How much thermodynamics knowledge do you usually need if you want to work in aerospace?

I’m an economist, so I’m not really an expert, but it sounds like it’d be quite important, dude. My advice: keep working on it.

Way too general a question. The aerospace field contains to many different specialties that it is impossible to answer a specific subject. You could look at some job offerings in the field, and see what they are asking for. Another place is the Department of Labor website on job requirements.

Hey, I’m a mechanical engineer, too. “Aerospace” is more of an industry than a specialty. I’m guessing if you’re into aerodynamics, then not much as it is mostly fluids. If you’re messing with engines, I’d imagine thermo would become more critical.

I trained as a mechanical engineer, but never worked as one. I agree with @lilikoi that engine development heavily involves thermodynamics. The rest is fluid flow, electronics and materials science.

I wouldn’t reccommend going into aerospace. It’s a boom-and-bust industry dependant on military orders and the general economy for commercial orders. With the US nearing bankruptcy, I don’t expect to see many new military projects. With peak-oil reached and climate change, flying as a means of transport is going to decline as business travel and tourism decline.

The growth field in mechanical engineering is alternative energy. You have to know your thermo to do well in that. Have you passed your EIT exam?

If you don’t lose the forest of the concepts in the trees of the math, you should be OK. For example, you might want to remember what Carnot efficiency is, even if you have a hard time working through the equations for a particular engine. You would be more interested in thrust and vibration for aerospace work.

But @stranger_in_a_strange_land has a good point. Aerospace rises and falls at the whim of the DoD and Congress. Right now, they’re eying ways to cut expenditures (Aerospace is a lot about aero and very little about space, and NASA is getting cut, too). I remember when the aircraft industry imploded in the late 1970s. A lot of engineers got laid off and never worked in the industry again.

Thermodym-whats-it??

thermodynamics is everywhere. You might not be dealing directly with familiar thermo concepts e.g. heat, work, entropy etc, but in fluid dynmamics you will use e.g. the bernoulli eqn.(thermodynamic equivalent for of fluid motion), in materials science you will be using Gibbs free energy concepts, solid state solutions stability and material phases, reaction kinetics (all thermo based or derived hence forth).

Thermo – being the basis of the description of forms and transfer of energy – will appear most places (or specialities) you look into in one form or another. Itd probably be best to push through and try and grasp the concepts.

I’ll be graduating with a degree in ME soon and if your school is like mine, keep in mind you’ll still have at least two more thermo-intensive courses such as heat & mass transfer and design of thermal systems.

@stranger_in_a_strange_land no not yet i’m only a sophomore in college

@PrancingUrchin yeah i have another semester of thermo and a semester of heat transfer. i guess i’m just going to keep working on it and i’m hoping to get more and more comfortable with the material as time goes by.

@clioi Sometimes if you get “stuck” with a concept, having it explained in a different way can help. A different textbook, a video of a different lecturer, etc.