The first part of the course covers the statement of the governing equations, the presentation of constitutive equations of material behavior for elastic, plastic and creeping solids and an overview of the basic principles of the finite element method.
The second part is devoted to detailed examination of analytical and finite element methods currently used in structural mechanics. These will include analysis of the deformation of elastic, plastic and creeping/viscoplastic systems. The approach adopted is based in the detailed examination of a large number of carefully selected examples. Many solutions obtained by classical analytical methods will be presented since these provide much insight and understanding about the complexities of the mechanics of deforming materials. Further, finite element models of selected systems will also be constructed. Calculations will be performed and ample time will be allowed for the analysis and discussion of computed results. Throughout, particular attention will be devoted to the key issues of model formulation, conceptualization, and development, preprocessing of data, implementation of boundary and initial conditions, solution techniques and exploration, analysis, verification and validation of computed results.
The symbolic manipulation program Maple will be used to assist the presentation of the analytical material. The commercial computer code Ansys will be used for all illustrations involving the finite element method. In this case, the key issue of error analysis via mesh extrapolations will be emphasized.
On completion, students will be prepared to undertake more in-depth study of the subject, be able to read and understand the technical literature and be capable of making original and critical contributions toward the solution of structural mechanics problems in materials engineering.