis/dissertation research.

This presentation proposes that MSC's CAx tools be integrated into a senior Capstone design curriculum. Seamless integration can be accomplished through the use of existing tutorials and training materials. Underclass students should be instructed on how to properly integrate and use these tools with confidence before their senior Capstone experience. To do this, NX, HyperMesh, MSC Nastran, HyperView and MSC Adams should be utilized in the design curriculum as "best-in-class" CAx tools. In parallel with the task of completing the tutorials, it is recommended that students conduct simple physical tests where virtual results can be compared and verified against physical results to build confidence in the student. This presentation also describes three ongoing projects at Brigham Young University that implement MSC Nastran and Adams. The first project demonstrates the use of Adams Car on a Formula 1 Global Vehicle Collaboration Project. With 20 universities from around the world working together on this project, teams must rely on virtual product development tools to develop their designs. The team has used Adams Car to analyze the vehicle's dynamics. The second project has applied MSC Nastran to the rear wing of the Formula 1 racecar described above. Feedback from structural analysis is being used to improve the design. The third project involves the customization of CAx tools in a multi-disciplinary optimization design process. These customized tools will be applied to a stator vane problem from Pratt and Whitney. MSC Nastran and Adams are being used to perform the thermal and vibration analyses.