Advanced Spreadsheet Methods for Mechanical Engineers

Abstract Spreadsheets are a useful supplement to the set of “tools” available to the mechanical engineer for design and analysis. They are well suited and convenient to the computational needs of the profession, providing many advantages over commonly applied methods, and in our opinion are presently underutilized by mechanical engineers. To take full advantage of the inherent applicability of spreadsheets to mechanical engineering, proper programming and calculational methodology must be followed to assure usefulness, accuracy, and general versatility. The many features and functions of modern spreadsheet packages, coupled with the ability to produce custom addin functions, may be used to develop advanced procedures which may be applied to any number of engineering situations, providing solutions to problems that might prove inconvenient or intractable using other methods. Using spreadsheets, solutions become available as immediate, presentation quality visual and hardcopy feedback. The combination of calculational speed and visual output produce a highly interactive process by which the optimization process may occur as a parallel procedure to design, as opposed to one performed subsequently to the initial design process. This document will introduce guidelines, methodology and examples by which spreadsheets may be utilized by mechanical engineers for design and analysis.