Coupled Field-Driven Design and Numerical Simulation for Engineering Education

Growing additive manufacturing capabilities have relaxed the complexity constraints of engineering design in recent years.Nevertheless, engineering education has lagged in presenting methods to take advantage of the heightened freedom for its students.This paper proposes the integration of numerical simulation modeling into traditional mechanical engineering coursework along with the implementation of field-driven design approaches in design-centric classes.Despite being commonplace throughout professional environments within industry and academia, undergraduate engineering students often have little to no exposure to computational modeling techniques without taking elective courses or pursuing academic research.By presenting traditional theory alongside numerical simulations illustrative of coincident content, students are provided multiple approaches to a given problem that serve to enhance comprehension of core material while gradually developing a marketable skill that can be used throughout an engineering career.Further, the establishment of computational modeling competence opens the door to new design methodologies that can be used to iterate through engineered 3D models.Field-driven design is one such methodology that would enormously benefit undergraduate students in their coursework.The intertwining of numerical simulation modeling, field-driven design, and the presently-emphasized 3D modeling skills strengthens student understanding of product evaluation and iteration and improves the employability of mechanical engineering graduates.