The New Mechanical Engineering

 Table of Content:

1. Introduction

2. Some topics of new mechanical engineering

3. Back to basics

4. ML - AI integration

5. Conclusion

Introduction

From creating wheels using stones and logs to the development of supersonic locomotives, engineering has come very far and still developing at a faster pace. With various industrial revolutions, engineering disciples themselves have seen rapid integration of technologies with the increasing scope of new research in diverse fields.

Mechanical Engineering over years has been able to integrate with all other core engineering disciples and the previous decade has seen the integration of AI and ML resulting in better engineering practices due to the involvement of a large data set.

The article gives you insight into the new practices adopted in mechanical engineering and you will be able to explore how programming languages, software and other engineering branch have been integrated resulting in interdisciplinary research development. Even the later section of the articles discusses the new engineering practices developed in manufacturing sectors. The new emerging areas are an introduction to microsystems. The main focus in micro-scale system research and development included its fabrication and expanding its applications. This implies innovative advances in material science, and manufacturing processes as well as the creation of supportive software. I will be discussing in brief about MEMS and Micro fluids further in this article.

Some topics of new mechanical engineering:

1. Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS)
   
   The inspiration and vision for the microelectronic revolution by Dr Richard Feynman have led to the development of MEMS technology. The need for high-resolution sensing of mechanical elements or the addressing and actuation of large arrays of mechanical elements led to the development of commercial products that require integration with MEMS.
   
   MEMS contains both electrical and mechanical systems with sizes ranging from a few millimetres to one micrometre, which is not visible to human eyes.
   

   
   
   The automotive market is a mass market for MEMS. For example:

1. Accelerometers are used for multiple functions, such as airbag deployment, vehicle security, and seat belt tension triggers.

2. Gyroscopes are used possibly in conjunction with accelerometers in car stability control systems to correct the yaw of a car before this becomes a problem for the driver.

3. Pressure sensors: the manifold absolute pressure sensor is used to control the fuel & air mixture in the engine. Tire pressure monitoring has also been recently mandated for use in automobiles.

4. The wheel speed sensor is a component of the ABS braking system that can also be used as an indirect measure of tire pressure.

5. The oil condition sensor detects oil temperature, contamination, and level.
   
   Another mass market in which MEMS has an increasing impact is the biological medical market. MEMS’ impact on the medical market is the DNA sequencing chip, which allows medical testing in a fraction of the time and cost previously available. In addition, MEMS facilitates direct interaction at the cellular level.
   
   Some of the roles of engineers in the field of MEMS:
   
   

1. Fabrication -
   We need to integrate both micro sensors and micro actuators on the same substrate. The packing is a challenge and there are some methods for fabrication like surface micromachining, Silicon on Insulator technology (SOI) and LIGA (non-silicon method).
   Fabrication has these steps:

1. Layer Deposition

2. Lithography

3. Etching/Pattern Transfer
   
   

2. Design realization -
   CAD designers interface a design with the fabrication infrastructure.
   
   

3. Electromechanics -
   Understanding the physics of electromechanical systems encountered in MEMS. Generally done by engineers having a knowledge base of both electrical and mechanical systems.
   
   

4. Modelling -
   Low-order models are created for design synthesis. Low-order models are simplifications of high-fidelity, complex models. They capture the behaviour of these source models so that engineers can quickly study a system's dominant effects using minimal computational resources.
   

2. Micro-fluids Science and technology of systems that process or manipulate small amounts of fluids, using channels with dimensions of tens to hundreds of micrometres. The four parents of micro fluids include molecular analysis, biodefence, molecular biology and microelectronics.

   
   Microfluidics devices consist typically of reservoirs, channels, pumps, valves, mixers, actuators, sensors, filters and/or heat exchangers. Applications include hydraulic machine parts, heat sinks and combustors in mechanical engineering, lab-on-a-chip systems and reactors in chemical engineering, and bio-MEMS for drug delivery in biomedical engineering. Engineers working on designing and analysis of devices for such applications are in high demand in this field.

Some more topics include Equation-driven CAD modelling and master modelling, nano-technology, automation and robotics, autonomous vehicle, topology optimization, multilateral 3D printing, micro-vibration and many more. Each topic will be covered in more detail in future articles.

Back to the basics

Heard from tons of people, probably the question every reader too, “why is the syllabus of undergraduate is still the same?”

There is no possibility to design a robot without the concept of the Theory of Machines, the Design of Machine Elements, and various other designing topics.  There is no study possible of CAE and micro fluids without fluid dynamics and not even the industry will be able to work without the various hydraulic machines. The concept of the autonomous vehicle is not at all possible without proper knowledge of automobile sub-systems, vision systems, communications systems, battery management and many more sub-topics.

The reason why the syllabus can’t be changed completely is that these marvellous new technologies are based on those basics which are covered during your undergraduate. If you skip the stairs, you compensate with your basic skill set.

Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence The digital era had two great developments, first, the advanced research in the field of AI and ML, and second, the integration of AI and ML into already existing methods of core engineering, thus increasing the accuracy by inculcating large data sets. ML and AI must be perceived as a tool for improving engineering accuracy.

For example, the field of FEA and CFD has been highly benefited due to the integration of Machine Learning. FEA has been used in the study of the biomechanics of human tissue although the patient-specific model is very complex to model. For these situations, a deep learning model can be developed using ML, and for example, the stress in the aorta can be calculated.

Conclusion

Mechanical engineering has been developed into something more rather than just calculating the deflection of the beam, it has become something more interesting than just the hyped Navier-Stokes equation, more than just performing manufacturing processes. Mechanical engineering is now more in the research and development region where simulation and analysis using various software and programming language has opened the scope of deeper development of mechanical engineering. Hope this article has given you a bit of insight into what's new and exciting going on in mechanical engineering and I believe the enthusiastic people out there will dive deep into topics and contribute to the field of mechanical engineering. I am open to discussion and am still a learner. Please feel free to text me for discussion over topics of engineering. Thank you!