Statics and Mechanics of Material
A foundational course covering the statics of rigid bodies and the mechanics of deformable solids. Students learn to analyse forces and moments on engineering structures at rest, and to characterise how those structures respond to loads — stress, strain, deformation, and failure modes — with a particular eye on the lightweight, slender configurations that recur in aerospace design.
Course Outlines
The detailed week-by-week schedule is finalised at the start of each semester. The provisional outline below indicates the scope.
| # | Topic |
|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction: force systems, vectors, equilibrium of a particle |
| 2 | Equivalent force systems — resultants, moments, couples |
| 3 | Equilibrium of rigid bodies in 2D and 3D |
| 4 | Analysis of structures: trusses |
| 5 | Analysis of structures: frames and machines |
| 6 | Internal forces — shear and bending-moment diagrams |
| 7 | Friction |
| 8 | Centroids, centres of gravity, moments of inertia |
| 9 | Stress and strain — axial loading |
| 10 | Torsion of circular shafts |
| 11 | Pure bending and transverse loading of beams |
| 12 | Stress transformation; Mohr’s circle |
| 13 | Deflection of beams |
| 14 | Combined loadings and column buckling; review |
References
Standard texts include Hibbeler’s Engineering Mechanics: Statics and Mechanics of Materials, and Beer, Johnston, DeWolf, & Mazurek’s Mechanics of Materials. Specific editions are confirmed at the start of the semester.