Solid Mechanics Q guidelines

This document is not field policy and has not been subject to field vote. It is a working document provided as a good-faith attempt to describe the current shared viewpoint of the Solids faculty. Per field rules, the exam committee decides the scope of the exam and questions are at the discretion of the committee.

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Q exam name: Solid mechanics

Field(s) to which it applies: AE, ME

Core physical principles covered: the solids Q exam covers topics in ENGRD 2020 and MAE 3270 at the level of being able to teach either course. This includes deriving basic relations and fluency in solving problems with the complexity and broad context appropriate at the graduate level.

The exam committee decides the scope of the exam and questions are at the discretion of the committee; however, this list is provided as a good-faith outline of topics covered as a way to frame students’ broad study of solid mechanics as a discipline.

Recommended textbooks for study:

  • Statics and Mechanics of Materials (3rd edition) R.P. Beer, E.R. Johnston, Jr., J.T. DeWolf and D.F. Mazurek, McGraw-Hill (2021).
  • Mechanical Behavior of Materials (5th Edition), N.E. Dowling. Mechanics of Materials (e-book available through the library), A. Bedford and K.M. Liechti.
  • Materials Selection in Mechanical Design, M.F. Ashby. (e-book available through the library: https://newcatalog.library.cornell.edu/catalog/12111294)

Relevant sections from each book should be identified from the syllabi of ENGRD 2020: Statics and Mechanics of Solids and MAE 3270: Mechanics of Engineering Materials.

Classes required before Q exam: none

Classes strongly recommended before Q exam: MAE 6110: Foundation of Solid Mechanics, MAE 6810: Methods of Applied Mathematics I.

Reference Readings from ENGRD 2020 and MAE 3270:

ENGRD 2020: Statics and Mechanics of Solids

Readings
Topic Statics and Mechanics of Materials (3rd edition), Beer,  Johnston, Jr., DeWolf and Mazurek
Introduction; Forces; Moments Ch 2.1, 2.2, 2.4, 3.1
FBD, Equilibrium Ch 2.3, 2.5, 3.1A, 4.1-4.3
Reactions and eqm continued, Couples Ch 3.3
Centroids, Distributed Loads, Internal Forces and Moments Ch 5.1, 5.2A, 5.3, 5.4
Trusses: Method of Joints Ch 6.1
Trusses, Frames Ch 6.2
Frames Ch 6.3
Mechanisms Ch 6.4
Concept of Stress Ch 8.1
Concept of Strain Ch 9.1
Yielding and Failure in 1D Ch 9.9, 8.4
Stress concentration and factor of safety Ch 9.9, 8.4
Statically indeterminate axial system Ch 9.2
1D thermal expansion Ch 9.3
Multiaxial Ch 9.4-9.7
Deformation in Torsion Ch 10.1, 10.2
Stress in Torsion Ch 10.1, 10.2
Statically Indeterminate Torsion Ch 10.3
Moment of inertia; stress in pure bending Ch 7.1A-B, 7.2
Composite Beams Ch 11.3
VM Diagrams Ch 12.1, 12.2
Normal Stress in Beams Ch 12.3
Shear Stress in Beams Ch 13
Beam Deflection Ch 15.1
Superposition of Beam Deflection Ch 15.3
Buckling Ch 16.1

 

MAE 3270: Mechanics of Engineering Materials

Reading

Dowling’s Mechanical Behavior of Materials, 5th edition Bedford and Liechti, Mechanics of Materials Ashby’s Materials Selection
Course Introduction Ch 1 Ch 4.2 and 4.3
Deformation and stress in rods, shafts, beams and pressure vessels Ch 5.1-5.3, 6.1, 6.6, 6.7
Deformation and stress in rods, shafts, beams and pressure vessels Ch. 7.6, 9.1, 10.1, 10.2
Combined Loading Ch 7.1, 7.5
Stress-strain: linear elastic, plane-stress, isotropic, isothermal Ch 2.2
Transformation of stress Ch 7.2
Mohr’s circle, principal stresses Ch 7.3
Transformations of strain & strain gauge rosettes Ch 8.1, 8.2
Matrix methods for stress transformation and principal stress analysis Ch 11.1
Strain energy Ch 11.1
Energy method for deflection analysis Ch 2.1, Appendix C

Classes of materials

Dowling’s Mechanical Behavior of Materials, 5th edition Bedford and Liechti, Mechanics of Materials Ashby’s Materials Selection
Atomic structure and bonding Ch  2.2, 2.3
Microstructure, materials processing, mechanism of metal deformation Ch 2.4–2.6
Mechanical testing – tension test Ch 3.1–3.6
Mechanical testing – hardness, impact toughness Ch 4.3, 4.4
Stress-strain: thermal strain Ch 5.3
Stress-strain: anisotropic materials Ch 5.4
Stress-strain: time dependence and viscoelasticity Ch 5.2.2, 5.2.3
Brittle failure Ch 7.1-7.3
Ductile failure by yielding Ch  7.4, 7.5

Failure analysis under combined loading

Dowling’s Mechanical Behavior of Materials, 5th edition Bedford and Liechti, Mechanics of Materials Ashby’s Materials Selection
Fracture mechanics Ch 8.1-8.4
Fracture mechanics: leak before break Ch 8.4
Fracture mechanics:  trends in materials Ch 8.6 – 8.8
Fatigue failure Ch 9.1–9.6
Fatigue under multi-axial loading Ch 9.7 – 9.8
Variable amplitude fatigue Ch 9.9
Material selection for mechanical design, material index Ch 4, 5
Material selection for mechanical design, shape factor Ch 6, 7