The best Engineering Design books: Reddit reviews

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Google mechanic, I’ve been building performance engines and dyno tuning for 20 years. It’s not what google tells me it’s what physics tells everyone, those pipes have essentially no flow after the valve closes and what does physics say about that? The slow gas velocity is under a higher pressure, about 14.7psi of back pressure. Back pressure impedes flow and can even push exhaust gas back into the combustion chamber as well as the fresh intake out into the air cleaner. Read a book https://www.amazon.com.au/Scientific-Exhaust-Systems-Engineering-Performance/dp/0837603099/ref=asc_df_0837603099/?tag=googleshopmob-22&linkCode=df0&hvadid=341743770390&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7050728797150919472&hvpone=&...

No, an airbox is still useful. The reason is not ram air, which really is a negligible effect until you get to quite high speeds, but rather the Helmholtz effect. If you read about intake design and optimization, the Helmholtz resonance effect can be exploited to increase the amount of air relative to the RPM of the engine. Since we now have a compressor in front of the intake manifold, the resonance becomes a multiple of compressor speed and pulsing.

The compressor still faces backpressure from the intake manifold which will cause it pulse similarly to an NA engine's backpressure (or rather decrease in negative pressure, less negative) in the intake.

Here's a good read:

https://www.amazon.com/Scientific-Exhaust-Systems-Engineering-Performance/dp/0837603099/

How did you guys learn car mechanics, aka how suspension, brakes, diff and other stuff works? I want to learn it so I can be a more complete driver. I am on the edge of buying this book

https://www.amazon.com/Chassis-Engineering-Building-Performance-Handling/dp/1557880557

and it looks promising, although hearing other opinions does not hurt.

Edit: I am a sim racer.

Rollover from last week:

>How did you guys learn car mechanics, aka how suspension, brakes, diff and other stuff works? I want to learn it so I can be a more complete driver. I am on the edge of buying this book https://www.amazon.com/Chassis-Engineering-Building-Performance-Handling/dp/1557880557 and it looks promising, although hearing other opinions does not hurt.

Edit: I am a sim racer.

by u/MusaDoVerao2017

I found my old textbook that helped me most when learning to design mechanisms. Many consider it a classic: Design of Machinery by Robert Norton

You might be able to find an older edition for cheap

From memory similar is in:

https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Design-Behavior-Mechanical-Engineering/dp/0824792971

The following may also be of interest:

http://www.boltscience.com/pages/basics5.htm

Check the local library. I ran across a book about clockmaking there. I didn't find the projects I wanted in it--but hey, it was free.

I ended up buying a book from Amazon, and there were some neat designs in there. Here's the link

Look for Design Paradigms by Henry Petroski. It is a fascinating and detailed look at engineering failures (using mainly bridges to establish the narrative).

Pozar really covers the math well, but that can be a bit of an obstacle to understanding the actual concepts.

I'd recommend starting with Electromagnetics Explained: A Handbook for Wireless/ RF, EMC, and High-Speed Electronics.

Dover Books are usually pretty good and really cheap. I like this one in particular: http://www.amazon.com/Control-System-Design-Introduction-State-Space/dp/0486442780/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1356414185&sr=8-2&keywords=dover+control

I do not, I am in my jr year of electrical engineering. For a class I can take the C8051 is studied and the teacher isn't very good at explaining concepts.

This is the book that is followed: http://www.amazon.com/Embedded-System-Design-C8051-Han-Way/dp/0495471747/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321768242&sr=8-1

I built one in my living room table based on plans from this book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wooden-Clocks-Scroll-Woodworking-Magazine/dp/1565234278/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1308514828&sr=1-1

It was done with a scroll saw and hand tools. It all went together ok but unfortunately ultimately does not work. Friction is your enemy so getting the holes drilled perfectly vertically is critical as is getting the alignment right. Having done this one I certainly know what I'd do differently on the next project. Thankfully it runs for a minute or so and still looks good on my wall!