Mechanical Engineering Handbook

It is common experience among engineers that they have to review some old knowledge or learn something new, but what is needed at the moment is not at their fingertips. This chapter may help the reader in such a situation. Within the constraints of a single book on mechanical engineering, it provides overviews of topics with modern perspectives, illustrations of typical applications, modeling to solve problems quantitatively with realistic simplifications, equations and procedures, useful hints and reminders of common errors, trends of relevant material and mechanical system behaviors, and references to additional information. The chapter is like an emergency toolbox. It includes a coherent assortment of basic tools, such as vector expressions useful for calculating bending stresses caused by a three-dimensional force system on a shaft, and sophisticated methods, such as life prediction of components using fracture mechanics and modern measurement techniques. In many cases much more information should be considered than is covered in this chapter.