Materials and Structures

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Properties of important engineering materials and how they are influenced by heat treatment and manufacture
• Introduction to continuum mechanics in two and three dimensions
• The buckling of imperfect struts subject to axial and eccentric loads
• The application of energy methods to predict internal forces and deformations in determinate and indeterminate structures
• Static and fatigue failure of engineering components subject to combined loading
• Advanced topics in bending and torsion
• Relationship between understanding of materials properties, service performance and the design process

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Critically analyse a situation involving materials and prepare questions to be answered by experts in the field
• Identify regions of high stress and deformation in engineering components and systems, and predict failure by using traditional methods of stress analysis
• Identify major failure mechanisms and relate to design/service conditions

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Interpret component/system failure in a wider context
• Team working through laboratory experiments

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Produce scientific reports
• Conduct scientific experiments and critically analyse results

• Introduction to whole course: the interaction of materials and structures (joint lecture)
• Bending, tensile and torsional stresses (review). Combined loadings and compound stress states. Mohr circle (review), static failure of components subject to combined loading.

Fluctuating stresses and fatigue failure. Fatigue analysis for steady and fluctuating loads (lectures, discipline specific workshop)

• Strain energy in bending, tension and torsion (review). The principle of virtual work. Castigliano’s theorem(s). Applications to statically determinate and indeterminate systems

(lectures, examples class,discipline specific workshop).

• Euler buckling (review). Imperfect struts; effects of eccentricity and initial curvature. Effects ofaxial load on lateral stiffness. Local instability and buckling of plates and shells (quantitative only) (lectures, discipline specific workshop).
• Torsion of thin-walled closed tubes. Torsion of rectangular strips and thin-walled open sections. Applications to aerospace and marine structures (lectures, discipline specific workshop).
• Bending and shear bending stresses in asymmetric sections. Application to aerospace and marine structures (lectures,discipline specific workshop).
• Introduction to continuum mechanics in two and three dimensions. Plane stress and plane strain; the elastic stress-strain relationship, equilibrium equations, strain-displacement and compatibility. Applications to thick cylinders and rotating discs. (lectures, discipline specific workshop).
• Structural Performance of Materials: Fracture, Fatigue, Wear and Corrosion (lectures, case study sessions):
• An introduction to the major failure modes and a consideration of the failure mechanisms. Methods to combat these failure modes are considered. Analysis of fatigue in engineering components subject to bending, tension and torsion.
• Lightweight materials (lectures, case study session):
• Composites: Designing with polymer matrix composites with glass, Kevlar and carbon fibres. Basic composite theory, the properties and applications of composites. Manufacturing methods are described. Light Metals: A comparison of the metallurgy and properties of the competing light metals - the alloys of aluminium, magnesium and titanium. The effect of heat treatment upon properties is considered.
• Ferrous Alloys (lectures, case study session)
• Consideration of the properties, structures and the structural transformations which occur in ferrous alloys. Selection and use of steels for structural engineering applications.
• High temperature materials (lectures, case study session)

High temperature requirements, oxidation, creep, high temperature materials: nickel alloys and ceramics. Improving performance at high temperatures.

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include:

• Lectures on the above supported by example sheets in supplied course material.
• Discipline-specific problem classes and design workshops.
• Laboratory sessions on: fatigue, corrosion and structures problems

Learning activities include:

• Individual work on examples in course material, attendance at laboratory classes and associated coursework completion

Resources & Reading list

General Resources

Blackboard Course for module.

Textbooks

W.D.Callister. Materials Science and Engineering - An Introduction. Wiley.

P P Benham, R J Crawford & C G Armstrong (1996). Mechanics of Engineering Materials. Longman.

Summative

Summative assessment description

Referral

Referral assessment description

Repeat

Repeat assessment description

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External