Design Engineer's Reference Guide

Book excerpt: Author Keith L. Richards believes that design engineers spend only a small fraction of time actually designing and drawing, and the remainder of their time finding relevant design information for a specific method or problem. He draws on his own experience as a mechanical engineering designer to offer assistance to other practicing and student engineers facing the same struggle. Design Engineer's Reference Guide: Mathematics, Mechanics, and Thermodynamics provides engineers with a roadmap for navigating through common situations or dilemmas. This book starts off by introducing reference information on the coverage of differential and integral calculus, Laplace’s transforms, determinants, and matrices. It provides a numerical analysis on numerical methods of integration, Newton–Raphson’s methods, the Jacobi iterative method, and the Gauss–Seidel method. It also contains reference information, as well as examples and illustrations that reinforce the topics of most chapter subjects. A companion to the Design Engineer's Handbook and Design Engineer's Case Studies and Examples, this textbook covers a range of basic engineering concepts and common applications including: • Mathematics • Numerical analysis • Statics and kinematics • Mechanical vibrations • Control system modeling • Basic thermodynamics • Fluid mechanics and linkages An entry-level text for students needing to understand the underlying principles before progressing to a more advanced level, Design Engineer's Reference Guide: Mathematics, Mechanics, and Thermodynamics is also a basic reference for mechanical, manufacturing, and design engineers.