Exploring Engineering
Exploring Engineering
An Introduction to Engineering
and Design
Philip Kosky
George Wise
Robert Balmer
William Keat
AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDON
NEW YORK • OXFORD • PARIS • SAN DIEGO
SAN FRANCISCO • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY • TOKYO
Academic Press is an imprint of Elsevier
Academic Press is an imprint of Elsevier
30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803, USA
525 B Street, Suite 1900, San Diego, California 92101-4495, USA
84 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8RR, UK
Copyright # 2010, Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Science & Technology Rights Department
in Oxford, UK: phone: (þ44) 1865 843830, fax: (þ44) 1865 853333, E-mail:
You may also complete your request online via the Elsevier homepage (),
by selecting “Support & Contact,” then “Copyright and Permission,” and then “Obtaining
Permissions.”
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Exploring engineering : an introduction to engineering and design / Philip Kosky [et al.].
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-12-374723-5 (hardcover)

Summary 14
Exercises 15
CHAPTER 2: KEY ELEMENTS OF ENGINEERING ANALYSIS 21
2.1 Engineering Analys is 21
2.2 The SI Unit System 22
2.3 Force, Weight, and Mass 25
2.4 Significant Figures 29
Summary 32
Exercises 32
CHAPTER 3: SOLVING PROBLEMS AND SPREADSHEET ANALYSES 37
3.1 The Need–Know–How–Solve Method 37
3.2 Spreadsheet Analysis 40
3.3 Graphing in Spreadsheets 48
Summary 50
Exercises 51
CHAPTER 4: ENERGY: KINDS, CONVERSION, AND CONSERVATION 57
4.1 Using Energy 57
4.2 Energy Is the Capability to Do Work 58
4.3 Kinds of Energy 60
4.4 Energy Conversion 67
4.5 Conservation of Energy 68
Summary 72
Exercises 72
v
CHAPTER 5: CHEMICAL ENERGY AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERING 77
5.1 Chemical Energy Conversion 77
5.2 Atoms, Molecules, and Chemical Re actions 78
5.3 The mol and the kmol 78
5.4 Stoichiometry 80
5.5 The Heating Value of Hydrocarbon Fuels 84

Summary 155
Exercises 155
vi Contents
CHAPTER 9: LOGIC AND COMPUTERS 161
9.1 Moore’s Law 161
9.2 Analog Computers 162
9.3 From Analog to Digital Computing 163
9.4 Binary Logic 163
9.5 Truth Tables 166
9.6 Decimal and Binary Numbers 168
9.7 Binary Arithmetic 170
9.8 Binary Codes 174
9.9 How Does a Computer Work? 174
Summary 177
Exercises 177
CHAPTER 10: CONTROL SYSTEM DESIGN AND MECHATRONICS 183
10.1 What Is Mechatronics? 183
10.2 Modeling the Control System as a Block Diagram 184
10.3 Selecting a Control Strategy 189
10.4 Transient Control Theory 193
10.5 Global Warming and Positive Feedback 196
10.6 Drive-by-Wire 198
10.7 Implementing the Chosen Strategy in Hardware 200
Summary 201
Exercises 202
CHAPTER 11: MATERIALS ENGINEERING 215
11.1 Choosing the Right Material 215
11.2 Strength 217
11.3 Defining Materials Requirements 221
11.4 Materials Selection 228

14.6 Criteria for Predicting Effects of Potential Accidents 294
Summary 296
Exercises 296
CHAPTER 15: MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING 301
15.1 What Is Manufacturing? 301
15.2 Early Manufacturing 302
15.3 Industrial Revolution 303
15.4 Manufacturing Processes 305
15.5 Modern Manufacturing 316
15.6 Variability, Deming, and Six Sigma 320
Summary 326
Exercises 326
CHAPTER 16: ENGINEERING ECONOMICS 333
16.1 Why Is Economics Important? 333
16.2 The Cost of Money 333
16.3 When Is an Investment Worth It? 338
Summary 340
Exercises 341
PART 2: HANDS-ON
CHAPTER 17: INTRODUCTION TO ENGINEERING DESIGN 347
17.1 The Nature of Engineering Design 347
17.2 Design Problems Versus Homework Problems 348
17.3 Benefits of a Hands-On Design Project 348
viii Contents
17.4 Qualities of a Good Designer 348
17.5 How to Manage a Design Project 349
17.6 Two Ground Rules for Design 349
17.7 The Need for a Systematic Approach 351
17.8 Steps in the Engineering Design Process 352
17.9 Hands-On Design Exercise: The Tower 353

23.1 Manufacturing and Test ing Strategies 399
23.2 Materials 400
23.3 Joining Methods 401
Contents ix
23.4 Useful Hand Tools 402
23.5 Design Milestone: Design for Manufacture Assessment I 409
23.6 Design Milestone: Design for Manufacture Assessment II 410
CHAPTER 24: DESIGN STEP 7: PERFORMANCE EVALUATION 411
24.1 Individual Performance Testing 411
24.2 The Final Competition 412
24.3 Design Milestone: Individual Performance Testing 412
CHAPTER 25: DESIGN STEP 8: DESIGN REPORT 415
25.1 Organization of the Report 415
25.2 Writing Guidelines 416
25.3 Design Milestone: Design Report 417
CHAPTER 26: EXAMPLES OF DESIGN COMPETITIONS 419
26.1 Design Competition Example 1: A Bridge Too Far 419
26.2 Design Milestone Solutions for A Bridge Too Far 421
26.3 Official Rules for the A Bridge Too Far Design Competition 428
26.4 Design Competition Example 2: The Mars Meteor ite Retriever Challenge 430
26.5 Some Design Milestones for the Mars Meteorite Re triever Challenge 431
26.6 Official Rules for the Mars Meteorite Retriever Challenge Design Competition 433
CHAPTER 27: CLOSING REMARKS ON THE IMPORTANT ROLE OF DESIGN
PROJECTS 435
Postface 437
Index 439
x Contents
Foreword
Engineers have made remarkable innovations during the twentieth century. The National Academy of Engi-
neering (NAE) recently identified the top 20 engineering achievements of the twentieth century that “shaped a

I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it’s been.
The National Academy of Engineering also has proposed the following 14 Grand Challenges for Engineer-
ing in the 21
st
Century. In our second edition of this text, we have chosen to highlight material that engages
these topics because they represent the future of engineering creativity.
xi
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING
ENGINEERING CHALLENGES FOR THE 21
ST
CENTURY
1. Make solar energy economical
2. Provide energy from fusion
3. Develop carbon sequestration methods
4. Manage the nitrogen cycle
5. Provide access to clean water
6. Restore and improve urban infrastructure
7. Advance health informatics
8. Engineer better medicines
9. Reverse-engineer the brain
10. Prevent nuclear terror
11. Secure cyberspace
12. Enhance virtual reality
13. Advance personalized learning
14. Engineer the tools of scientific discovery
The twenty-first century will be filled with many exciting challenges for engineers, architects, physicians,
sociologists, and politicians. Figure 1 illustrates an enhanced set of future challenges as envisioned by Joseph
Bordogna, Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer of the National Science Foundation.
1
Cognitive

you will find material on classical engineering fields as well as introductory material leading to emerging
twenty-first century engineering fields such as bioengineering, nanotechnology, and mechatronics.
This text is divided into two parts: Part 1: Minds-on and Part 2: Hands-on. Most chapters in Part 1 are
organized around just one or two principles and have several worked examples and include exercises with an
increasing level of complexity at the end of the chapter. Answers are give n to selected exercises to encourage
students to work toward self-proficiency.
Part 1 covers introductory materia l explicitly from the following engineering subdisciplines: bioengineer-
ing, chemical engineering, civil engineering, computer and electronic engineering, control systems engineer-
ing, electrical engi neering, electrochemical engineering, materials engineering, manufacturing engineering
and mechanical engineering and an introduction to engineering economics. The second edition of this text
is organized around the theme of 21
st
century engineering and provides a forward-looking entry into each
of the engineering subdisciplines listed.
The topics covered are kept to a level compatible with the background of first year students. Some topics
obviously are closer to the core material in one subdiscipline of engineering than to another, and some are
generic to all. In order to cover such broad, and sometimes relatively advanced, subject matter we have taken
some liberties in simplifying those topics. Instructors may expect to find shortcuts that will pain the purists;
we have tried, nevertheless, to be accurate as to basic principles.
Part 2 provides the content for a Design Studio, and is associated with the design of engineering systems.
This “Hands-on” section is just as essential and challenging as the minds-on aspects covered in Part 1. Also,
for most students, it is a lot more fun. Few things are more satisfying than seeing a machine, an electronic
device, or a computer program you have designed and built doing exactly what you intended it to do. Such
initial successes may sound simple, but they provide the basis of a rigorous system that will enable an engi-
neering graduate, as part of a team of engineers, to achieve the even greater satisfaction in designing a system
that can provide new means of transportation, information access, medical care, energy supply, and such, and
can change for the better the lives of people around the world.
We physically separated the two parts of this text to emphasize the different character of their content.
Each chapter of the minds-on section has about the equivalent amount of new ideas and principles; our expe-
rience is that any chapter can be sufficiently covered in about two hours of lecture class time, and that the

but we do
so to discourage bad habits such as electronic calculator answers to undeserved significant figures.
3. We develop all
2
our exercise solutions in a rigorous format using a simpl e mnemonic Need–Know–
How–Solve to discourage the student who thinks he or she knows the answer and writes the wrong
one down (or even the correct one!). This too can appear to be clumsy in usage, but it is invaluable
in training a young engineer to leave an audit trail of his or her methods, a good basic work habit
of practicing engineers.
4. We recognize that the Engineering English unit system of lbf, lbm, and g
c
will be used throughout the
careers of many, if not most, of today’s young engineers. A clear exposition is used to develop it and
to use it so we can avoid the terrible results of a factor of 32.2 that should or shouldn’t be there!
5. Conservation principles, particularly energy and mass, are introduced early in the text as well as
emphasis on the use of control boundaries that focus on the essential problem at hand.
6. The use of tables is a powerful tool, both in the hands of students and of qualified engineers. We have
developed a number of tabular methods for stoichiometric and for thermodynamic problems that
should eliminate the problem of the wrong stoichiometric coefficients and of sign errors, respectively.
Methods based on tables are also fundamental to design principles as taught in the Design Studio sec-
tion of the book.
7. We have emphasized the power of electrical switches as vital elements of computer design and their
mathematical logic analogues.
8. Since standard mathematical cont rol theory is far too advanced for our intended audience, we have
used spreadsheet methods that graphically show the effects of feedback gains, paralleling the results
of the standard mathematical methods. Most students will still find this chapter to be very challenging.
9. We have developed a simple solution method for standard one-dimensional kinematics problems using a
visual/geometric technique of speed-time graphs rather than applying the standard equations by rote.
We believe this is a usefully visual way to deal with multi-element kinematics problems. Of course we
2

According to ABET, engineering programs must demonstrate that students attain an ability to (a) apply the knowledge of mathe-
matics, science, and engineering; (b) design and conduct experiments and analyze data; (c) design a system, component, or process
within economic, environmental, social, political, ethical, health-safety, manufacturability, and sustainability constraints; (d) function
on multidisciplinary teams; (e) identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems; (f) understand professional and ethical responsi-
bility; (g) communicate effectively; (h) understand engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental, and societal context;
(i) engage in life-long learning; (j) gain a knowledge of contemporary issues; (k) apply modern engineering tools to engineering
practice.
Foreword xv
A companion web site for this textbook is available at:
www.elsevierdirect.com/companions/9780123747235
It has resources including time management and study skills information, links to unit conversion programs,
and practice exercises with some solutions.
For instructors, a solution manual, design contest material, and Power Point slides are available by register-
ing at:
www.textbooks.elsevier.com
It contains worked solutions to every exercise using the Need–Know–How–Solve paradigm as developed in
this text.
xvi Foreword
Acknowledgments
We wish to acknowledge help, suggestions, and advice from several Union colleagues and especially from co-
teachers for the Union freshman engineering course: Dean Cherrice Traver, Professors Brad Bruno, James
Hedrick, Thomas Jewell, John Spinelli, and Frank Wicks. Dr. John Rogers, Mechanical Engineering Division,
West Point, and Dr. Andrew Wolfe, Civil Engineering Technology, State University of New York—Institute
of Technology, Utica, NY were also of great assistance in developing this text.
In addition we have received advice, assistance, and most importantly individual chapter reviews, from Pro-
fessors Nicholas Krouglicof (Memorial University, Newfoundland, Canada) and Thomas Jewell (Union
College).
We would also like to thank the following instructors who provided feedback on the revisi on plan:
Aaron Budge, Minnesota State Universi ty, Mankato
Mauro Caputi, Hofstra University

and people who designed creative things were known as “engine-ers.” In French, German, and Spanish today
the word for engineer is ingenieur, and in Italian it is ingegnere.
So, again—
What is an engineer?
An engineer is a creative, ingenious person.
What does an engineer do?
Engineers create ingenious solutions to societal problems.
Thus engineering is creative design and analysis that uses energy, materials, motion, and information
to serve human needs in innovative ways. Engineers express knowledge in the form of variables,
numbers, and units. There are many kinds of engineers, but all share the ideas and methods introduced in
this book.
1.2 WHAT DO ENGINEERS DO?
Isaac Asimov once said that “Science can amuse and fascinate us all but it is engineering that changes the
world.”
1
Almost everything you see around you has been touched by an engineer . Engineers are creative
people that use mathematics, scientific principles, material properties, and computer methods to design
new products and to solve human problems. Engineers do just about anything, including designing
and building roads, bridges, cars, planes, space stations, cell phones, computers, medical equipment, and
so forth.
Source: © iStockphoto.com/Antonis Papantoniou
1
Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations, 1970. (Simon & Schuster)
Copyright © 2010 by Elsevier Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. 3
Engineers can be classified into at least a dozen types, and many subtypes, according to the kind of work
they do—administration, construction, consulting, design, development, teaching, planning (also called appli-
cations), production, research, sales, service, and test engineers. Because engineering deals with the world
around us, the number of engineering disciplines is very large, and includes areas such as aerospace, agricul-
tural, architectural, auto motive, biomedical, ceramic, chemical, civil, computer, ecological, electrical, engi-
neering physics, environmental health and safety, geological, marine, mechanical, metallurgical and

ship and advocate for them. They also define codes and standards for their discipline, provide further educa-
tional courses, and offer a code of engineering ethics customized for that particular profession.
Not surprisingly, you will discover that the basic college engineering courses have much in common with
all engineering disciplines. They cover scientific principles, application of logical problem-solving processes,
principles of design, value of teamwork, and engineering ethics. If you are considering an engineering career,
we highly recommend you consult web resources to refine your understanding of the various fields of
engineering.
2
See />3
Canadian engineering societies basically follow a similar nomenclature as do others worldwide.
4 CHAPTER 1 What Engineers Do
1.3 WHAT MAKES A “GOOD” ENGINEER?
This is actually a difficult question to answer because the know ledge and skills required to be an engineer
(i.e., to create ingenious solutions) is a moving target. The factors that will lead to your career success are not
the same as they were 20 years ago. In this book, we illustrate the key characteristics of a successful engineer
by exploring the multidisciplinary creative engineering processes required to produce “good” competitive
products for the twenty-first century.
So just what does the twenty-first century hold for the young engineer? It will be characterized by the con-
vergence of many technologies and engineering systems. The products of today and of tomorrow will be
“smarter,” in which computers, sensors, controls, modern metal alloys, and plastics are as important as
continuing expertise in the traditional engineering disciplines. This book is also intended to appeal to a num-
ber of aspects of modern engineering subdisciplines.
Obviously, in a beginning engineering text, we can discuss only a small segment of all the engineering
disciplines. Some of the major engineering disciplines are as follows:
n
Bioengineers deal with the engineering anal ysis of living systems.
n
Chemical engineers deal with complex systems and processes including, for example, the way atoms
and molecules link up and how those connections shape the properties of materials.
n

a safe and reliable product. From this point of view, an automobile is an engineer’s answ er to the question,
“What’s a good way to move people safely and reliably? ”
1.4 What This Book Covers 5
The purpose of this book is to introduce you to the engineering profession. It does so by introducing you
to the way engineers think, ask, and answ er questions like: What makes an automobile—or a computer,
or an airplane, or a washing machine, or a bridge, or a prosthetic limb, or an oil refinery, or a space
satellite—good?
We are using the automobile as an example at this point strictly for convenience. It no more and no less
expresses the essence of engineering than would an example based on a computer, an airplane, a washing
machine, a bridge, a prosthetic limb, an oil refinery, or a space satellite. In each case, the essence of the exam-
ple would focus on the creative use of energy, materials, motio n, and information to serve human needs, so a
more detail-oriented engineer might answer our original question like this:
A good twenty-first-century automobile employs stored energy (on the order of 100 million joules), complex
materials (on the order of 1000 kilograms (about one ton) of steel, aluminum, glass, and plastics), and infor-
mation (on the order of millions of bits processed every second) to produce an automobile capable of high
speed (on the order of 40 meters/second at approximately 90 mph), low cost (a few tens of cents per mile),
low pollution (a few grams of pollutants per mile), and high safety.
That’s a long and multidimensional answer, but an engineer would be unapologetic about that. Engineer-
ing is inherently multidimensional and multidisciplinary. It needs to be multidimensional to create com-
promises among conflicting criteria, and it needs to be multidisciplinary to understand the technical impact
of the compromises. Making a car heavier, for example, might make it safer, but it would also be less fuel
efficient. Engineers often deal with such competing factors. They break down general issues into concrete
questions. They then answer those questions with design variables, units, and numbers.
Engineering is not a spectator sport. It is a hands-on and minds-on activit y. In this book, you will
be asked to participate in a “Design Studio.” This is the part of the book that is hands-on—and, it’s fun!
But you will still learn the principles of good design practice (regardless of your i ntended engineer-
ing major), and you will have to integrate skills learned in construction, electrical circuits, logic, and
computers in building a device (the “device” could be a car, robot, boat, bridge, or anything else appropri-
ate to the course) that will have to compete against similar devices built by other young engineers in
your class whose motivation may be to stop your device from succeeding in achieving the same goals!

4. What do those connections and changes have to do with a ccomplishing the task of acc elerating the
bicycle?
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
Radiator: _____
Battery: _____
Spare Tire: _____
Exhaust Manifold: _____
Gas Tank: _____
Starter Motor: _____
Muffler: _____
Alternator: _____
Distributor: _____
Oil Filter: _____
Transmission: _____
FIGURE 1.1 Exploded View of a Modern Automobile. © Moving Graphics
1.4 What This Book Covers 7