THE PROGRAM

STRENGTH OF MATERIALS

ECTS credits: 4

Objectives:

Strength of materials deals with the behavior of solid bodies that under various types of loading exhibit strains and change their shape. The solid bodies considered in this course are shafts, beams and columns that can be submitted to axial loading, torsion, bending. The major objective is to design these solids so that they can sustain these loadings, which means, selecting a material or modifying the size and shape of a real component.

The general objectives of this course are to a) help students visualize and understand actual mechanics of materials configurations with their constraints and practical limitations and, b) provide guidelines to formulate problems and relate theory and practice.

The specific objectives are: a) analyze real static situation and simplify them into shafts beam and columns to be able under specific constraints as defined in the Mechanics I course, b) calculate the stresses and strains that allow the design of components, in terms of shape and materials and c) to help students criticize and understand the limits of such calculations.

Syllabus:

1. Concept of tension compression and shear     

  • Normal stress
  • Shear stress
  • Stress under general loading conditions

2. Stress and strain: axial loading

  • Stress-strain diagram
  • Material behavior
  • Temperature effect
  • Prestressed systems

3. Torsion

  • Circular bars
  • Stress concentration in torsion
  • Thin wall tubes, pure shear

4. Bending of beams

  • Shear force and bending moment
  • Stresses in beam

5. Transformation of Stresses and strains

  • Plane stress
  • Principal stresses
  • Mohr circle for plane stress
  • Hooke’s law in plane stress
  • Application to pressure vessels
  • General stress state

7. Deflection of Beams

  • Differential equation of the deflection beam
  • Deflection of beam from the bending diagram

8. Statically indeterminate beams

9. Buckling of columns

  • Ideal columns: Euler’s formula
  • Eccentric loading