Design Engineer's Reference Guide

Keith Richards is a retired mechanical design engineer who has worked in the industry for over 55 years. Initially he served an engineering apprenticeship with B.S.A. Tools, a company that manufactured a wide range of machine tools. On leaving B.S.A., he served as a freelance engineering designer in a wide range of industries that also included aluminum rolling mill design, industrial fork lift trucks, and the Hutton tension leg platform, an offshore oil production platform. In later years, Richards was involved in the aerospace industry working on projects covering aircraft undercarriages, environmental control systems for the military and commercial aircraft.

Mathematics


Trigonometry


Hyperbolic Functions


Solution of the Quadratic Equation


Solution of Simultaneous Equations (Two Unknowns)


Laws of Exponents


Expansions


Real Root of the Equation f(x) = 0 Using the Newton–Raphson Method


Series


Logarithms


Differential Calculus


Integral Calculus


Laplace Transforms


Parallel Axis Theorem


Complex Numbers


Determinates


Introduction


Description


Determinant Order


Properties of the Determinant


Minors and Cofactors


Matrices


Introduction to Numerical Methods


Introduction


Numerical Methods for Integration


Evaluation of Errors


Round-Off and Truncation Errors


Errors Arising from Differentiation


Integration Errors


Series


Newton–Raphson Method


Iterative Methods for Solving Linear Equations


Non-Linear Equations


Properties of Sections and Figures


Centroid Cx, Cy, Cz


Moment of Inertia/Second Moment of Area


Polar Moment of Inertia of a Plane Area


Statics


Force, Mass and Moments


Structures


Vectors and Vector Analysis


Dynamics


Kinematics


Nomenclature


Newton’s Laws of Motion (Constant Acceleration)


Rectilinear Motions


Circular Motion


Absolute and Relative Motion


Rotating Unit Vector


Vector of Point in a Rotating Reference Frame


Velocity of a Point in a Moving Reference Frame


Acceleration of a Particle


Kinematics of Rigid Bodies in One Plane


Instantaneous Centre of Rotation


Kinematics of Rigid Bodies in Three Dimensions


Theorems


Translation Motion


Rotation About a Fixed Axis


Rotation About a Fixed Point


General Motion


Mechanical Vibrations


Introduction


Single Degree of Freedom: Free Vibrations


Damped Vibrations


Single Degree of Freedom: Forced Vibrations


Natural Frequency of Beams and Shafts


Forced Vibrations


Introduction to Control Systems Modelling


Introduction


Engineering System Models


Block Diagram and Transfer Function Manipulations


Physics


Heat


Thermodynamic Basics


Introduction


Basic Thermodynamics


Conservation of Energy


Fluid Mechanics


Fluid Properties


Fluid Flow


Continuity Equation


Hydrostatics


Dimension Analysis


Fluid Drag


Properties of Water


Channel Flow


Orifice Plate


Fluid Machines


Introduction to Linkages


Introduction


Brief History


Kinematic Definitions


Kinematic Pairs


Planar, Spherical and Spatial Mechanisms


Mobility


Chebyshev–Gruber–Kutzbach Criterion


Grashof’s Law


Four–Bar Linkage


Mechanical Advantage of a Four-Bar Linkage


Freudenstein’s Equation


Drawing Velocity Vectors for Linkages


Drawing Acceleration Vectors for Linkages


Index