Computational methods in aerospace engineering

Lectures: 2 sessions / week; 1.5 hours / session

This course provides an introduction to numerical methods and computational techniques arising in aerospace engineering. Applications are drawn from aerospace structures, aerodynamics, dynamics and control, and aerospace systems. Techniques covered include numerical integration of systems of ordinary differential equations; numerical discretization of partial differential equations; and probabilistic methods for quantifying the impact of variability. Specific emphasis is given to finite volume methods in fluid mechanics, and finite element methods in structural mechanics.

Students successfully completing 16.90 should have:

This course is being offered with a new pedagogy, which was first used in 2012. Our primary goal is to improve student learning. In addition, we hope to create an environment that allows some flexibility for students to participate in activities that may require some time away from the classroom (e.g., participating in an engineering competition, presenting at a conference, etc).

To achieve these goals, we will:

You could begin by completing all the readings in a Unit, then work through all of the Unit's sample problems in sequence, and then finally do all of the homework assignments.

Alternatively, you may find it more effective to try the relevant Unit sample problems and/or homework assignments as you finish each portion of the Unit reading. You can use the measurable outcome tags to identify these relationships: they appear at the top of all Unit pages, just beneath the title).

Either approach is fine: use whatever way you think is more effective for the way you learn!

When you mouse over the navigation bar at the top of any Unit page, the titles of each numbered subsection will pop up in a small window. This pop up title feature is also active on the "Back" and "Continue" buttons.

Having trouble reading an equation on these Unit pages, due to small font size? Double-click on the equation and a zoomed-in view will pop up, more clearly showing all of the superscripts and subscripts.

The subject total grade will be based on the letter grades from the homework, projects, and exams. The weighting of the individual letter grades is as follows:

For the subject letter grade, we adhere to the MIT grading guidelines that give the following description of the letter grades:

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