MODERN ENGINEERING
ANIL MITRA PHD, COPYRIGHT © 1985, rev. 2004
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RELATED: ENGINEERING EDUCATION | MILITARY ENGINEERING | BIBLIOGRAPHY
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
ENGINEERING VALUES
OBJECTIVES OF MODERN ENGINEERING
TOOLS OF MODERN ENGINEERING
REFERENCES
1GENEOLOGY AND CATEGORIES IN ENGINEERING
1.1MILITARY ENGINEERING
1.2CIVIL ENGINEERING
1.3MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
1.4OFFSHOOTS FROM MECHANICAL AND CIVIL ENGINEERING
1.5ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
1.6PRINCIPLES OF THE DIVISIONS
2THE CORE OF ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE
2.1MODULE 1 BASICS
2.2MODULE 2 COMMUNICATIONS SKILLS
2.3MODULE 3 ENGINEERING DESIGN AND PROBLEM SOLVING
2.4MODULE 4 COMMON TECHNOLOGIES AND PROCESSES AND SKILLS
3MODERN ACADEMIC DIVISIONS OF ENGINEERING
3.1Basic and Engineering Methods
3.2Biological and Chemical Division
3.3Materials Division
3.4Civil, Environmental and Resource Division
3.5Mechanical, Energy and Industrial Division
3.6Electrical and Information Division
3.6.1Alternative classification for Electrical Engineering
3.7World Order and Military Division
4DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS
4.1BASICS AND ENGINEERING METHODS
4.1.1GENERAL ENGINEERING
4.1.2GENERAL ENGINEERING DESIGN
4.1.3SYSTEMS ENGINEERING AND OPERATIONS RESEARCH
4.1.4ENGINEERING PHYSICS
4.2BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL DIVISION
4.2.1AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING
4.2.2BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
4.2.3CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
4.2.4FOOD ENGINEERING
4.3MATERIALS DIVISION
4.3.1MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
4.3.2CERAMIC SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING
4.3.3COMPOSITE MATERIALS
4.3.4METALLURGY AND METALLURGICAL ENGINEERING
4.3.5POLYMER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
4.3.6TEXTILE SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
4.4CIVIL, ENVIRONMENTAL AND RESOURCE DIVISION
4.4.1ARCHITECTURAL ENGINEERING
4.4.2CIVIL ENGINEERING
4.4.3ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING
4.4.4GEOLOGICAL ENGINEERING
4.4.5MINING ENGINEERING
4.4.6PETROLEUM ENGINEERING
4.4.7GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING
4.4.8STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
4.4.9TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING
4.4.10WATER RESOURCES ENGINEERING
4.4.11PLANNING; REGIONAL, URBAN AND RURAL PLANNING
4.5MECHANICAL, ENERGY AND INDUSTRIAL DIVISION
4.5.1MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DISCIPLINES
4.5.2INDUSTRIAL AND MANAGEMENT ENGINEERING
4.5.3MECHANICAL SYSTEMS ENGINEERING AND DESIGN
4.5.4MECHANICS AND THERMAL SCIENCE
4.5.5ENGINEERING DESIGN
4.5.6NUCLEAR ENGINEERING
4.5.7OCEAN, MARINE AND NAVAL ENGINEERING
4.5.8SOLAR ENGINEERING
4.5.9TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT AND PUBLIC POLICY
4.6ELECTRICAL AND INFORMATION DIVISION
4.6.1Nature of Electrical and Information Engineering
4.6.2History of electrical engineering
4.6.3Functions of Electrical Engineering
4.6.4Branches of Electrical Engineering
4.6.5Electrical Engineering Education
4.6.6Professional Organizations
4.6.7Careers in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Information Science
4.7TECHNOLOGY, MILITARY AND WORLD ORDER DIVISION
LATEST REVISION AND COPYRIGHT
INTRODUCTION
Modern Engineering includes technology, but is also concerned with development and understanding of technological systems and the products, affects and appropriateness of technology. It is also concerned with non-technological approaches
Technical engineering is the activity of transforming and transporting:
1. Materials and forces of nature
2. Energy and information, which are technical measures of utility
This statement excludes reference to value and method. To complete our understanding of modern engineering, we should identify its values, its societal and environmental objectives and its tools
ENGINEERING VALUES
In a sense engineering has no values – is value neutral. Technically, engineering can be equally employed for destructive as well as good purposes. This attitude is found and bred in an atmosphere of extreme specialization and technical competition
However, it is widely recognized that in many areas modern civilization is close to or has exceeded the carrying ability of the environment and the planet. Technical competition has bred unhealthy and hostile social environments. Hence it is now commonly accepted that engineers and engineering must be concerned with value
Minerals and other materials, energy, the physical environment - water, land, air, space and the social environment, are valuable resources. Their preservation is important. It is no longer valid to simply regard human beings as the users of the environment. Individuals, society, and the environment are a system of mutual interactions. It is the system which is to be understood and preserved. In some future era, perhaps not in the distant future, we will be concerned with preservation of the solar system and beyond
Even when technology is used for good, there can be unforeseen ill effects. The engineer needs to understand the capacity of the environment. Not all effects can be predicted. The engineer must look out for effects of technology: awareness is essential
Not only should the engineer be concerned that natural resources and environmental quality be preserved, but the products of engineering should contribute to the beauty of human environment. Lovins has pointed out how properly designed landscapes can enhance harmony and carrying ability. The engineer must be a practical architect and an artist
An engineer concerned with social design should also be concerned with practical philosophy. Humans evolved as nomads and we probably still retain a nomadic nature. It is not necessary to seek a return to the nomadic life. However, we can recognize human fundamental ability to accept the power of natural forces and the arbitrary element of natural phenomena. It is costly in not just an economic sense, but also in a spiritual sense to design for one-hundred percent security. One-hundred percent design cuts humans off from themselves and their environment. One-hundred percent design increases uniformity, reduces variability, creativity, and hence adaptability
Communication is important. Interesting, brief, organized presentation has immediate appeal. The modern dry style of technical communication is unnecessary. Accuracy and regard for foundations and value make information really useful. Poetry of form and value can transform an audience to action, and enhances engineering as an enjoyable activity
OBJECTIVES OF MODERN ENGINEERING
Transform resources to make life rewarding and enjoyable
Monitor humans and our environment for adverse effects of technology
Protect human beings and the environment against pollution. Better:
Implement appropriate systems to maintain and preserve a beautiful and hospitable environment
Train and educate engineers in the tools and values of engineering – in many societies engineering is organized as a profession. Extensive training and practice is required before becoming a full member of the profession
TOOLS OF MODERN ENGINEERING
1. Conceptual and creative design, experience, practice and technical design. Application and computer enhancement of graphic, technical skills in all phases of design; decision making and optimal analysis
2. Technical design involves physical sciences: mechanics, electromagnetism, energy, chemical and nuclear; materials-metals, ceramics, earth, textiles, polymers, etc. These automatically involve modern science, mathematics, large- and small-scale quantitative simulation and optimization where appropriate
3. Science of living systems: biology, ecology
4. Science of intelligent and emotive organisms: psychology, systems and information science, artificial intelligence, knowledge engineering including CAE, CAT, CAD, CAM [computer aided education, technology, design and manufacturing] and robotics
5. Science of complex and partially understood systems: operations research, probability and statistics, decision theory, catastrophe and fuzzy analysis
6. Science of social systems: group psychology, sociology, economics and political science
Application of energy and entropy principles, economic and general equilibrium theory to recyclability and renewability of resources, finding stable equilibrium of society within environment
7. Resource sciences [distribution, resource discovery, extraction] for:food, clothing, sheltertechnology [minerals, metals, chemicals, fuels - chemical and nuclear.]Includes: geography, geology, geophysics, explosives, agriculture, husbandry, ocean and atmospheric sciences
8. Technological process: manufacturing, unit operations, extraction, preservation, distribution, etc
9. Communications: art, science, technology
REFERENCES
[1] Satish Kumar, ed., The Schumacher Lectures, Harper, 1980
[2] Diane Cowley, ed., Graduate Programs in Engineering and Applied Sciences, Peterson’s Guides, 1985
1GENEOLOGY AND CATEGORIES IN ENGINEERING
1.1MILITARY ENGINEERING
…was the first recognized branch of engineering with application to weapons and support, from which came
1.2CIVIL ENGINEERING
Civil engineering is concerned with civil works such as roads, conduits, bridges, buildings, sanitation, and foundational works - usually large static structures. With highways and the Industrial Revolution came machines and
1.3MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
…this can also trace an inheritance to military engineering. Mechanical engineering comprised two elements: [1] structural and fluid analysis which it shares in common with civil, with the difference that mechanical systems are essentially kinematic, dynamic; and [2] energy analysis arising out of the power considerations of dynamic systems. Out of this grew mechanical engineering concern with power engineering, refrigeration, heating and controls. In a sense mechanical engineering is central to the traditional engineering of the industrial world - manufacturing engineering. There arose a number of
1.4OFFSHOOTS FROM MECHANICAL AND CIVIL ENGINEERING
Minerals and metals
Chemicals
Marine
Naval and ocean
Industrial and management
Power including fossil
Nuclear and solar
Engineering design
Engineering mechanics
Electrical machines
Biomechanics and biomechanical and then biomedical
Agricultural
Of course each branch has many sources. There are many crosscurrents of interaction. Subsequently, some of the branches grew by inclusion of new principles, special methods, new applications, ideas and inventions. As an example:
1.5ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
…grew from the rise of electrical machinery and may be said to have begun with the simplifying approach to circuits and machines of Charles Steinmetz, “the father of electrical engineering.” Subsequently, electrical engineering became so important in power engineering, that power and energy are often considered part of electrical engineering. Later, with the development of radio and applications to communication, electronics including vacuum tubes and transistors and application to communication, instrumentation, arrays for data and information processing and called computers, thee fields became part of electrical engineering. As applications, technology and science grew, some of these fields, such as computers, branched out. Currently electrical engineering is the largest branch of engineering: as of 1985 the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineerswith 250,000 members, is the largest professional organization in the world
1.6PRINCIPLES OF THE DIVISIONS
There is no unique principle for or any constancy to the way in which the individual sciences and technologies within engineering are originally placed and subsequently grouped
It may be according to association: public health and environmental engineering are traditionally part of civil engineering because of civil engineering’s concern with sanitation. However, medical and chemical principles are required
It may be according to where related technologies exist: thus industrial engineering began and often continues in mechanical engineering
It may be according to where the basis principles are found. Power engineering and energy are largely electro-mechanical [recall that thermal science, thermodynamics is usually part of mechanical] and may be found associated with either mechanical or electrical engineering. As the chemistry of combustion, as in fluidized beds, becomes important in the context of pollution control; furnace design, traditionally part of mechanical engineering, becomes of interest to chemical engineers. Because of the thermal and energy aspect, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning [HVAC] as well as refrigeration are part of mechanical engineering
It may be according to the type of system to which application is found. Thus, controls are primarily of interest in mechanical, electrical, chemical and guidance technologies
It may be according to physical or climate. Rural applications of engineering are usually agricultural and civil while mechanical, electrical and communications technologies are usually imported. Thus rural and primitive and remote regions applications are often, by force of routine, part of civil or agricultural engineering. Mechanical, electrical, communications technology is largely industrial and urban. Cold regions engineering, which includes topics such as materials and systems behavior at low temperatures and ice mechanics, is a specialty found in places like Alaska, Siberia and the Antarctic
It is clear that the categories in engineering are not fixed. Nor, in practice, are there absolute schemes which define the categories. We have seen that the boundaries to the divisions are somewhat circumstantial. This is inevitable because the schemes of subdivision are not [nor need they be] consistent. Some schemes are:
The fundamental scienceinvolved
The nature of type of system
The aspect of the system considered
The type or level of technology
The type or level of concept [matter, energy, information,intelligence]
The application
Mutual interaction between different categories
Supporting theory: mathematical, statistical… other tools
Administrative convenience: economics, size, pooling ofresources
Circumstantial
While there is obviously a large number of schemes by which division occurs in practice, it does not follow that these schemes are to be emphasized. Rather, in absence of some compelling reason, they should be de-emphasized. Nor should complete unity be emphasized: it does not exist. The extremes of absolute unity and narrow specialization are both uneconomical
A single, all-encompassing engineering is uneconomical because:
Too large a commitment is required of the trainee; difficulty of administration due to size and diversity of discipline; disruption of intra-communication within unified disciplines
While too narrow specialization is undesirable because:
The cost of training is high; cost of maintaining and administrating separate divisions, especially where unity does exist; cost of communication between specialists and specialty areas - disruption of intercommunication among separate disciplines - this includes difficulty of transferring expertise and of learning new fields
Optimal economy is probably obtained by a dual scheme:
1. Division of branches of engineering according to fundamental principles into a few basic branches
2. Division of engineering knowledge into:
A. A common core of fundamental skills including basic science and fundamental engineering and applied sciences; skills, tools, values and topics of general interest, determined by practice and need. Enhances intercommunication, transference of expertise, new learning, unity
B. Special and advanced topics, design, state-of-art tools and technologies according to the branch
This economy is recognized and reflected by groupings of industries, research and development [RandD] establishments, and divisions within education, large corporations and laboratories. In practice other divisions occur by function [research and development, production …], administration, and circumstance. Cross-fertilization and the need for evolution in time are enhanced by the existence of different groupings and principles of grouping in different institutions and in the existence of specialist individuals and institutions, as well as generalist individuals and institutions. The existence of multiple principles of organization, in practice, makes for good cross-communication, cross-fertilization of ideas, creativity and adaptability to new and unknown and unforeseen needs. It is not necessity, but the interaction between plentitude with variety and necessity which is the source of invention
How is this proposed optimal economy reflected in education?
1. Engineering schools are divided into departments [branches]
2. The engineering curriculum requires
A. A core common to all branches
B. Special, advanced topics, etc. within each branch
3. Cross-fertilization is enhanced by different groupings and principles of grouping: academic departments, learning centers and computation centers [perhaps common to the entire educational institution], specialty, research institutes, engineering mechanics and science, design divisions, schools, etc
In part it is recognized that research [both fundamental and applied] and education are not only equal partners but part of a composite andoverlapping process. Further beneficial cross-fertilization occurs whendifferent teaching styles and emphases occur
4. Cross-communication and fertilization is furthered by an additional formalrequirement or option in the curriculum of
C. One or more of both engineering specialties and non-engineeringspecializations
In some institutions the option may be nonexistent or difficult to exercise
5. Cross-interaction and adaptability occurs in an environment
A. Differences among educational institutions. Such differences includealternate groupings and differences in emphasis according to “teaching” and “research”. In the somewhat false debate betweenteaching vs. research and effect on the student, the fundamental ability,drive and vitality of the student to learn, create and produce should notbe forgotten. The student should not be treated as merely a “consumer” but also as a “producer”
B. Interaction with industry. The needs of industry should be reflected in both curriculum and applied research
C. Needs of industry must not dominate the curriculum. Other needs are thesystem of mutual interactions: people, industry, society, environment,planet, higher values, and the future. Such needs are met by innovativeand alternative but carefully designed pathfinder programs and by pureand fundamental research, and the existence of, at least partially,autonomous applied science research laboratories
Another principle permitted by judicious administration is afreedom within which talent grows and sustains its own vitality. Suchadministration may grow from a group of mature equals who recognizeamong them a superior administrative and visionary talent. Thisadministration then provides freedom from excess internal and externalpressure, freedom from the usual normative standards, and is willing totake some risk in forming essential evaluations of individuals
We suggested an optimal economy of division according to a core common to all engineering and division of advanced topics, design, etc., into a few basic branches according to fundamental principles. The remaining task is to:
1. Define the core
2. Choose the principle[s] of division
3. List the basic branches according to these principles
4. List further divisions according to practice
2THE CORE OF ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE
A rational selection of the core would follow the two ideas: [1] Principles of economy in division suggested earlier; [2] inclusion of fundamental and commonly used areas to enhance transference of ideas and individuals among fields. It is natural that the emphasis of different aspects of the core will vary among institutions and among programs. The core suggested here is an approximation and enhancement of these ideas and what obtains in educational institutions. It is a reorganization of the “Tools of Modern Engineering” outlined earlier:
2.1MODULE 1 BASICS
Sciences: physical, life, social
Humanities: art and philosophy
Essential mathematics, computers, probability andstatistics
Creativity and rigor in the basics
Philosophy of value and resources
2.2MODULE 2 COMMUNICATIONS SKILLS
2.3MODULE 3 ENGINEERING DESIGN AND PROBLEM SOLVING
Creativity and search “approaches”
Modeling [includes physical] and application of basics and rigor
Practice and transition to application and codes
Visual approaches and graphics
Computer applications
2.4MODULE 4 COMMON TECHNOLOGIES AND PROCESSES AND SKILLS
We choose the following principles for division of engineering into basic branches:
1. Organizational principles
Primary: According to level of concept used in identifyingtypical systems