MAE 4140 - Mechanics of Lightweight Vehicles

Fall 3 credits.

Prerequisites: MAE 2120, MAE 3250, and MAE 3272 or equivalent; senior standing in MAE. Fulfills Senior Design requirement if M.E. seniors enroll in corresponding section of MAE 4291.

Staff.

Covers fundamentals of vehicle mechanics for several classes of vehicles (bicycles, light cars, airframes). Topics include types of vehicle structures; pertinent aspects of mechanical behavior including elastic and inelastic responses; static and dynamic behavior of vehicles under elastic loading; and mechanics of crashworthiness. Lectures cover essential background material for understanding of vehicle mechanics. Labs provide hands-on experiences in the major components of the course.

Outcome 1: Students will be able to perform inelastic bound analyses of vehicle structure crashworthiness.

Outcome 2: Perform modal analyses of dynamic response of vehicle structures.

Outcome 3: Conduct experiments to measure: the collapse vehicle structures, the dynamic response of vehicle structures under oscillatory loading, and the mechanical properties of materials used to build vehicle structures.