Strength of Materials

Materials
Science

Fluid
Mechanics

Structural Analysis

Additional teaching tools for this course can be found on the website for Fundamentals of Materials Science and Engineering by Smith and Hashemi.

Bending a Knife Blade like a Paper Clip

Summary: Knife blades are typically very hard and brittle. In this rapid and inexpensive demonstration, the structure of a steel knife blade is transformed through simple heating and the blade becomes capable of sustaining large deformations without rupture.

Creepy Plastic

Summary: This is a simple demonstration to illustrate initial deformation, primary creep and secondary creep of a material subjected to a constant load over time. Students can observe a phenomenon over a few days that often takes years to complete. Students can compute the steady-state creep rate and gain an appreciation for the relative time required for primary and secondary creep.

Viscoelasticity

Summary: A viscoelastic material is one that exhibits a viscous flow behavior over a long period of time while over a short period of time its behavior can be characterized as elastic.

Thermoplastic stress-strain

Summary: This is a quick and simple demonstration to show the stress/strain behavior exhibited by a thermoplastic material.

Thermoplastic stress-strain

Summary: This is a quick and simple demonstration to show the stress/strain behavior exhibited by a thermoplastic material.