Engineering Analysis – Fall 2009

Dan C. Marinescu
Office: HEC 439 B
Office hours: Tu-Th 11:00-12:00
Class organization
 Class webpage:
 www.cs.ucf.edu/~dcm/Teaching/EngineeringAnalysis
 Textbook:
 "Applied Numerical Methods with Matlab" (Second
Edition) by S. C. Chapra. Publisher Mc. Graw Hill
2008. ISBN 978-0-07-313290-7
 Class Notes.

Lecture 1 2
Grade

Homeworks Projects Midterm Final

20% 30% 20% 30%

Weight of different activities

Lecture 1 3
 Algorithmic aspects of
numerical methods

Practical use
Applications
of Matlab

Lecture 1 4
 The textbook covers five categories of
numerical methods:

Lecture 1 5
Lecture 1

 Motivation for the use of mathematical

software packages
 From Models to Analytical and to
Numerical Simulation
 Example

Lecture 1 6
 Motivation
 Science and engineering demand a quantitative analysis
of physical phenomena. Such an analysis requires a
sophisticated mathematical apparatus.
 Computers are very helpful; several software packages
for mathematical software exist.
 Specialized packages such as Ellpack for solving elliptic
boundary value problems.
 General-purpose systems are:
 (i) Mathematica of Wolfram Research;
 (ii) Maple of Maplesoft;
 (iii) Matlab of Mathworks); and
 (iv) IDL.

Lecture 1 7
 Mathematica
 All-purpose mathematical software package.
 It integrates
 swift and accurate symbolic and numerical calculation,
 all-purpose graphics, and
 a powerful programming language.
 It has a sophisticated ``notebook interface'' for
documenting and displaying work. It can save individual
graphics in several graphics format.
 Its functional programming language (as opposed to
procedural) makes it possible to do complex programming
using very short concise commands; it does, however,
allow the use of basic procedural programming constructs
like Do and For.
 Drawbacks: steeper learning curve for beginners used to
procedural languages; more expensive.
Lecture 1 8
Maple
 Powerful analytical and mathematical software.
 Does the same sorts of things that Mathematica does,
with similar high quality.
 Maple's programming language is procedural (like C or
Fortran or Basic) although it has a few functional
programming constructs.
 Drawbacks: Worksheet interface/typesetting not as
developed as Mathematica's, but it is less expensive.

Lecture 1 9
Matlab
 Combines efficient computation, visualization and
programming for linear-algebraic technical work and
other mathematical areas.
 Widely used in the Engineering schools.
 Drawbacks: Does not support analytical/symbolic
math.

Lecture 1 10
Models
 Abstractions of physical, social, economical, systems
or phenomena.
 Design to allow us to understand complex systems or
phenomena.
 A model captures only aspects of the original system
relevant for the type of analysis being conducted.
 Example: the study of the liftoff properties of a wing in
a wind tunnel.

Lecture 1 11
Computer simulation
 Theoretical studies, experiment and computer
simulation are three exploratory methods in science
and engineering.
 In this class we are only concerned with computer
models of physical systems.

Lecture 1 12
Mathematical Models
 A formulation or equation that expresses the essential
features of a physical system or process in
mathematical terms.
 Models can be represented by a functional relationship
between:
 dependent variables,
 independent variables,
 parameters, and
 forcing functions.

Dependent independent forcing 

 f  , parameters, 
variable  variables functions
Lecture 1 13
Mathematical Model (cont’d)
•Dependent variable  a characteristic that usually
reflects the behavior or state of the system
•Independent variables  dimensions, such as time and
space, along which the system’s behavior is being
determined
•Parameters  constants reflective of the system’s
properties or composition
•Forcing functions  external influences acting upon the
system

Lecture 1 14
Mathematical Model (cont’d)
 Conservation laws provide the foundation for many
model functions. Examples of such laws:
 Conservation of mass
 Conservation of momentum
 Conservation of charge
 Conservation of energy
 Some system models will be given as implicit functions
or as differential equations - these can be solved
either using analytical methods or numerical methods.

Lecture 1 15
Mathematical Model (cont’d)
•Dependent variable  a characteristic that usually
reflects the behavior or state of the system
•Independent variables  dimensions, such as time and
space, along which the system’s behavior is being
determined
•Parameters  constants reflective of the system’s
properties or composition
•Forcing functions  external influences acting upon the
system

Lecture 1 16
Analytical versus numerical methods for
model solving
 Once a mathematical model is constructed one could
use
 Analytical methods
 Numerical methods
 Analytical methods
 Produce exact solutions
 Not always feasible
 May require mathematical sophystication
 Numerical methods
 Produce an approximate solution
 The time to solve a numerical problem is a function of the
desired accuracy of the approximation.

Lecture 1 17
Example: the analytical model
Consider a bungee jumper in midair. The model for its
velocity is given by the differential equation:
dv cd 2
 g v
dt m
The change in velocity is affected by: the gravitational
force which pulls it down and are opposed by the drag
force

Dependent variable - velocity v

Independent variables - time t
Parameters - mass m, drag coefficient cd
Forcing function - gravitational acceleration g
Lecture 1 18
 Example – the analytical solution
gm  gc 
vt  tanh d
t 
cd  m 
The model can be used to generate a graph. Example: the velocity of a
68.1 kg jumper, assuming a drag coefficient of 0.25 kg/m



Lecture 1 19
Example: numerical solution
 For the numerical solution we observe that the time
rate of change of velocity can be approximated as:

dv v vti1  vti 
 
dt t ti1  ti

Lecture 1 20
Example: numerical results
 The efficiency and accuracy of numerical
methods depend upon how the method is
applied.
 Applying the previous method in 2 s intervals
yields:

Lecture 1 21
The solution of the analytical model

 Done on the white board.

Lecture 1 22