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I want some informations about computational mechanics as i want to do my master's in this field
Hello Everyone,
I am Md. Zahidul Mustakim from Bangladesh. I have graduated in Mechanical Engineering and I want to pursue my Master's Study in the field of Computational Engineering/Mechanics. As i was not familiar with this field in my undergrad study I really dont know much about this subject. I would be really grateful if You please send me some informations about the points mentioned bellow:
1. Is computational Engineering same as Numerical Simulation?
2. Wht are the areas of Mechanical engineering where computational engineering techniques are being used?
3. I really dont hear much about computational solid mechanics as i hear about CFD. but i see that its FEM that is always being used in solid mechanics simulations.though FEM is used in many fields can i say that Comp. solid mechanics is the use of FEM?
4.Wht about structural engg.? is it under computational solid mechanics? is it suitable for mechanical engineers or its more for Civil engineers?
5.Finally, Computational engineering has many areas that are also under some discipline of science or engineering. wht is the most promising area of mechanical engineering or mechanics( there are many branches of mechanics like solid,fluid) where computational engineering techniques are being used and has a better future? which one has more industrial application?
some discussion about the above mentioned points or simply any informations about the computational engineering/mechanics will be really helpful for me.
Thanking you
Md. Zahidul Mustakim
Computational mechanics can
Computational mechanics can be regarded as an approach (based on computational model, i.e. finite element, finite difference, molecular model, etc.) to solve the problems in mechanics (e.g. solid mechanics, fluid mechanics, etc.). There are so many sub-areas in computational mechanics. But, I believe that iMechanica has many computational mechanicists in various areas. You may look at journal club in iMechanica (http://imechanica.org/node/553), from which you can know more about recent works in computational mechanics in various area including nanomechanics. Your question seems vague, so that my short comment may not be sufficient. Also, the answer to your question will vary depending on person. Instead of considering the future aspects of specific area, I think that you should choose what you would like to study. Obviously, you may need to read some articles (e.g. journal clubs in iMechanica) in order to know what you are interested in.
Computational mechanics
Hi Zahidul,
I will try to give you some links that you can read. Hopefully more experienced users will tell you more. So for your questions,
1. read this wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_computing
2. Stress analysis, fracture mechanics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, material modeling, biomechanics, etc. The list can go on. The US National Committe on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics prepared a report in 2000 called "Research Directions in Computational Mechanics". Reading it, you can see the current and future research areas, societal implications etc. http://www.usacm.org/Miscellaneous/Scordim_8pPM.pdf
3. Probably the environment you are in is dominated by fluid mechanics researchers. The finite element method is a mathematical technique and it can be applied to solid mechanics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and outside mechanics too to solve partial differential equations numerically. Finite difference methods, boundary element methods, finite volume methods are some of the widely used numerical methods too. For historical reasons or depending on the type of equation and domain that you have, one method may be more popular in a particular application area. Certainly FEM is popular in solid mechanics but the other methods are used too. Similarly FEM is used outside solid mechanics or as I said even outside engineering and natural sciences.
4. If you mention structural engineering, what would come to my mind immediately is civil engineering. I think that's still because of the historical connotatoins. But strictly speaking as long as you want to analyze the effect of loads on a certain structure be it a building or a bridge or a machine component, you are doing structural analysis. In a similar vein if you are selecting the arrangement, dimension, material etc of load carrying elements in any type of structure, that will be structural design. You can use computational mechanics to solve problems from structural engineering and other areas of mechanics. You can also go for classical hand calculation methods or graphical methods for that matter to solve the problem at hand.
5. Read the report I have mentioned in 2 above.
Regards