This module aims to equip students with the basic knowledge, understanding and skills required to: Identify barriers to creative thought; Understand and explain the overall engineering design process including areas with specific relevance to energy and environmental projects. Equip students to calculate the requirements for typical components found in related systems. Provides student with fundamental knowledge in materials. Overview of the relationship between the structure & properties of materials. The student will have a knowledge of materials selection.
Barriers to creative thought:
Definition of mental barriers. Classification of mental barriers. In class exercises to highlight mental barriers.
The Design Process:
Structure of the design process. Iterative nature of the design process.
Specification development and Concept selection:
When are they established? Target specifications, lists of metrics, needs-metrics matrix, competitive benchmarking, target metric values. Final specifications, technical models, cost models.Structured methodology for concept selection. Pugh concept selection. Reference concepts. Concept screening matrix. Concept scoring matrix, weighting factors.
Legislation, Standards and Compliance:
EU safety legislation, Irish legislation, US legislation.Hierarchy of standards organisations. Types of standards. EU harmonised standards.The risk assessment process. Standards for risk assessment. The Technical File. Notified bodies. Compliance testing.
Common Mechanical Components
Bearings: Types, application, ISO bearing life equation, selection and sizing of bearings. Gears and gear boxes: Types of gears and their application. Deign calculations and design issues with gear boxes. Plate Clutches: Design calculations and design issues.
Wind Generation Site Specification:
Identifying geographic areas. Selecting candidate sites. Preliminary evaluation of sites. Final site selection. Micro-locating of turbines.
Wind Generation System Design Issues:
Pre-development work. Turbine transport, asssembly and erection. Grid connection, commissioning and operation. Maintenance and repair. Operational safety.
Wind Generation System Environmental Issues:
Bird/Bat interactions, visual impact, noise emissions, electromagnetic interference,land use impact, safety and other issues.
Materials Classification and Properties:
Classification & identification of materials, mechanical properties,thermal properties, chemical properties & physical properties.
Structure , Properties and Applications of Materials:
Structures, properties and applications of metals. Structures, properties and applications of polymers and ceramics
Materials Properties and Testing:
Detailed discussion on tensile testing, impact & hardness testing, the importance of these mechanical properties in terms of their selection. Fatigue and corrosion tests.
| Module Content & Assessment | |
|---|---|
| Assessment Breakdown | % |
| Formal Examination | 60 |
| Other Assessment(s) | 40 |