College Education

Inserting Fluid Power Curriculum into Existing Undergraduate Engineering Courses

A small number of engineering undergraduate students nationwide will take fluid power elective courses, but all students in mechanical and related engineering ABET accredited degree programs take required courses in fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, system dynamics and machine elements. These courses cover topics that form the core of fluid power yet currently do not contain fluid power applications.

The goal of this project is to insert fluid power topics into these courses. The initial target is the introductory course on system dynamics taken by every undergraduate mechanical engineering student in the United States. Typically, the course text has a chapter on fluid system dynamics, but that chapter does a poor job of covering the system dynamics of modern fluid power. A chapter on fluid power system dynamics that replaces the fluids chapter in these courses is under development. The chapter has been piloted at UMN, will be piloted at all CCEFP universities and then disseminated nationwide. Future chapters will target the introductory fluid mechanics course and the introductory thermodynamics course (with a focus on pneumatics).

If this project is successful, every undergraduate mechanical engineering student in the United States will be exposed to fluid power. Another objective of this project is to develop and include fluid power examples, including CCEFP research results, into the undergraduate and graduate courses taught by CCEFP faculty.

[Project Leader: Will Durfee, UMN]

Fluid Power System Dynamics by William Durfee and Zongxuan Zun is available for purchase $5.54 at lulu.com.