Spring 2019
Prof. Prasanna Gandhi
Author: Sakshi Dayal
Pre-requisite courses:
Pre-requisite skills:
Course Content: The course was broadly divided into two sections: The kinematics part involves:
- Degrees of freedom, types of joints and motions
- Different types of linkages, their uses and inversions
- 4 bar linkage: displacement, velocity and acceleration (analytical technique)
- Graphical techniques for kinematics
- Cam motions: Principle, standard cam-follower motion design
The dynamics part involves:
- Dynamic (force) analysis of 4 bar linkage, slider-crank mechanism
- Primary and Secondary unbalanced forces and their balancing for crankshafts of different engine designs; Optimal cylinder firing order
- Introduction to vibration theory and resonance of structures
Motivation to take up the course: While working in the mechanical subsystem in a tech team, I developed interest and curiosity to learn machine designing and their underlying mechanisms. And this course briefly explains its building blocks and is a prerequisite to Machine Design course.
Information about Projects/Assignments:
Short quiz in every tutorial (once in 2-3 weeks)
Two quizzes
Midsem
Endsem
Tomcat project (in group of 2)
Short quizzes are open book and have lesser weightage, while quizzes are difficult to score in. Midsem and endsem are of moderate difficulty. Tomcat project involves designing and fabricating a machine for the stated task (at my time, it was cutting 1-inch diameter loops of metal wire, taking a feed from wire spool). The project is demanding and has demonstration deadline post-endsem. Professor and TA help throughout, and the project is time and effort consuming.
Quizzes/Midsem/Endsem papers Difficulty: 4/5
Overall Course Difficulty: Difficult
Average Time Commitment: (Apart from lectures and tutorials) Between 6-10 hrs
Attendance Policy: 75% attendance mandatory
General funda: Practice from previous year papers, reference books and tutorial questions. Don’t panic during exams, they are tough for everyone. Attempt all the questions and give sufficient time to questions you can solve fully.
Grading stats: AA-14, AB-25, BB-35, BC-28, FR-12 ME316 has two sections, the other one running in slot 5. The other section has easier exams and no project, but proportionate relative grading.
Professor’s Teaching Style: The professor teaches in a very interesting and involving manner. He demonstrates crucial ideas using models and toys, which he brings to the class for everyone to play with and observe. For doing well in the quizzes, one needs to read reference books and attempt questions that are left midway during lectures and tutorials. TAs are helpful if you have doubts in questions.
Should you do this course?: This is a core course for Mechanical BTech and is quite hectic along with the project (feels like an 8 credit course). For better grade, I would recommend taking the other section for this course; but this section had higher thrill and excitement. The content is brilliant and teaching is enriching. Anyone who is enthusiastic about the learning these concepts can take this course, but make sure you take lesser credits that semester. Scoring 8-9 is easy with moderate but consistent efforts.