Course Introduction by Prof. Markus Zahn
Course Meeting Times
Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 2 hours / session
Recitations: 1 session / week, 1.5 hours / session
Conferences: 1 session / week, 0.5 hours / session
Description
This course focuses on laws, approximations and relations of continuum electromechanics. Topics include mechanical and electromechanical transfer relations, statics and dynamics of electromechanical systems having a static equilibrium, electromechanical flows, and field coupling with thermal and molecular diffusion. Also covered are electrokinetics, streaming interactions, application to materials processing, magnetohydrodynamic and electrohydrodynamic pumps and generators, ferrohydrodynamics, physiochemical systems, heat transfer, continuum feedback control, electron beam devices, and plasma dynamics.
Prerequisites
Students should take 6.641 or obtain permission from the instructor before taking this course.
Textbooks
Required
Melcher, James R. Continuum Electromechanics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1981. ISBN: 9780262131650.
Supplementary
Zahn, Markus. Electromagnetic Field Theory: A Problem Solving Approach. Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing, Co., 2003. ISBN: 9781575242354.
The textbooks are available in supplemental resources under Continuum Electromechanics and Electromagnetic Field Theory: A Problem Solving Approach.
Grading
| ACTIVITIES | PERCENTAGES |
|---|---|
| Midterm exam | 35% |
| Final exam | 40% |
| Homework | 25% |
Course Outline
A tentative outline, divided into nine main topics, is provided below. A more detailed summary of lectures is provided in the calendar section.
- Introduction and review of Maxwell’s equations
- Solutions to Laplace’s equation in Cartesian, cylindrical and spherical geometries
- Electric and magnetic field boundary value problems
- Electromagnetic forces and stress tensors
- Magnetic diffusion
- Laws, approximations and relations of fluid mechanics
- Pressure-velocity relations for inviscid and incompressible fluids
- Electrohydrodynamics, ferrohydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics
- Smoothly inhomogeneous systems and their internal modes
