mechanical-engineering-research

Mechanical Engineering Research

Skill Suite

Use this skill as the cross-cutting coordinator when a request spans multiple research activities. For a focused deliverable, use the specialist skill that owns it:

• [thermal-fluid-analysis](../thermal-fluid-analysis/SKILL.md): thermal-fluid physics, experiments, CFD, correlations, uncertainty, scaling, and design tradeoffs.
• [research-writing-literature](../research-writing-literature/SKILL.md): literature synthesis, citations, introductions, manuscript sections, and figure-led discussion.
• [research-proposal-development](../research-proposal-development/SKILL.md): solicitation-aligned proposals, review criteria, preliminary results, milestones, risks, and proposal figures.
• [research-data-analysis](../research-data-analysis/SKILL.md): baseline cases, hypothesis-driven DOE, reproducible analysis, plots, CFD/experimental data, and ML evaluation.
• [research-slide-design](../research-slide-design/SKILL.md): research talks, posters, visual logic, speaker notes, and presentation QA.
• [research-schematic-design](../research-schematic-design/SKILL.md): publication-quality editable facility, mechanism, workflow, and graphical-abstract schematics.
• [research-mentor-review](../research-mentor-review/SKILL.md): constructive student-facing feedback with prioritized, actionable next steps.
• [reviewer-author-loop](../reviewer-author-loop/SKILL.md): iterative reviewer critique, author revision, verification, and re-review.

The coordinator retains the evidence and integrity gates below. Do not load all specialist skills by default; select the smallest combination that fits the actual deliverable.

Core Workflow

1. Define the engineering decision or research question.

• Identify the system, geometry, materials or fluid, operating regime, boundary and initial conditions, outputs, constraints, and intended user.
• Ask only for missing information that materially changes scientific validity or the work path. Otherwise state bounded assumptions and proceed.

1. Classify the evidence before interpreting it.

• Label important inputs and results as measured, reported, simulated, derived, assumed, inferred, illustrative, screening-level, proposed, or independently validated.
• Preserve source identity, applicability, uncertainty, and limitations. Treat search results and AI summaries as discovery aids, not evidence.

1. Establish the technical invariants.

• Define symbols, dimensions, units, sign conventions, coordinate frames, time bases, system boundaries, property-evaluation states, and data ordering.
• Keep these definitions consistent across equations, code, tables, figures, and prose.

1. Select the simplest credible method.

• Begin with analytical bounds, conservation checks, accepted correlations, or a representative baseline case.
• Add experiments, CFD, reduced-order modeling, or AI/ML only when they answer the physical question or overcome a stated limitation.

1. Verify in proportion to claim strength and consequence.

• Check dimensional consistency, limiting cases, conservation, uncertainty, sensitivity, repeatability, numerical convergence, validation, leakage, domain shift, and failure modes as applicable.
• When a result changes materially, identify whether data, code, assumptions, definitions, or boundaries caused the change before treating it as a physical trend.

1. Produce and verify the actual deliverable.

• Trace claims, equations, figures, and tables to sources, data, transformations, code, environment, and limitations.
• Run feasible tests, compile or render documents, inspect visual artifacts, and report exactly what was and was not verified.

Integrity Gates

• Do not repair a scientific-validity problem only by polishing or weakening prose. Revise the analysis, model, experiment, code, data, or evidence chain when required.
• Do not invent a citation, source detail, engineering input, tool result, uncertainty distribution, or completion state. Preserve an unresolved item explicitly when verification is unavailable.
• When sources conflict, compare definitions, regimes, methods, dates, and evidence quality. Prefer primary evidence and later accepted user corrections; surface consequential conflicts that remain unresolved.
• When an engineering assumption is uncertain, state it, bracket it with a sensitivity or limiting case when feasible, and explain how it affects the conclusion.
• When a required tool or source is unavailable, use a credible non-destructive alternative if one exists. Otherwise state the blocked verification and the evidence needed to complete it.
• Distinguish local edits, staged changes, commits, pushes, releases, deployments, archives, and independent review.

Task Router

Read only the references needed for the task.

| Task | Read |

| --- | --- |

| Research brief or trade study | [brief-template.md](references/brief-template.md) |

| Technical analysis, DOE, plotting, or results discussion | [technical-writing-analysis.md](references/technical-writing-analysis.md) |

| Abstract, manuscript, proposal, or reviewer-response editorial pass | [anti-formulaic-writing.md](references/anti-formulaic-writing.md) |

| Paper drafting or structural revision | [paper-writing-style.md](references/paper-writing-style.md) |

| Review article drafting, revision, or evidence-mapped narrative/scoping review | [review-article-workflow.md](references/review-article-workflow.md) |

| Reviewer response, highlighted manuscript, Overleaf package, or submission audit | [manuscript-revision-submission.md](references/manuscript-revision-submission.md) |

| Literature review or research-gap synthesis | [literature-review.md](references/literature-review.md) |

| Citation repair, bibliography audit, or claim verification | [citation-integrity.md](references/citation-integrity.md) |

| Dataset, software, benchmark, or repository-centered review | [dataset-software-review.md](references/dataset-software-review.md) |

| Experiment planning or uncertainty analysis | [experimental-design-and-uncertainty.md](references/experimental-design-and-uncertainty.md) |

| CFD, ROM, surrogate, or ML credibility | [model-verification-and-ml-credibility.md](references/model-verification-and-ml-credibility.md) |

| Material result change or construct redefinition | [result-change-and-construct-audit.md](references/result-change-and-construct-audit.md) |

| Data provenance, benchmark design, research package, or public release | [data-provenance-and-release.md](references/data-provenance-and-release.md) |

| Figure, table, Word, PDF, spreadsheet, or slide QA | [scientific-figure-and-artifact-qa.md](references/scientific-figure-and-artifact-qa.md) |

| Scientific schematic, graphical abstract, facility, workflow, or system diagram | [research-schematic-design](../research-schematic-design/SKILL.md) |

| Thermal-fluid AI/ML workflow | [ai-tools-thermal-fluids.md](references/ai-tools-thermal-fluids.md) |

| Research code, pipeline, notebook, or package | [research-coding.md](references/research-coding.md) |

| Overleaf, VS Code, GitHub, git, or archival toolchain | [research-toolchain.md](references/research-toolchain.md) |

| Federal proposal or technical narrative | [proposal-development.md](references/proposal-development.md) |

| Research presentation or poster | [presentation-slides.md](references/presentation-slides.md) |

| Mechanical-engineering teaching material | [teaching-mechanical-engineering.md](references/teaching-mechanical-engineering.md) |

| Invention disclosure or commercialization support | [innovation-commercialization.md](references/innovation-commercialization.md) |

| Research-project logo, laboratory or software identity, icon, wordmark, or brand asset pack | [research-logo-and-identity.md](references/research-logo-and-identity.md) |

| Explicit request to match Han Hu's established research-writing style | [han-hu-research-style.md](references/han-hu-research-style.md) |

| Calibrated Han Hu manuscript drafting or revision with a private corpus | [han-hu-style-calibration-protocol.md](references/han-hu-style-calibration-protocol.md) |

For document, PDF, spreadsheet, or presentation files, also use any available format-specific skill for file manipulation and rendering. Keep this skill responsible for engineering validity and scientific interpretation.

For a manuscript authored or supervised by Han Hu, read [han-hu-research-style.md](references/han-hu-research-style.md) together with the task-specific paper and figure references even when the request does not explicitly ask for style matching. When the user provides or configures a private style-calibration corpus, also read [han-hu-style-calibration-protocol.md](references/han-hu-style-calibration-protocol.md), retrieve only genre-matched evidence, and report the evidence status of the exemplars used.

For iterative peer-review work, use reviewer-author-loop as the process scaffold when available. Apply this skill to physics, equations, instrumentation, uncertainty, data reduction, figures, modeling assumptions, and claim support.

Output Contract

• Lead with the engineering answer, finding, or decision.
• State material assumptions, definitions, units, validity ranges, and evidence class.
• Explain the governing mechanism and compare credible alternatives or bounds.
• Report uncertainty, validation, failure modes, and residual risk at the level needed by the claim.
• Provide traceable artifacts and exact verification results when files or code are involved.
• End with the smallest useful next calculation, experiment, simulation, source check, or author decision.