49325 CAMD: Computer-Aided Mechanical Design
Project (2017 Autumn Semester)
Due date 1: Project Proposal is due, 30th May 2017.
Please let your group leader email your topic and problem, as well as your members including
names and student IDs (No more than one A4 page) to the tutor and Cc the lecturer.
Due date 2: Project Report is due, 21st June 2017.
Submit your written report (hard copy) to CB11.09.132 by the due date by your group leader. Any
late submissions may be accepted with the consideration of a reasonable penalty.
Topic: FE Analysis and Design Optimization of Mechanical Structural systems
Generally, any engineering applications, or any numerical examples provided that the FEM and/or
Design Optimization techniques are involved should be acceptable. You do not have to use ANAYS
or Matlab, and any software tools that are suitable for this subject are acceptable.
Hence, you may freely choose and devise your own design problem for your group project, relevant
to this subject in a general sense (e.g. numerical examples or practice-based engineering design
problems). However, the problem you choose should be based on the knowledge you have gained
from the practices of Quizzes and Assignments, as well as lecturing notes and computer lab tutorials
of this Subject.
Requirements:
You may apply Finite Element Method and Design Optimization techniques to any structural
mechanical components as a numerical problem or as a practice-based design problem of your own
choice, with appropriate geometric dimensions, loads and constraints, as well as simulation and
optimization parameters. You may complete this project individually or in groups of up to 5.
This Project should take a typical group up to 40 hours to complete. It is noted that this project can
either be completed using Matlab to develop your own codes, or any commercial software tools like
ANSYS, Solidworks, Catia or Creo for any real-world engineering problems.
Upon the completion, submit one project report per group, which contributes 30 marks. The report
must contain a statement detailing the contributions of all individual group members, signed by all
members of the group. Each group should have a group leader for the submission of your final report,
and the group leader will confirm the contribution of each group member.
Basically, your report should include (but not limited to) the following aspects:
(1) Problem description and statement
(2) CAD model; and Finite element procedures and analysis
(3) Design optimization model (design variables; objective function; constraints)
(4) Numerical analysis and simulation in detail;(5) Matlab codes, with detailed explanations, if you use Matlab
(6) Results and discussions, as well as conclusions (5 marks)
Note: The above aspects are only indicative and for reference. We may adjust that depends on the
nature and complexity of your mechanical analysis and design problem.