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Mechanical engineers function in diverse fields. The mechanical engineering faculty have developed unique facilities to perform state of the art research in many of those fields.
An Interactive Modeling Research Laboratory (IMRL) has been developed. This is a specialized research facility for CAD and interactive modeling research. The facility centers around six Micro VAX computers, a VAX 4000 computer server, a 3D graphics super workstation, four PDP-11/23 microcomputers, 15 monochrome VAX stations, and three color stations.
The department has an active core of faculty involved in materials science and engineering. Researchers make use of a complete field emission microscope facility, a field ion microscope facility, IR and UV visible spectrophotometers, a 50 kip Instron Servohydraulic testing machine, and a 10 kip servohydraulic biaxial testing machine.
Faculty in the mechanical engineering department also study the more traditional areas of mechanical systems and thermal sciences. The mechanical systems faculty are currently concentrating on research encompassing a diverse range of interests including pressure vessel analysis, mechanisms, robotics, automatic controls, and composite piping systems. One unique facility has been developed to aid in the experimental and analytical analyses of paraplegic gaits. Another specially designed facility makes use of adaptive control and expert systems for special such as super conductors and microelectronics. A unique composite piping research facility has been developed to study improved composite pipe, pipe fittings, and special parts.
In the broadest terms, the thermal science faculty are concerned with the conversion, transmission, and use of thermal energy. One area of active interest is associated with fundamental combustion phenomena. The combustion facilities center around two shock tubes (a single pulse shock tube and a conventional shock tube) and two flat flame combustion facilities (one adapted for use with hazardous materials and another equipped with light scattering capabilities). Complete analytical facilities (two Varian Vista 6000 gas chromatographs and a HP 5890 gas chromotograph equipped with mass selective detector) provide necessary support for the fundamental combustion studies. Research into the fundamental nature of a wide range of fluid governed problems are being conducted using experimental, analytical, and computational techniques. The facilities associated with this work include two wind tunnels (a conventional single phase tunnel capable of speeds to 100 m/s and a two phase bubble chamber). Typical support equipent include a real time Fourier Analyzer, various laser velocimeters, a a phase doppler velocimeter, and a mach Zender Interferometer.