Machine Design

Approaches to Design

There are many approaches to mechancical design which has served engineering needs since the dawn of history. Numerous disasters around the world , such as the explosion of a space shuttle, and the near meltdown at Three Mile Island in the USA and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the former Soviet Union illustrate that the cost of design failure is distrastrous.

Hence, the design of mechanical components is also a complex process that requires a good understanding of the material properties, the loads, forces and working stresses acting on the component, as well as the manufacturing processes involved.

This section deals with some simple design problems using mostly simple algebra and empirical formula for geometric proportions.

You need to have a fairly good understanding of most SI units that are commonly used in engineering . For example a Newton is the unit of force which comes from kg x m/sec² which can also be written as kgm/s² and the unit for stress is the Pascal (Pa) which comes from N/m², While a mPa = N/mm² = 1e6 Pa.