Advice for aspiring stress engineer?
Advice for aspiring stress engineer?
(OP)
I'm finishing up a masters degree in AE, with the eventual goal of landing a job in aircraft stress engineering. The ME department here is offering a course called "Advanced Finite Element Analysis," but I am not sure if it is worth taking. From what I understand, it will cover the use of ANSYS to solve various problems in elasticity. I have already taken a course that covers the basic theory of FEA. Would it be better to broaden my horizons and take a course in propulsion or compressible flow? I would appreciate the advice of the experienced engineers on this board.





RE: Advice for aspiring stress engineer?
good luck, it's a get life (if you don't let the turkey's get you down)
RE: Advice for aspiring stress engineer?
If I could piggyback onto what rb1957 said with a bit of a twist, I think you are on to something. If you understand how to do the reasonableness checks with hand calculations and you have the basic principles of FEA under your belt, then you can always pick up an advanced class at a local university. You can even audit a class to avoid having to mess with exams, etc, because all you really want is the knowledge.
I would recommend broadening your horizons as much as possible now, and pick up any specialized training after you land that job and figure out what additional skills you want to add to your toolkit, as rb1957 suggests.
I have successfully done this a couple of times to pick up specialized knowledge when I need it, but I am located in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where you trip over colleges and universities every time you walk down the street. (Just a bit of exaggeration there, but we really do have a plethora of choices in this area.) You may not have those kind of options where you are located so you may need to toss my advice.
RE: Advice for aspiring stress engineer?
Rob Stupplebeen
RE: Advice for aspiring stress engineer?
Also, when ever visualizing an aircraft problem imagine full or partial disintigration of the airframe and the screams of your victims. In fact, do so whenever you see or think of an aircraft. I find the more that I do so, the more motivated I am to learn the real practical aspects of aircraft structural analysis which unfortunately they teach little about in school.
Debodine and RB give some good advice as well.
Compressible flow and propulsion...anything more than the basics is a waste if you want to be a stress/design expert. Unless of course you'd like to supe up a car or motorcycle in your spare time.
RE: Advice for aspiring stress engineer?
If you want to get in to stress, take a stress course and if the Advanced FE course is the only thing available, go for it. If you have an option to take a failure analysis / fracture mechanics course, or any type of mechanics of materials, plate theory, etc. it will probably be more helpful in the future.
Compressible flow and propulsion are undoubtedly good courses, but the community that uses that knowledge is even smaller than the community that does aircraft stress...job opportunities will likely be broader in the stress field, and since that's what you want to do, the more education you get in this area, the better.
RE: Advice for aspiring stress engineer?
RE: Advice for aspiring stress engineer?
RE: Advice for aspiring stress engineer?
I hate ANSYS but there are a lot of jobs if you learn it. NASTRAN/PATRAN is used a lot in Aerospace, far more than ANSYS.
I agree with a previous post - seeing things break is very beneficial. Seeing things break for which you have calcs to compare is even more beneficial.
I think if you are finishing a masters then now is time to get a job stressing and FE-ing rather than getting more qualifications.
The application of stress hand calcs and FE to engineering designs in a practical situation is my recommended way forward. Get a job now if you can. If you can`t a 1 year gap on a farm or similar as previously posted will do no harm if you have been on the academic treadmill non stop since the age of 6!
good luck.
gwolf
RE: Advice for aspiring stress engineer?
Another branch of stress analysis which you use in conjunction with FE but can not easily do with FE alone is buckling of thin structures. Aircraft structures rely heavily on a mixture of FE and hand calcs for the buckling of thin skins. Any course which deals with this will also flesh out your knowledge usefully.
gwolf.
RE: Advice for aspiring stress engineer?
Any thoughts/advise?
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." (A. Einstein)
RE: Advice for aspiring stress engineer?
Rob Stupplebeen