Engineering Lubrication

Catalog description

This course is designed to bridge the classroom education and the latest engineering design occurring in the automotive and aerospace industries. This course defines the different lubrication regimes where mechanical elements (in automotive, aerospace, heavy machinery, wind turbine, etc. applications) operate; introduces surface topography metrics and parameters; describes lubricant properties; introduces Reynolds equation; introduces governing equations for hydrodynamic, elastohydrodynamic, and mixed elastohydrodynamic lubrication; introduces engineering approaches for lubrication performance assessment in machine elements. The students will go to the lab to observe how in field experiments are designed. A simplified version of a research project that was sponsored by General Motors (automotive) and Pratt & Whitney (aerospace) is incorporated in the course, illustrating how the course materials are utilized in the real engineering designs for the optimization of mechanical efficiency and the prevention of failures. Department Managed Prerequisite(s): Graduate level MTH 6050 Minimum Grade of C