Advice for aspiring stress engineer? 2

[DeltaWing]

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.

 

[rb1957]

sure there are some aspects of advanced FE that would be relevant (non-linear, geoemtrical and material; buckling, ...) but i'd refer to get my hands dirty ... get a job, do the job, see what tools you need that fit the job.

good luck, it's a get life (if you don't let the turkey's get you down)

 

[debodine]

I am in the United States, so any advice I mention here may be limited to the US.

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.

 

[rstupplebeen]

FEA has helped me get all of my jobs as a design engineer. I did not have experience with the current FE program used at any of these companies. They were interested that I had detailed knowledge and demonstrateable skills. I would suggest taking the course. Ansys is currently the biggest FE provider so it could have direct application to many of the potential employers. Make sure you do a cool project that can add some lines to the resume. Taking a course is good but doing something with the skills is what I am concerned with. I hope this helps.

Rob Stupplebeen

 

[SAITAETGrad]

Take a summer job on a farm or a scrap yard and bend/break some machinery. Then you will be able to visualize failures such as joint tear-outs, buckling members, etc.

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.

 

[GBor]

I'll chime in...I have a master's in ME and used to run my own FE and design company. I didn't do much in aero at that time, but that experience helped me land this job that I enjoy so much. Funny thing, now that I'm here, I realize that the Atlanta ACO doesn't buy in to FE too much on the structures side. As the engineering department manager, I have recently terminated our maintenance agreement on our FE software.

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.

 

[DeltaWing]

I'm just curious because I've noticed that some of the engineers on this board are very dismissive of FEA, and wasn't sure if it was worth taking another course on the subject. I've already taken almost every structures class available (structural statics, structural dynamics, fracture mechanics, elasticity theory, composite materials, etc), but don't have much exposure to topics such as propulsion or gas dynamics.

 

[SAITAETGrad]

I would say people aren't dismissive of FEA so much as with the haphazard black box approach that so many out there take.

 

[gwolf2]

Propulsion jobs are scarce and populated by quite clever people. It is quite competitive, there are few jobs and the pay is usually very low given the difficulty of the subject. I find it useful to have studied some of this stuff at undergrad, it helps a lot with 75% of the calcs I need for gas turbine stress. When it gets too hard I consult the experts.

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

 

[gwolf2]

I had another think about it. One of the things which distinguishes me from other stress engineers is the ability to perform heat transfer analyses prior to stress analysis. On this basis I would say that any course package which teaches you about heat flow and air flow is probably well worth while if you have not done any before.

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.

 

[Tabaluga]

Just to join in the topic from a slightly different angle: would a civil engineer with structural experience have a fair chance of being seriously considered a candidate for a stress of composite stress engineering positions in the aerospace industry? I would be willing to consider taking course(s) in stress analysis and/or failure analysis/fracture mechanic...

Any thoughts/advise?

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." (A. Einstein)

 

[rstupplebeen]

I recently performed a similar career switch from FEA of Composite DOD projects to FEA of biomedical projects. It is very important to sell these skills as transferable. You have a similar skill set yet will approach problems from a different set of experience which is beneficial to any team. I hope this helps.

Rob Stupplebeen