Mechanical Engineering Design

Final Project Expectations

For the mechanical part, component, or structure you choose to analyze/design, the following
document outlines some of the expectations.

It is highly recommended that you choose a design that is either an assistive technology or a
design that you will work on for your capstone design project. It is also acceptable that you work
on a new invention or a component/part of personal interest.

 You need to clearly describe the problem, explain its significance, and discuss what kind of
loading can be expected on your part during its life.

 What are the critical factors in the design of your structure (deformation, yielding, fatigue,
etc.)? What are the critical points to be analyzed? What are your assumptions?

 What is your estimate of the loading your part will experience? Explain your assumptions.

 How can you validate your analysis? How do you know the numbers are correct? Are the
values reasonable or justifiable?

 There is no particular report format that is required. I recommend that you look to the standard
report format that was provided to you in other classes while at LAU for guidance. However
there are key components that should be included and organization, clarity of writing,
grammar, and spelling are important. Attention to detail is very important.

 You should provide an executive summary or abstract that explains what you did? What
motivated your report (not me or this class)? What are the important results of your analysis
or important findings.

 The body of the report should not exceed 6 pages. Additional information can be provided in
the Appendix of the report.

 Grading will be based on (50% technical and 50% on the quality of your report: attention to
detail is very important). Remember, if I catch you copying from the internet, you will get a
grade of zero.

• The report is due in hard copy on Friday tenth of April.

 I will be happy to discuss any aspects of your analysis or report with you and your group.
Report Hints

Abstract/Executive Summary: Explain what you did. Explain why you did it. Explain what
were the significant results, findings, or questions answered. This should be accomplished
quickly and concisely. The boss may/may not want to read all the sections of your report, and
the report should guide the reader to what they are interested in.

Introduction: Provide the background needed to describe the problem you are solving. Explain
why it is important problem. Provide background material that is directly relevant to your task.
Do not provide unrelated information. Provide a good transition from the first section to the
remainder of the report. Briefly describe what can be found in the rest of the report.

Theory/Analysis: Provide a description of only the relevant equations that you used in your
analysis. Include only equations that you used, or derived. Explain how the equations are used
in the remainder of the report or analysis. Provide sample equations in the appendix. Provide a
description of your assumptions.

Experimental Description: Provide a description of the experiment you performed with

sufficient detail that someone can reproduce your results. If there is no experiment, do not
include this section.

Results: You should provide a convincing argument to identify the critical points of failure in
your design. What are the modes of failure (static failure, fatigue)? What are the safety factors?
Justify their calculation. Explain how the part is likely to fail in use. Do the finite element
results make sense? Do the analytical and numerical (FEA) results agree? What are the errors
and sources of error?

Conclusions:
At the end (conclusions/summary) you should briefly review the important results, significant
findings, and what you did. No new data or results should be presented. Were the requirements
met? Make suggestions and improvements not only on your analysis, but also on how the part or
design could be improved. What would be the next step in the analysis or design? Make
recommendations.

Other Items:
Figure, Tables and graphs are expected to be professionally constructed and labeled. Equations
should be numbered and all variables defined.

The report should be well organized with clear headings guiding the reader from one section to
the next. An “A” report has no grammar, spelling, or punctuation errors.

All figures and plots should be clear and labeled in a professional way (conference paper
quality). Figures should be able to stand alone. All require a Figure # and a title. All tables
require proper labeling similar to figures. For an example, refer to Fig. 1 and Table 2. Don’t
say: the figure on the next page or the figure above or the figure below. Also, it is better to say
“the results are shown in Figure 3” rather than “Figure 3 shows the results.” Any raw data
should be presented in a clear concise format (i.e. tables). If it is significant to the memo it
should be included there, otherwise it should be placed in an appendix. All figure, tables, and
appendices should be referred to in the main body of the report.

How you made your calculations should also be included for completeness either in the body or
the appendix. DO NOT provide equations in the Appendix without explanation of the equations.
Do not hand-write equations or data.

Don’t present results from an experiment or an analysis before describing the experiment or
analysis. The major results should be later summarized clearly and concisely.

If applicable, a brief uncertainty analysis should also be performed in order to describe the
validity of your results. How accurate are your results? What are the sources of error in your
experiment? Discuss improvements.

Do not be long winded. Write briefly and to the point. Longer reports are not better reports.

Figure 1. Comparison of B&K and Radio Shack Microphones

Table 1. Mutual Fund Quarterly Yield (%)

Year\Quarter 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
1995 10 4 12 -5
1996 12 2 3 -3
1997 2 12 4 0
1998 -4 -4 2 9