MECH4104 Structural Integrity and Impact Course description

The course activities will include:

• topics and learning activities that will be covered each week:
  • either at home before the lecture (FLIP) or
  • in the classroom/zoom/streaming (CZS) during the lecture,
• tools/inputs to use (EXCEL)

As a general idea, students will be asked to prepare some theoretical and/or practical material every week. Then, during the lectures (CZS), students are expected to actively participate and to generate discussion in the different learning activities (e.g., practical exercises, case/paper discussion, presentations, and should be prepared to work in teams as part of the learning process. When cases are discussed during lectures or as part of the coursework (CW), students can expect to get a partial solution to the case when the discussion is over.

The course is coordinated with ØABED3000.

Knowledge

The candidate

• can explain the primary concepts of structural integrity, fatigue, and creep
• can identify the relevance of sustainable design to structural integrity through enhancing performance and mitigating long-term accumulative damage
• can explain plasticity, fracture, and damage qualitatively at material and structural levels
• can distinguish between statics and dynamics and judge when dynamics is relevant
• can explain viscoplasticity, fracture toughness, and size-dependence and identify their relevance to a problem at hand
• can identify research ethical issues related to one’s own project.

Skills

The candidate

• can formulate a static problem and calculate the plastic collapse load in a beam, plate or shell using the bound theorems of plasticity
• can explain qualitatively the principles of damage mechanics, fatigue, and creep
• can apply the methods of plastic analysis to solve problems concerning structural integrity and impact
• can calculate the permanent and maximum deflections in a beam or plate under pulse or impact loads using analytical methods and FEM
• can interpret the results of and assess analytical and numerical solutions obtained and corroborate them against experiment for instance in permanent displacement or level of damage due to cyclic or impact loads
• can quantify strain-rate sensitivity effects during high-rate deformation of blast and impact loaded structures
• can calculate stresses, strains and displacements in problems involving cyclic loading, using the FE software ABAQUS
• can solve real-size problems and report on the results in the format of a scientific report.

General competence:

The candidate

• can explain the results of research in a simple and efficient way to be communicable and perceptible to peers
• can reflect on a solution and the meaning of its implications for design
• can communicate their work and can master language and terminology of the field in a suitable academic format.

Lectures, problem solving sessions, and computer laboratory tutorials (using ABAQUS).

The following coursework requirements must have been approved for the student to take the exam:

Individual presentation on an advanced topic related to structural impact and fatigue or creep analyses followed by peer Q&A 15-minute presentation + 15 minutes Q&A.

The following aids are permitted:

• Excel
• All handwritten and printed support material
• Calculator (see regulations for the use of calculators in the programme description)

Grade scale A-F

Graded scale A-F

Students who have the subject ØABED3000 Corporate Finance in their bachelor's degree are not allowed to take this course.