0/0/4/0 + 3*2 hrs application sessions

The view for this course is top-down, and the contents can organized along the following questions/topics:
(a) Bending theory to obtain bending stresses and strains
(b) Torsion (closed and open sections) to obtain shear stresses
(c) Shear to obtain shear center, shear flows and shear stresses
(d) Effects of Taper, effects of cutouts
(e) Castigliano’s theorems to obtain displacements or forces at specific locations of a structure
(f) Buckling analysis of beams to obtain buckling loads

At the end of this course, the student will be able to…

(a) Calculate stresses/strains in thin walled structures using:
a. engineering beam theory (bending and shear)
b. torsion theory (closed and open sections)
(b) Modify above theories in the presence of cutouts and/or taper
(c) Calculate displacements using:
a. beam thory
b. energy methods (Castigliano’s thms)
(d) Determine buckling loads for simple structures (beams, trusses)
(e) Design such structures:
a. Determine geometry so that structure does not fail (thickness of skins under bending, shear and torsion; cross-sectional geometry of beams under compression)

Lectures and application sessions with home assignments that have to be submitted before the end of the period.

Megson, THG, “Aircraft Structures for Engineering Students”

Written exam (75%) and 10 take-home assignments (25%).
Students who did not attend the application sessions or did not submit their solutions to 10 problems cannot take final exam.

Lectures: Wrap-up and clarifications from previous lecture as necessary. Explanations/answers to questions that arose during application sessions. Presentation of new material. Examples using new material
Application sessions (3-4 during the course, in groups of 30-40 students): Specific applications are worked out in detail by TA’s with the help of the students. Students question approaches, assumptions, results, etc. The applications end with designing the structure that is the subject of the application session. Excel spreadsheets or matlab are used where inputs can be changed on the fly to obtain different results to examine sensitivity of design to different parameters. Application session 1: Shear flow determination in wings
Application session 2: Design of aircraft fuselage door created in CATIA course AE1107
Application session 3: Buckling design of space truss used in a satellite
Application session 4: TBD
At home exercises: During the course, each student must work out ̴10 problems randomly selected from a list of ̴300