Engineering Analysis 3 - System Dynamics 0703
General Engineering 205-3

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Catalog description

Modeling of mechanical (both translational and rotational), electrical, thermal, hydraulic, and chemical systems.

Prerequisite: C- or better in 205-2.

Who takes it

EA3 is part of the Engineering First program. It is a required course for all engineering students, usually taken in the spring quarter of first year. There are four regular sections of EA3 offered, and one Honors section. A single "trailing" section is offered in fall, as well.

What it's about

EA3 focusses on the modeling of dynamic systems, the reduction of models to differential equations of motion, and some exploration of the behavior of the solution of those equations. Numerical methods of solution are emphasized, using Matlab for solving differential equations and visualizing the results.

EA3 is a computer based course. The text itself, as well as the homework problems, are on the web. This makes possible a highly interactive text, in which students can download program skeletons, adapt them for their simulated system, and explore system behavior.

The goal is to learn system modeling across several physical domains (mechanical, hydraulic, electrical), and in each:
  • to understand the elements of each domain (e.g. spring, capacitor; or voltage, pressure, force)
  • to recognize the elements in real life, so that real systems can be abstracted into ideal systems composed of the familiar elements
  • to express precisely the way in which the elements interact (e.g. circuit diagrams, free-body diagrams)
  • to reduce the idealized systems to equations, which describe their behavior quantitatively.

The topics covered are:

I. Newtonian mechanics

Newton's Law. Free-body diagrams. Friction. Acceleration. Momentum & conservation of momentum. Angular momentum. Work, power, and energy. Conservation of energy. Collisions; elastic and inelastic collisions. Conservative and non-conservative fields.

II. Behavior of elements; modeling systems of elements

Mechanical: masses, springs, and dampers. Hydraulic: absolute and relative pressure, flow rate. Electrical: Kirchoff's laws; capacitors, inductors, resistors, batteries.

III. Systems of many elements: eigenvalues and normal modes

Simple harmonic oscillators. Weakly coupled oscillators. Time domain and frequency domain solutions. Eignevalues and normal modes.

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