Department of Applied Mechanics

'One designed by a civil engineer starts moving that is bad; one designed by a mechanical engineer does not move that is bad, too. Mechanical engineers should design machines that move.'

This course deals with those time-dependent problems of mechanical engineering, which typically require the efficient modeling of these tasks in order to access the continuously developing methods of computational engineering. Modern computational methods are very popular since they show their easy-to-use interface for engineers. This often causes misunderstanding and disappointment during the naive applications of engineering software. Computational methods are reliable if they are properly tested and the principles of their applied algorithms and procedures are understood. This is analogous to the modern cartoon industry: the 25 pictures of one second of a cartoon can be drawn by computers if the first and the last picture of that second are designed for them by the artist but the computers will totally fail if they have to draw the cartoon without any reference picture, or based on the first (or last) picture only.

The tasks of mechanical engineers that typically require the modeling of machines in motion and that of time-varying processes are based on solid and fluid mechanics, thermodynamics and electronics. Modeling means the understanding and active application of the related theories, which are supported by differential equations and numerical methods in mathematics. Modeling needs also experimental work during the research-development-innovation process in case engineers do not have enough information about the motions and processes they want to capture by a model. Finally, modeling is also affected by the engineers knowledge in design, technology, and informatics, since the model should not be so complex that the available software is unable to solve them within reasonable time and for reasonable cost.

The above principles affected the formation of this master course. After the brief summary of the required mathematics, solid mechanics, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, control and informatics, the students have to choose a major and a minor specialization from the following list of modules:

This course is in English only. It is based on the foundations provided by the long-standing positive traditions of some former successful courses of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at BME, like Engineering Mathematics, Integrated Engineering (mechanical and electrical), Mechanical Engineering (BSc and MSc courses in English). This course is also compatible to many master courses in mechanical engineering in the European Union (see, for example, U Bristol, U Bath, ENS Cachan, TU Karlsruhe, U Hannover, TU Munich): Engineering Fluid Dynamics; Mechanics and Technical Design; Mechanics and Technology; Research in Mechanics and Systems of Engineering; Advanced Dynamics Engineering; Geometric Modelling and Design; Manufacturing Modelling; Power Transmission and Motion Control Systems; Thermal Engineering; Components of Electrical Engineering; Motion Engineering and Robotics; Dynamics and Control in Robotics; Computational Mechanics, etc.