Paper Authors

Abstract

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

Session 1368

Mechanics of Materials: an Introductory Course with Integration of Theory, Analysis, Verification and Design

Joseph J. Rencis, Hartley T. Grandin, Jr. Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Arkansas/Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Abstract This paper presents a description of a first undergraduate course in mechanics of materials. Although many of the features of this course have been used by other faculty and presented formally in textbooks, the authors believe they have united them in a way that produces a course that is unique and innovative. The paper is titled “Mechanics of Materials: an Introductory Course with Integration of Theory, Analysis, Verification and Design”. The subtitle has been included to emphasize the unification of four strategic elements: Theory, Analysis, Verification and Design. The course leads the student through a traditional exposure to theory, but a non-traditional progressive approach to analysis that uses a modern engineering tool. Introduction of verification develops the student’s discipline to question and test ‘answers’. If a problem solution can be formulated in general symbolic format, and if specific solutions can then be obtained and carefully verified, the extension from analysis for one set of variables to the design for different sets of specifications can be done quickly and easily with confidence. Three examples are included to demonstrate the approach and one example considers design.

Introduction

In a homework assignment, the ultimate goal for a majority of undergraduate engineering students is simply to obtain the ‘answer’ in the back of the book. A common approach is to search the textbook chapter for the applicable formula or equation and immediately insert numbers and calculate an answer. This approach is often successful with problems that require few equations, especially if the equations can be solved sequentially or are easily manipulated to isolate the unknown variable. The unfortunate aspect of this is that students may spend very little time focusing on the basic fundamental physics of the problem and, generally, no time at all on the very important verification of the ‘answer’! As problems become more complex, with increased numbers of simultaneous equations and/or nonlinear equations, such as with statically indeterminate problems, this approach is laborious and fraught with opportunities for equation manipulation errors. As a result, introductory course instruction and textbooks do not involve these types of problems. In reality, many engineering problems contain multiple unknowns, coupled equations and complex nonlinear equations.

Problem statements in introductory mechanics of materials textbooks1-40 are presented with known variables defined numerically, symbolically or in combination. The authors have found from experience that students clearly prefer problems where the known variables are defined numerically versus symbolically. Current textbook illustrative examples predominately

Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education

• Citation

• Format
  • APA
  • APA - LaTeX bibitem
  • MLA
  • MLA - LaTeX bibitem
  • Bibtex
  • EndNote - RIS

Grandin, J. H. T., & Rencis, J. (2005, June), Mechanics Of Materials: An Introductory Course With Integration Of Theory, Analysis, Verification And Design Paper presented at 2005 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--15169