This course introduces the basic components of an airframe structure and discusses their use and limitations. The realities of composite design such as the effect of material scatter, environmental knockdowns, and damage knockdowns are discussed and guidelines accounting for these effects and leading to robust designs are presented.

The resulting design constraints and predictive tools are applied to real-life design problems in composite structures. A brief revision of lamination theory and failure criteria leads into the development of analytical solutions for typical failure modes for monolithic skins (layup strength, buckling under combined loads and for a variety of boundary conditions) and stiffeners (strength, column buckling under a variety of loads and boundary conditions, local buckling or crippling for one-edge and no-edge-free conditions). These are then combined into stiffened composite structures where additional failure modes such as skin-stiffener separation are considered. Analogous treatment of sandwich skins examines buckling, wrinkling, crimping, intra-cellular buckling failure modes. Once the basic analysis and design techniques have been presented, typical designs (e.g. flange layup, stiffness, taper requirements) are presented and a series of design guidelines (stiffness mismatch minimization, symmetric and balanced layups, 10% rule, etc.) addressing layup and geometry are discussed. On the metal side, the corresponding design practices and analysis methods are presented for the more important failure modes (buckling, crippling) and comparisons to composite designs are made. A design problem is given in the end as an application of the material in this Part of the course.

This course is a survey of principal concepts and methods of fluid dynamics. Topics include mass conservation, momentum, and energy equations for continua; Navier-Stokes equation for viscous flows; similarity and dimensional analysis; lubrication theory; boundary layers and separation; circulation and vorticity theorems; potential flow; introduction to turbulence; lift and drag; surface tension and surface tension driven flows.

This course is designed to introduce students who wish to specialize in stress analysis of thin-walled structures to more advanced topics such as the analysis of statically indeterminate structures, warping, constraint stresses, shear diffusion, and elements of plate bending.

Foundations of 3D elasticity. Fluid and elastic wave equations. Elastic and plastic waves in rods and beams. Waves in plates. Interaction with an acoustic fluid. Dynamics and acoustics of cylindrical shells. Radiation and scattering by submerged plates and shells. Interaction between structural elements. Response of plates and shells to high-intensity loads. Dynamic plasticity and fracture. Damage of structure subjected to implosive and impact loads.

In this lesson, students learn about work as defined by physical science and see that work is made easier through the use of simple machines. Already encountering simple machines everyday, students will be alerted to their widespread uses in everyday life. This lesson serves as the starting point for the Simple Machines Unit.

This course extends fluid mechanic concepts from Unified Engineering to the aerodynamic performance of wings and bodies in sub/supersonic regimes. 16.100 generally has four components: subsonic potential flows, including source/vortex panel methods; viscous flows, including laminar and turbulent boundary layers; aerodynamics of airfoils and wings, including thin airfoil theory, lifting line theory, and panel method/interacting boundary layer methods; and supersonic and hypersonic airfoil theory. Course material varies each year depending upon the focus of the design problem.

These courses, produced by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, introduce the fundamental concepts and approaches of aerospace engineering, highlighted through lectures on aeronautics, astronautics, and design. MIT˘ď‹ď_s Aerospace and Aeronautics curriculum is divided into three parts: Aerospace information engineering, Aerospace systems engineering, and Aerospace vehicles engineering. Visitors to this site will find undergraduate and graduate courses to fit all three of these areas, from Exploring Sea, Space, & Earth: Fundamentals of Engineering Design to Bio-Inspired Structures

Fundamentals of human performance, physiology, and life support impacting engineering design and aerospace systems. Topics include: effects of gravity on the muscle, skeletal, cardiovascular, and neurovestibular systems; human/pilot modeling and human/machine design; flight experiment design; and life support engineering for extravehicular activity (EVA). Case studies of current research are presented. Assignments include a design project, quantitative homework sets, and quizzes emphasizing engineering and systems aspects.

Classical dynamics beyond Unified Engineering. Application of vector kinematics to analyze the translation and rotation of rigid bodies. Formulation and solution of the equations of motion using both Newtonian and Lagrangian methods. Analytical and numerical solutions to rigid body dynamics problems. Applications to aircraft flight dynamics and spacecraft attitude dynamics.

This course meets weekly, to discuss a combination of aerospace history and current events, in order to understand how they are responsible for the state of the aerospace industry. With invited subject matter experts participating in nearly every session, students have an opportunity to hone their insight through truly informed discussion. The aim of the course is to prepare junior and senior level students for their first industry experiences. Deliverables include a journal and class participation.

Our human society consists of many intertwined Large Scale Socio-Technical Systems (LSSTS), such as infrastructures, industrial networks, the financial systems etc. Environmental pressures created by these systems on Earth‰ŰŞs carrying capacity are leading to exhaustion of natural resources, loss of habitats and biodiversity, and are causing a resource and climate crisis. To avoid this sustainability crisis, we urgently need to transform our production and consumption patterns. Given that we, as inhabitants of this planet, are part of a complex and integrated global system, where and how should we begin this transformation? And how can we also ensure that our transformation efforts will lead to a sustainable world? LSSTS and the ecosystems that they are embedded in are known to be Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS). According to John Holland CAS are "...a dynamic network of many agents (which may represent cells, species, individuals, firms, nations) acting in parallel, constantly acting and reacting to what the other agents are doing. The control of a CAS tends to be highly dispersed and decentralized. If there is to be any coherent behavior in the system, it will have to to arise from competition and cooperation among the agents themselves. The overall behavior of the system is the result of a huge number of decisions made every moment" by many individual agents. Understanding Complex Adaptive Systems requires tools that themselves are complex to create and understand. Shalizi defines Agent Based Modeling as "An agent is a persistent thing which has some state we find worth representing, and which interacts with other agents, mutually modifying each other‰ŰŞs states. The components of an agent-based model are a collection of agents and their states, the rules governing the interactions of the agents and the environment within which they live." This course will explore the theory of CAS and their main properties. It will also teach you how to work with Agent Based Models in order to model and understand CAS.

In this unit, students learn about the form and function of the human heart through lecture, research and dissection. Following the steps of the Legacy Cycle, students brainstorm, research, design and present viable solutions to various heart conditions as presented through a unit challenge. Additionally, students study how heart valves work and investigate how faulty valves can be replaced with new ones through advancements in engineering and technology. This unit demonstrates to students how and why the heart is such a powerful organ in our bodies

Students are introduced to measuring and identifying sources of air pollution, as well as how environmental engineers try to control and limit the amount of air pollution. In Part 1, students are introduced to nitrogen dioxide as an air pollutant and how it is quantified. Major sources are identified, using EPA bar graphs. Students identify major cities and determine their latitudes and longitudes. They estimate NO2 values from color maps showing monthly NO2 averages from two sources: a NASA satellite and the WSU forecast model AIRPACT. In Part 2, students continue to estimate NO2 values from color maps and use Excel to calculate differences and ratios to determine the model's performance. They gain experience working with very large numbers written in scientific notation, as well as spreadsheet application capabilities.

Air pressure is pushing on us all the time although we do not usually notice it. In this activity, students learn about the units of pressure and get a sense of just how much air pressure is pushing on them.

Students are introduced to air masses, with an emphasis on the differences between and characteristics of high- versus low-pressure air systems. Students also hear about weather forecasting instrumentation and how engineers work to improve these instruments for atmospheric measurements on Earth and in space.

Students learn what causes air pollution and how to investigate the different pollutants that exist, such as toxic gases and particulate matter. They investigate the technologies developed by engineers to reduce air pollution.

Brief review of applied aerodynamics and modern approaches in aircraft stability and control. Static stability and trim. Stability derivatives and characteristic longitudinal and lateral-directional motions. Physical effects of wing, fuselage, and tail on aircraft motion. Flight vehicle stabilization by classical and modern control techniques. Time and frequency domain analysis of control system performance. Human pilot models and pilot-in-the-loop control with applications. V/STOL stability, dynamics, and control during transition from hover to forward flight. Parameter sensitivity and handling quality analysis of aircraft through variable flight conditions. Brief discussion of motion at high angles-of-attack, roll coupling, and other nonlinear flight regimes.

16.885J offers an holistic view of the aircraft as a system, covering: basic systems engineering; cost and weight estimation; basic aircraft performance; safety and reliability; lifecycle topics; aircraft subsystems; risk analysis and management; and system realization. Small student teams retrospectively analyze an existing aircraft covering: key design drivers and decisions; aircraft attributes and subsystems; and operational experience. Oral and written versions of the case study are delivered. For the Fall 2005 term, the class focuses on a systems engineering analysis of the Space Shuttle. It offers study of both design and operations of the shuttle, with frequent lectures by outside experts. Students choose specific shuttle systems for detailed analysis and develop new subsystem designs using state of the art technology.

Students are introduced to biofuels, biological engineers, algae and how they grow (photosynthesis), and what parts of algae can be used for biofuel (biomass from oils, starches, cell wall sugars). Through this lesson, plants—and specifically algae—are presented as an energy solution. Students learn that breaking apart algal cell walls enables access to oil, starch, and cell wall sugars for biofuel production. Students compare/contrast biofuels and fossil fuels. They learn about the field of biological engineering, including what biological engineers do. A 20-slide PowerPoint® presentation is provided that supports students taking notes in the Cornell format. Short pre- and post-quizzes are provided. This lesson prepares students to conduct the associated activity in which they make and then eat edible algal cell models.

This course treats various methods to design and analyze datastructures and algorithms for a wide range of problems. The most important new datastructure treated is the graph, and the general methods introduced are: greedy algorithms, divide and conquer, dynamic programming and network flow algorithms. These general methods are explained by a number of concrete examples, such as simple scheduling algorithms, Dijkstra, Ford-Fulkerson, minimum spanning tree, closest-pair-of-points, knapsack, and Bellman-Ford. Throughout this course there is significant attention to proving the correctness of the discussed algorithms. All material for this course is in English. The recorded lectures, however, are in Dutch.