Mechanical Engineering, M.S.

Graduate Student Guide (pdf)

Students normally develop individual programs of study in mechanical systems/design, fluid mechanics, solid mechanics or thermal science. In addition, there are also opportunities for interdisciplinary programs such as biomechanics, geomechanics, manufacturing, material science, ocean engineering, and micro/nano sciences.

Areas of Concentration

Westerly Program

A part-time M.S. Program in Mechanical Engineering for Employees of Electric Boat and Surrounding Industries.

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Mechanical Systems/Design: This area encompasses the broad field of computer-aided design including design methodology and computer graphics, as well as kinematics and dynamics of machines, vibrations, design of machine elements, controls, automation, and techniques for assessing reliability. Current areas of research include non-linear dynamics & vibrations, vibration-based structural health monitoring and failure prediction, expert systems, machine tool calibration, control of robot vehicles, kinematic design and optimization, computer-aided design of control systems, precision machining, surface roughness analysis, and robot-assisted waterjet machining.

Joint International Programs

Administered in collaboration with the Technische Universität (TU) Braunschweig and the Technische Universität (TU) Darmstadt in Germany, The University of Cantabria (UNICAN) in Santander, Spain, and Parthenope University in Naples, Italy, these dual master programs enable students to complete simultaneous engineering master’s degrees from both institutions over a two-year period.

Under this plan, University of Rhode Island master’s degree students in any engineering graduate program (Germany), in Ocean Engineering (Spain) and in Mechanical/Industrial & Systems (Italy) complete the first full year, or approximately one half of the master’s program, in Rhode Island, and then spend the second year of the program as a full-time student at the partner institution abroad. All work completed satisfactorily abroad is recognized by both the host and home universities, thus enabling students to complete degree requirements in Germany, Spain or Italy and in Rhode Island.

*As of Spring 2023, the German partnership program is available to all MS programs, the Spanish partnership is available for the OCE MS program and the Italian partnership is available for the MCE/ISE MS programs.

– Contact for TU Braunschweig and TU Darmstadt dual master programs: Sigrid Berka, sigrid_berka@uri.edu; +1 401.874.4700

– Contact for the UNICAN program in OCE: Stephen Licht, slicht@uri.edu +1 401.874.6028

– Contact for the Parthenope Program in MCE/ISE: David Chelidze, chelidze@uri.edu, +1 401.874.2356 ; Michelangelo La Luna, laluna@uri.edu; +1 401.874.5968

Department of Mechanical & Industrial Systems Engineering

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Fluid Mechanics: The fluid mechanics program includes advanced studies in laminar and turbulent flows, computational fluid dynamics, experimental methods, flows in micro-domains, flows with particulate matter, biological flow. Current areas of research include fluid flow and heat transfer in micro-domains, flow in human airways, computational fluid dynamics in irregular geometries, biological flows and lubrication, and numerical direct simulation flow modeling.

Solid Mechanics: Studies in solid mechanics involve strength of materials, elasticity, plasticity, continuum mechanics, composite materials, fracture and fatigue, vibrations, wave propagation, computational methods, and micromechanics. Applications of these studies are applied to the mechanical and thermomechanical behavior of metals, composites, functionally graded materials, ceramics, and geological media under both static and dynamic loading conditions. A significant portion of our studies has been involved with micromechanical material behavior. Areas of current research include: behavior of materials under shock loading, dynamic fracture mechanics and material behavior, finite element modeling of biological materials, computational simulation of particulate composites, cellular and granular materials, fatigue crack growth, micromechanical behavior of composites, material erosion from abrasive waterjet processes.

Thermal Sciences: The area of thermal science includes studies of thermodynamics, conduction, convection and radiation heat transfer, pollution, and energy processes. Recent research has been involved with experimental and numerical modeling of cooling of circuit boards, heat transfer and fluid flow in melting and solidification, micro heat transfer, aerosol transport in human respiratory flows, direct control heat transfer with phase change, computation of natural and forced convection in complex enclosures, energy system analysis including heating, ventilating, air conditioning, refrigeration, and electrical power systems.