Mechanical Engineering
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Faculty and Staff
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Curriculum
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Research Activities
Mechanical engineering has been playing an important role for the production of high performance machines for high quality products, which are indispensable for the information and electronic society in the 21st century. Since the products with high quality and performance are also required in our daily lives, mechanical engineering is regarded as a key technology for maintaining and advancing social life. It is furthermore expected that mechanical engineering will be developed as human technology. Thus, the aim of the Department of Mechanical Engineering is to educate the students with the knowledge to work in industrial factories through the more advanced applications of mechanical engineering such as bio-engineering, construction engineering, information engineering, electronic device engineering and so on. The Department of Mechanical Engineering is divided into four major divisions: Mechanical Science, Mechanical Systems, Intelligent Machines, and Production Systems Engineering. Students enter the Department of Mechanical Engineering not only at the first year level but also by direct entry at the third year level. At the start of their fourth year, students choose a research project that they have a particular interest in, which is proposed by their supervisor from one of the four divisions.
Approximately 50% of the students graduating at the Bachelor's course continue their studies in the Master's course. The degree of Master of Engineering is obtained by studying more advanced level of research in the Department with the staffs as well as the other students. New graduates are usually employed in manufacturing industries, heavy industries, electrical and electronic industry, information engineering, the construction engineering, the bio-engineering and so on.
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MECHANICAL SCIENCE
Educational and research programs in this division concern the estimation of strength and reliance of materials with micro and macroscopic method, design of new materials of high values and micromachine on the basis of the integrated engineering of physics, chemistry, biology and medicine. The group is further divided into four research laboratories:
- （1） Studies on material strength and behavior given by biomechanical analysis on stress fracture of tibia, material evaluation of shape memory alloys, aluminum alloys, semi-conductor materials and inter-metallic compounds by acoustic emission method and measurement of gas leak in piping (K. Yoshida);
- （2） Studies on recrystallization and premelting at grain boundaries in various pure metals and alloys and microscopic studies on defects in semiconducting materials and devices (T. Okada);
- （3） Mathematical and computational treaties of strength, mechanical and thermal behavior of solids, structures and advanced materials, and parallel finite element analysis and defect identification using neural network (A. Oishi);
- （4） Our research interests are in the development of low-cost recycling methods along with the development of high-performance eco-materials. We are attempting to optimize compacting conditions and cleaning techniques for metallic wastes such as grinding sludge of ball bearings. Another major area of interest is the design of high-performance ecomaterials used at elevated-temperatures. Such materials are important for jet engines or power generation plants. (H. Takagi)
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MECHANICAL SYSTEMS
Educational and research programs in this division concern the estimation of strength and reliance of materials with micro and macroscopic method, design of new materials of high values and micromachine on the basis of the integrated engineering of physics, chemistry, biology and medicine. The group is further divided into four research laboratories:
- （1） Analysis of the flow phenomena in hydromachinery. Technological research for the electrical generation with a tidal or wind current;
- （2） Analysis of the heat transport phenomena inside the heat exchanges and the energy conversion plants;
- （3） Analysis of the flow phenomena in pipelines transporting thermal energy using gas and liquid as a thermal medium, and of solid/liquid phase change heat transfer.
Internal flow in turbomachinery and its steady and unsteady characteristics, development of small hydropower turbine and elucidation and control of turbulence phenomenon (J. Fukutomi and M. Ichimiya); Research and development on greenhouse gas control technologies including carbon dioxide capture and storage and on absorption chillers for efficient utilization of energy (T. Suekane and M. Kiyota); Simulation of annular film flow, two-phase flow under micro-gravity field, and solid/liquid phase change heat transfer (K. Kusano).
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INTELLIGENT MACHINES
Control and measurement of machine dynamics, and machine intelligence are investigated in this division. There are six research laboratories:
- （1） System Design Lab. (K. Konishi),
- （2） Computer Vision Lab. (H. Ukida),
- （3） Dynamics of Machinery Lab. (J. Hino and M. Sonobe),
- （4） Control Engineering Lab. (M. Miwa),
- （5） Applied Optics Lab. (T. Iwata and Y. Mizutani),
- （6） CAE Systems Lab. (T. Nagamachi).
System Design Lab. studies image recognitions, especially, pedestrian recognition based on SVM and DoG(Difference of Gaussian smoothing images), object detection by boosting method and image segmentation based on graph cut method and Gaussian mean shift method.
Computer Vision Lab. studies 3D shape reconstruction from images taken by cameras or image scanners, object tracking systems using pan-tilt cameras and arm-robot, and motion capture systems using silhouette and color information.
Dynamics of Machinery Lab. studies active suspension considering time delay, modal parameters identification by frequency domain subspace algorithm and control method for inverted pendulum system by subspace control.
Control Engineering Lab. studies Remote Control Support System for UAV & UGV, Micro streo-lithography, Roller motion of humanoid robot, Model Driven Development method on control programming, etc.
Applied Optics Lab. studies about instruments and data-processing methods concerning on scientific measurements in the field of spectroscopy and global sensing.
CAE Systems Lab. studies numerical analysis and application of AI techniques for plastic processing process.
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INTELLIGENT MACHINES
This division covers the educational and research fields relating with the basic concept of product development, production process system and intelligent and automatic production process. Major research subjects are as follows:
- （1） Tool failure mechanisms and machining technology during turning or milling of various difficult-to-machine materials at high cutting speeds (A. Oyama);
- （2） Process developments on intermetallic compounds and metallic foams via P/M route, and development of reduced-current resistance spot welding technique for non-ferrous light-weight metals (Y. Tada);
- （3） X-ray residual stress measurement of crystalline materials, especially of thin ceramic films coated on metal substrate, effect of residual stress on mechanical properties of materials; and dependence of residual stress alteration on the dimensional instability (T. Hanabusa and K. Kusaka);
- （4） Studies on AI technologies for industrial applications, and human-computer interactions for concurrent and collaboration engineering (T. Ito);
- （5） Development of coating process of ceramic and diamond like carbon films onto metals and evaluation of fatigue properties, wear properties and adhesive behavior of advanced materials; Development of functional materials having electromagnetic shielding effectiveness by DC magnetron sputtering (R. Murakami and D. Yonekura).
