Mechanical Engineering
1. Discipline introduction
Mechanical engineering, which is a first level discipline of the Beijing Forestry University, and its predecessor is the discipline of forestry and woodworking machinery. In 1996, the discipline of mechanical engineering was selected as the key discipline of the '211 Project' and was granted a right to confer doctoral degrees,. It was then renamed to be mechanical design and theory in 1997. It was approved as a first-level discipline in 2010. It has four second-level disciplines: mechanical design and theory, mechanical manufacturing and automation, mechanical and electrical engineering, and vehicle engineering. The mechanical design and theory discipline is specialized in teaching forestry machinery, forest fire monitoring, firefighting technology and equipment, and nondestructive testing methods for wood and wood product. The research activities mainly focus on agricultural and forestry biomass energy conversion equipment, efficient irrigation, modern mechanical design theory and methods, and advanced manufacturing technologies. The discipline has the most advanced instruments and equipment that can be used for experiments and research activities in mechanics, mechanical testing, institutional design innovation, modern manufacturing and processing, and forestry engineering. Our graduates are working in universities, research institutes, as well as related enterprises and institutions. The mechanical engineering discipline is a traditional discipline of the Beijing Forestry University, providing excellent teaching and research qualities with years of development and an accumulation of collaboration opportunities and outlets for communication. It plays an important role in the teaching and research of mechanical engineering among other forestry colleges, and it has made significant contributions to the development of modern forestry engineering in China.
2. Disciplines status
2.1 Faculties
The discipline has 42 faculties including 10 professors, 26 associate professors, and 6 lecturers. There are 7 doctoral advisors and 28 master student advisors, among which there is 1 mechanical consulting expert for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 1 deputy Secretary-General of the International Union of Forest Research Organization Wood Nondestructive Testing Society, 1 committee member of the International Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation of Wood Symposium, 2 deputy secretary-generals of the Forestry Machinery chapter of Chinese Society of Forestry, 1 chairman of the Forestry Machinery Standardization Technical Committee of China, 1 vice chairman of the forestry engineering sub-committee of Agriculture and Forestry Engineering Steering Committee of the Ministry of Education, 1 Ministry of Education’s New Century Program Excellent Talent awardee, 1 Beijing Famous Teacher, 1 Outstanding Talent recipient funded by the Beijing Talent Training program, and 1 deputy editor of the Forestry Science Journal.
2.2 Research and Development Achievements
In the last five years, faculties from the mechanical engineering discipline have completed 18 research projects funded by state-level authorities; 14 scientific research projects completed in the provincial and ministerial level and 83 other important scientific research projects. The annual per capita research funding is 683,300 yuan. Faculties received 2 awards in the provincial, ministerial, and national level; were granted 37 invention patents and 20 utility model patents; and published 1 book and 137 academic papers, including 40 SCI collected papers, 56 EI collected papers, and 40 key journal papers.
2.3 Student Development
This discipline has admitted 22 doctoral students and 101 master’s students, among which the proportion of students from key universities is 77.3% and 78.2% respectively, in the past five years. The overall employment rate of doctoral and master’s students are both 100%. Some of our graduate students went abroad for further study or work in government departments, large enterprises, colleges and universities, some of them become the backbone of the company or institutions’ research and development activities.
2.4 Academic Exchange
Academic exchanges have been formed with research institutions in various countries, and we have successfully hosted the International Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation of Wood Seminar. Meanwhile, students are encouraged to be involved with academic exchanges and many of them are financially supported to participate in various conferences, including the International Symposium on Sensors and Mechanical Automation, the International Conference on Engineering and Applied Science, the World Tribology Conference, the International Conference on Discrete Element Methods, the International Conference on Advanced Design and Manufacturing Engineering, the National Tribology Conference, as well as some other academic exchange activities. 16 graduate students participated in international academic conferences, 9 others attended international conferences, and 20 presented and published their research results. Two graduate students were selected to the cooperative research program and worked in the US Forest Products Laboratory in the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
2.5 Research Facilities
The discipline of mechanical engineering has 1 Beijing higher education experimental teaching demonstration center which has a floor area of 1700 m2, and the average research space per graduate student is about 10 m2. This discipline has many advanced instruments and equipment for research experiments with a total value of approximately 25 million yuan. We have established cooperative relationships with numerous enterprises and governments including the Beijing Wideatech Co., Ltd.; Beijing Runfeilide Technology Co., Ltd.; XinHeShengWu Co., Ltd.; Qingdao Haohai Network Technology Co., Ltd.; Shanxi Jinzhong Forestry Bureau and Gansu construction of new energy Technology Co., Ltd.
3. Research Areas
(1) The modern design theory and advanced manufacturing technology can be applied to solve challenging problems, such as developing new concepts and methods for modern mechanical equipment design, applied digital design, design optimization, and advanced manufacturing technology in mechanical equipment design and manufacturing, including mechanical-electrical-hydraulic integration and intelligent design.
(2) Engineering Testing Technology
Research on new engineering testing methods, including mechanical testing techniques, non-destructive testing of wood materials and living trees, signal processing, and virtual instrumentation technology.
(3) Vehicle System Research and Design
Research topics include experimental design of vehicle system; theoretical modeling of detection and control technology ; experimental verification and simulation analysis techniques; dynamics; passing ability and control stability of forest vehicles in special working environment and mechanics model and test method for automobile; automobile safety performance in collision; and vehicle lightweight design technology.
(4) Intelligent Detection and Control Technology
The research in the field of intelligent detection and control technology relies on modern control theory, detection technology, sensing technology and application, computer control, machine vision, and artificial intelligence. The research activities mainly focus on intelligent detection and control theory and technology, exploring various information technologies and application, and the scientific and effective identification and control of agricultural and forestry systems.
(5) Forestry Machinery and Equipment
The forestry machinery and equipment discipline uses modern design theories and methods, advanced simulation, and optimization techniques to study the principles, structure, dynamic characteristics, detection, and control of forestry and garden machinery, forest fire fighting equipment, wood production, and processing machinery. Research topics focus on forest fire fighting equipment, biomass forming equipment, afforestation drilling machine, bush cutting machine, forest seed dielectric sorting machine, and fruit picking machine.