Computer aided engineering : the setting up of a computer simulation laboratory at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malta

Abstract

Every profession has its necessary evil. Mathematics might arguably be the one for engineers, Engineers want to design, build and maintain complex systems and in order to do this there is always a recurring step that needs to be taken: to predict the behaviour of the chosen design. Protoyping and testing is undoubtedly essential, however there will always be a point when the engineer will have to get an estimate without a test, or at least an extrapolation based on the test. This is when the evil becomes a necessity: the somewhat abstract mathematical notions can take up practical meaning and become the only tool to obtain data. Mathematical and physical understanding of the problem is certainly a limitation when modelling, but there is one simple trick that can help in passing the hurdle: if the problem is too large and complex, it can be split it up into smaller manaqeable ones for which the available physical assumptions can be used and which can hence be solved. The downside to this? Smaller domains mean more donkey work, or number crunching: luckily computers can take care of this. [Excerpt]