Case Study

This course unit allows students to apply the key steps of a mechanical design process—from the initial specifications to prototype qualification—to one or more real-world cases addressed in previous years as part of industrial projects. It thus supports the current year’s industrial projects by drawing on the same skills, but in the context of one or more cases that have already been resolved, as opposed to ongoing projects. It therefore requires students to apply the various skills acquired in other course units—particularly non-technical ones—from either the Master’s or Bachelor’s programs (fundamentals of dynamics, strength of materials, continuum mechanics, vibrations, finite element simulation) to one or more real-world mechanisms that students can handle and experiment with.

• Perform a functional analysis of a mechanical system to be designed based on the initial specifications; (partially) characterize the functions and interactors,
• Formulate and solve a mechanical problem to estimate missing parameters of the system to be designed for the purpose of preliminary sizing, and prepare a calculation report,
• Establish a test protocol to measure mechanical parameters (stiffness, moment of inertia, input-output relationship for force/torque or velocity, etc.),
• Conduct a mechanical test, process the data, estimate measurement uncertainties, and write the test report,
• Conduct a creativity FAST,
• Perform a preliminary sizing of a component of the mechanical system to be designed using a numerical method (e.g., finite elements).

• Fundamental principle of dynamics,
• Strength of Materials,
• Continuum Mechanics,
• Vibration of Discrete and Continuous Systems,
• Finite element method (linear).