Faculty at the NSF-funded
Engineering Research Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power (CCEFP),
headquartered at the University of Minnesota, responding
to a perceived lack
of advanced fluid power at American universities, have developed several
new courses and created a new area of specialization in fluid power within
the Agricultural and Biological Engineering program at Purdue University.
The goal of the ERC is to make fluid power systems even more compact and
efficient than they already are, with possible results not only saving
millions of dollars, but also helping to save lives.
ERC scientists will focus
on three areas: fluid power efficiency; compactness; and noise, vibration,
leakage, and human factors. They will study ways to use fluid power more
efficiently in off-road and on-road vehicles and in manufacturing. They
will also explore applica¬tions that could spawn entirely new industries,
such as hydraulic hybrid passenger cars and rescue and surgery robots,
whose movements are not constrained by cables tying them to a power source.
Students are required to choose three courses from a group of existing
and newly developed courses. The new courses are Design and Modeling of
Fluid Power Systems (ABE 591/ME 597) and Hydraulic Power Trains and Hybrid
Systems (ABE 691/ME 697). These courses complement the existing courses
covering hydraulic control systems, sensors and data acquisition, and control
systems theory. Further information is available at Purdue’s MAHA Fluid
Power Research Center website. |
