Academics | LAMFiP

Seminar

The LAMFIP seminar is convened every Friday at 10 am in the ME Discussion Room, often preceded by coffee/tea. Group members are presenters, and chose between presenting their own research and recently published/classical articles.

Occasionally, sets of chalk talks on various topics are also featured. Some of these have been typeset and can be found in the Lecture Notes tab above.

If you would like attend our seminar, please let [one of us] know.

A list of preprints based on recent seminars can be found [on arXiv]

In addition, the ME department seminar is held every Friday at 4 pm. Details about the department seminar may be found on the [ME Seminars] page

Core courses (MTech/ PhD)

ME228: Materials: Structure Property Correlations (Aug Term)

An introductory course for first/second year students in mechanical engineering, materials science and applied physics. The emphasis will be on understanding the structure of materials and their effects on mechanical, thermal, electronic and magnetic properties. Principles of quantum mechanics and solid state physics will be introduced and disucssed in an engineering context.

Instructor: Koushik Viswanathan

Pre-requisites: Course is self-contained, basic understanding (UG level) of atomic bonding and thermodynamics is highly recommended.

References:

WG Moffatt, GW Pearsall and J Wulff (1967). The Structure and Properties of Materials, Volume I. John-Wiley and Sons, NY.
NW Ashcroft and ND Mermin (1976). Solid State Physics. Holt, Reinhart and Winston.
PM Chaikin and TC Lubensky (1998). Principles of Condensed Matter Physics. Cambridge University Press.
RE. Reed-Hill and R Abbaschian (1992). Physical Metallurgy Principles. PWS-Kent Publishing Company.

ME261: Engineering Mathematics (Aug Term)

This is a first course in Engineering Mathematics and is compulsory for incoming M-Tech students. Three broad topics will be covered:

Vector and tensor algebra: Sets, groups, rings and fields, vector spaces, basis, inner products, linear transformations, spectral decomposition, tensor algebra, similarity transformations, singular value decomposition, QR and LU decomposition of matrices, vector and tensor calculus, system of linear equations (Krylov solvers, Gauss-Seidel), curvilinear coordinate transformations.
Differential Equations: Mathematical modeling, classification of ODEs, Existence and uniqueness; First-order systems: Solution techniques and analysis of nonlinear problems, stability analysis and bifurcations; Second-order systems: Solution techniques and analysis of nonlinear problems, stability analysis, phase space and limit cycles, 2D bifurcations; Higher-order systems and numerical solution techniques for ODEs
Complex analysis: Analytic functions, Cauchy-Riemann conditions and conformal mapping. Special series and transforms: Laplace and Fourier transforms, Fourier series, FFT algorithms, wavelet transforms.

Instructors: Koushik Viswanathan, Venkata R Sonti, Gaurav Tomar

Electives

ME304: Applied Mathematics for Mechanics (Jan Term)

Applied Mathematics for Mechanics (AMFM) is a course on applied mathematics with applications to practical problems in mechanics. The course will be divided into three parts—(i) advanced geometry and complex analysis, (ii) asymptotic and approximation methods and (iii) special topics. Part (i) will deal with applications of complex variable techniques, including Green’s functions, conformal mapping and integral transforms. In addition, differential geometry of curves and surfaces will be presented, along with applications to problems in mechanics and differential equations. Part (ii) will focus primarily on asymptotic methods and perturbation theory. Topics to be covered include approximation of integrals, solution of algebraic equations using perturbation methods, local analysis of ODEs, matched asymptotic expansions and WKBJ methods. A set of special topics, such as nonlinear ODEs, renormalization methods and group theory, will be covered in part (iii) drawing from various applications in mechanics.

Instructor: Koushik Viswanathan and Gaurav Tomar

Pre-requisites: Basic course in engineering mathematics (ME261 or equivalent) and knowledge of fluid & solid mechanics at the undergraduate level.

ME291: Analysis of Manufacturing Processes (Jan Term)

This course is designed to provide a graduate-level introduction to manufacturing processes, from processing raw stock material to the final finished product. The emphasis is on performing simple analyses to obtain quantitative estimates for process parameters (e.g., forces, pressures, energy) and product properties (e.g., residual strains, shape tolerances). Processes are discussed and analysed following a broad classification and accompanied by in-class or lab demonstrations when possible. At the end of the course, the students will undertake a case study, where they will pick a product and make decisions, with relevant analysis, on the manufacturing process for each major sub-component.