COURSES SYLLABUS For Mechanical Engineering UZ - University of Zimbabwe
COURSES SYLLABUS For Mechanical Engineering UZ - University of Zimbabwe
COURSES SYLLABUS For Mechanical Engineering UZ - University of Zimbabwe
PART I
5 hours of lectures per week inclusive of Tutorials and Practical Drawing Sessions.
Drawing instruments and their use, Drawing Standards BS 308, Types of drawings,
their layout and purpose, title blocks, line types and their application, lettering.
Systems of projection, isometric and orthographic, Freehand sketching, Arrangement
of views. First and third angle projections, Ellipses, circles and arcs in isometry.
Developments and interpenetrations; cylinders and cones, prisms, pyramids and
frustums
Parallel line development, Radial line development, triangulation true lengths,
intersections.
Dimensioning and labeling, Parts lists etc. Sectioning regulations, sectioned views,
half sections, cranked sections.
Limits and Fits; Hole and shaft tolerances, fits, screws and threads, Bolts and nuts
conventions, threaded pieces.
Design Analysis and calculations, Design of cams, SHM, cam profiles.
Machine and Assembly Drawings, machine elements, general assemblies,
sub-assemblies and sectioned assemblies.
Text books: Each student will be required to purchase the Engineering Drawing and
Design Handbook produced by the department. Any other supplementary texts can be used.
2 hours of lecture and one hour tutorial plus four hours practicals per week.
Assessment
1. Writing Skills
Here, the main focus is in the writing of short formal reports and a well-
2. Oral Skills
on class projects but especially in seminar sessions where students will learn
among other skills, the art of delivery, organization, and use of language and aids.
3. Talks
4. Organization of Work
Classes will be held two hours per week. Worksheets will be given whenever
appropriate. some of the tasks are done on a group basis. Students will be assigned to work in
small groups.
Introduction
Using Sources
3. Plagiarism
Report Writing
2. Curricula Vitae
Oral Presentations
3. Interviews Techniques
The Presentation
6 hours lecture and 2 hours tutorial/week. One afternoon practical per group
Inversion.
10. Direct stresses and strains; Young's modulus of Elasticity, Stresses in thin cylinders.
Contraflexure.
14. Shear stress in Torsion (Circular shafts only) Torsional stiffness; Torsional
16. Properties of Fluids; Fluids, shear stress, solids vs. liquids, liquids and gases, density,
surface tension, viscosity, compressibility and bulk modulus, equation of state, specific heats.
17. Pressure and Head; Statics, pressure, Pascal's Law, variation of pressure, head,
manometers.
19. Properties of Pure Substances; Heat capacities, matter, phase chances, tabular
20. Perfect and Ideal Gases; Gas laws, equation of state, universal gas constant
Recommended texts -
Energy sources, storage cells. Circuit elements, circuit theorems: Thevenin and Norton
theorems, superposition and duality. Analysis of dc circuits ac single-phase circuits, phase
representation of ac quantities, complex representation of ac quantities, transients, series and
parallel resonance.
Precision and accuracy, measurement errors calibration and correction measures. The
oscilloscope and its use. Construction and operation of deflecting instruments, use of digital
voltmeters.
Introduction to Microcomputers.
6. Word-processing
7. Database programs
8. Spreadsheet programs
Programming
Using loops
Arrays
Text Filed
Recursion
Dynamic Data Structures
Numeric Methods
1. Statistical Tools
4. Curve Fitting
4. Curve Fitting
6. Numerical Integration.
Safety
Measuring instruments, marking out, marking out, hand and portable machining
Electrical
Basic wiring regulations with the accent on safety - understand definitions of "dead"
"live" 'earthed and neutral' Danger off, and resuscitation after an electric shock.
Wiring of domestic appliances, transformers ad motors. Star delta and direct-on line
delta and direct - on line starters fault fining in circuits and equipment. Lightning
Measuring and testing equipment for continuity insulation and earthing (e.g. megger)
use of common tools for lighting and simple power circuits covering single
drilling, wood working lathe. Hand tools - their use, adjustment and care joining of
wood and fixtures. Seasoning and effects of moisture on timber, their types,
bricklaying, form-work.
Fabrication
Basic sheet metal tools, marking out, bending brake, rolling cutting, nibbling,
guillotine, developing and joining be riveting. Soldering, brazing and spot welding,
Semiconductors Fundamentals:
Fermi energy level, Fermi Dirac distribution function, the hole and free carrier
concentrations, intrinsic conductivity, extrinsic conductivity and compensation, diffusion and
drift.
Carrier concentration in the presence of both donor and acceptor impurities. Carrier
mobilities, The Einstein relation, The Boltzman relation and semiconductors under non-
equilibrium conditions.
The transient effects of Optical excitation. The continuity equation and its solution under
commonly existing situation.
P-n junction:
The depletion region, space charge density, electric field strength, electrostatic potential and
electron potential energy variation in the depletion region. Contact potential and potential
energy barrier.
Minority and majority carrier flow, forward biased and reverse biased p-n junction,
development of the thin diode equation, Static/dynamic resistance of the diode, avalanche
breakdowns.
Diode applications: rectifier circuits, ripple factor, smoothing circuits, voltage doubler and
quadrupler, clipping and clamping circuits. Breakdown and Zener diodes.
Bipolar transistor:
behaviour of npn and pnp junctions, hybrid , -pi and h-Parameter small signal equivalent
circuits, single stage amplifier, common base and common emitter configurations, emitter
follower.
Transistor biasing, input and output impedance, current and voltage gain. CE, CB, CC
(emitter follower) , amplifier configuration. Input resistance, output conductance.
Introduction to a positive and negative feedback, astable multivibrator, transimpendance
feedback
Operational Amplifier.
The differential amplifier, operational amplifier, analogue computers, square and triangular
wave generators. I.C. operational amplifier analysis, tuned and wide-band amplifiers, cascade
arrangement. Differential gain and common mode gain. Common mode rejection ratio
Simple current sources and the internal organisation of a modern OP AMP Linear
Logic Circuits.
Positive and negative logic. TTL gates, inverter, nand, nor, and or gates. Totem pole outputs,
tristate outputs and open collector outputs. Propagation delay and power consumption. TTL
characteristics fan and fan out.
The inverter characteristics. The MOS Transistor, nMOS, pMOS transistor operation, VI
characteristics and nMOS logic circuits, CMOS logic circuits and their advantages. Pass
transistors.
3 hours of lectures and 1 hour tutorial per week plus one afternoon practical/week.
Deflection of Beams
Unsymmetrical beams
Springs
Brief review of the magnetic field effects on its environment and how motor,
Transformers
Construction methods core & she construction. The effect of construction on efficiency and
costs Principles of operation of single phase transformers.
The emf equation on efficiency and costs Principles or operation of single phase
transformers. The emf equation and its role as a basis for transformer design. Derivation of
the equivalent circuit of a single phase transformer Transformers on no load and on load.
Transformers regulation & efficiency and the use of phasors. Transformers testing No load
and short circuit tests.
The meaning of percentage impedance and standard values for typical distribution
transformers
Application of transformers.
Induction Motors
Construction of cage & wound rotor machines. Principles of operation of a squirrel cage
induction motor (using the rotating field, exact & simplified models Induction motors under
running conditions, torque vs slip characteristics Conditions for maximum torque.
Testing of induction motors, the no load test. The locked rotor test Determination of machine
parameters from tests Introduction of single phase motors Applications of Induction Motors.
Principles of operation of the DC Generator. Circuit models of series, shunt, and compound
excited DC Generators. Principles of operation of DC Motors, Circuit models of series and
shunt excited DC Motors under running conditions, torque speed characteristics. Starting of
large.
Drawing standards for machining and surface finish; limits and fits; introduction to
geometrical tolerating; weld symbols. Introduction to computer draughting.
Design and common applications of:shafts and bearing arrangements; journal and rolling
element bearings; threaded fasteners, rivets and welded assemblies; use of adhesives.
Design Projects e.g. design of simple mechanisms, jigs and fixtures: Selection of
components from catalogues.
Materials: The metallic structure, effect of stress and temperature on simple metal
structure metal structure, control of poly-phase structures, steel and cast irons, engineering
alloys use of suppliers data in design.
ME204 Thermo-fluids
6. Ideal Vapour Cycles; Carnot cycle, Rankine cycle with and without
superheat, reheat cycle, regenerative cycle, economisers and air heaters,
nuclear power plant cycles, economic assessment, representation on p-v, T-s
and h-s diagrams.
Recommended texts -
equations,
Curvilinear coordinates. Fourier Series: Orthogonality relations and the Euler formula
for the coefficient, Besses's inequality and Parseval's identity, expansion in sine and
cosine series, solution of boundary value problems, the Fourier transform, inverse
Differential Equations: numerical methods, second order linear with variable coefficients,
reduction of order, variation of parameters, power series method, Frobenuis method,
and central limit theorem, moments and moment generating functions, sampling theory,
estimation and hypothesis testing, regression and analysis of experiments.
ME 206 Manufacturing Technology
Joining Process: Organisation for production, Foundry Technology, Forming Technology and
Welding technology, Welding processes, (SMAW process, TIG, WIG), Plasma Arc Welding,
Casting processes, Casting design, Gating and risering systems. Foundry sands, Casting
defects,
Forming technology. Free and Die forging, Heating cycles, Extrusion, Rolling, Drawing,
Initial stock,
System response to inputs and initial conditions )impulse, step, ramp and harmonic response)
Transient and steady state performance assessment steady state errors system types,
specification and sensitivity.
ME 303 Dynamics
Kinematics and kinetics of particles and rigid bodies in plane and space coordinates,
including
vector methods. Free and forced vibrations of single- and two degree-of-freedom systems
including damping. Rotating unbalance, whirling of rotating shafts, support motion, vibration
measuring instruments, vibration absorber, the analog computer.
5. Open Channel Flow; Shallow water waves, The hydraulic jump, Gradually
varied flow, Manning's correlation, Measurements in open channel flow.
Recommended texts -
Queuing system and related theory, System Reliability, maintainability, Risk Engineering,
Decision Theory and analysis.
Lecturers/Tutorials 4 hours/week
Starting
Speed Control
braking.
Analysis of Single-phase IM
Split phase, capacitor type, shaded pole, universal ac series motor Synchronous machines
types.
Theory of operation, introduction to 3-phase winding, winding emf and mmf, harmonic emfs,
equivalent circuit and phasor diagram of cylindrical rotor machine, effect of armature
reaction upon excitation requirements, regulations, synchronization, operation on infinite bus
bar, power load angle, constant power, constant excitation, parallel operation of two
machines synchronous condenser d-q theory of salient pole machine, parameters
determination.
Three-phase connections, open delta, tertiary winding transformer, auto transformer, parallel
operation.
Design, selection, application and stress analysis of further machine elements: springs,
couplings, keys and keyways, splines, belts and chains; spur, worm and helical gears.
Non-Newtonian flow, Centrifugal pumps, Diaghragm pumps, Vacuum producing units, Flow
and Distribution of steam, Heat exchangers, Size reduction, Screen analysis, Ore processing,
Process Optimisation,, Mass transfer, Fluidisation, Properties of fuels and combustion.
Fatigue, Creep and Fracture Mechanics, Matrix Methods, Thick Cylindrical Shells.
ME 309 Thermodynamics
1. Gas Cycles; Simple, with heat exchange, inter-cooler and preheat, combined
gas and steam, reciprocating, Otto, Diesel and mixed cycles, mean effective
pressure.
Recommended texts -
Recommended texts -
Three hrs lecture plus one-hour tutorial/ week, two semester course.
Financial control and effect of economic policy in financial decisions. Marketing mixes,
New Production Systems. Operations research - linear programming and decision trees.
3 hours lecture and 1 hour tutorial per week practical one afternoon per week.
3. Component Design
Simulation System)
- sensitivity analysis
- user training
4. Conduction; Basic laws of heat transfer, one- , two-, and three dimensional
steady state.
8. Heat Exchangers; Parallel and counter flow, LMTD, multi - pass heat
exchangers, cross - flow heat exchangers, sizing and rating, effectiveness -
NTU method, practical types of heat exchangers.
Recommended texts -
1. Linear Control System Design and Compensation - using root locus, Nyquist
PD, lad, lag, PID, implementation using active filters and feedback
compensation.
Controller design
Estimator design
Linearizing approximations
Initial conditions
Method of isoclines
Describing functions
Limit cycles
State-space representation
Characteristic response
Digital observer
Microprocessor control
Calculus of variations
Dynamic programming
Maximum principle
ME 403 Dynamics
2 hours lecture and 3 hours labs per week throughout the year.
2. Helical and Bevel Gears; Kinematics of bevel and helical gears, strength and
3. Brakes and Clutches; Statics, rim clutches and brakes, cone clutches and
energy considerations.
responses General from of torque equation and solution Braking and reversal
Centrifugal pump/fan Constant power drives winch Hoist and crane drives.
3. Permanent magnet materials and circuit design materials in use and B -characteristics
Recoil and air-gap lines Permanent magnet systems with air- gap Design equations.
Magnetics Magnetic circuits with leakage flux Operation in the presence of demagnetized
field.
Current and mmf wave forms Torque and emf equations Torque and speed
Prescribed Texts
stress Functions
Thermal Stresses
5. Other power plants; Nuclear power plant, Nuclear fission, nuclear cycles
and nuclear reactors, Hydroelectric power plants, Wind generators, Direct
energy converters.
Recommended texts: