Solid Work simulation as a virtual laboratory concept for supporting student learning of mechanical engineering

Abstract

Solid Works is a complete 3D CAD design solution, providing the product design team with all the mechanical designs, verifications, motion simulations, data management and communication tools that they need. This article presents an example of the design and analysis of the Savonius rotor blade to generate 10kW power output in the field of Mechanical Engineering (ME) using the Solid Work package (SW-P). The study was structured as an educational design experiment, which used the SW-P in teaching some ME courses in the ME degree programme at Near East University. An experiment of two equivalent groups was designed, one of the groups was the experimental group and the other was the control group; each of them consisted of five students. The same project was given to the first (the experimental group) and second (the control group) groups using SW-P and the traditional method: textbook-based numerical methods, respectively. The SW-P proved to be an efficient method for supporting the students’ ability to improve and understand the concept of some selected courses. The results show that students used SW-P to demonstrate a deeper learning and understanding of the course compared to the traditional method.

Keywords: Educational design experiment, educational technology, mechanical engineering, Solid Work package.