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Lecture

Structural Mechanics: Understanding Structures' Behavior under Loads

In course

ME-231(b): Structural mechanics for SV

This course aims to provide a concise understanding of how materials and structures react to loads. It covers the basics of stress and strain in multi dimensions, deformation and failure criteria. The course is tailored to problems students from life scien ...

Description

This lecture introduces the fundamental concepts of structural mechanics, focusing on how structures react to loads based on their geometry and material properties. Topics covered include internal stresses, strains, and structural failure. Practical examples involve designing robotic hands, measuring turgor pressure in bacteria, and analyzing arterial stresses in aneurysms.

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Instructor

Georg Fantner

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Chemical engineering

Materials science: Deformation of materials

Civil engineering

Structural engineering: Topics in structural engineering

Related concepts (32)

Structural integrity and failure

Structural integrity and failure is an aspect of engineering that deals with the ability of a structure to support a designed structural load (weight, force, etc.) without breaking and includes the study of past structural failures in order to prevent failures in future designs. Structural integrity is the ability of an item—either a structural component or a structure consisting of many components—to hold together under a load, including its own weight, without breaking or deforming excessively.

Structural engineering

Structural engineering is a sub-discipline of civil engineering in which structural engineers are trained to design the 'bones and muscles' that create the form and shape of human-made structures. Structural engineers also must understand and calculate the stability, strength, rigidity and earthquake-susceptibility of built structures for buildings and nonbuilding structures. The structural designs are integrated with those of other designers such as architects and building services engineer and often supervise the construction of projects by contractors on site.

Applied mechanics

Applied mechanics is the branch of science concerned with the motion of any substance that can be experienced or perceived by humans without the help of instruments. In short, when mechanics concepts surpass being theoretical and are applied and executed, general mechanics becomes applied mechanics. It is this stark difference that makes applied mechanics an essential understanding for practical everyday life.

Structural analysis

Structural analysis is a branch of solid mechanics which uses simplified models for solids like bars, beams and shells for engineering decision making. Its main objective is to determine the effect of loads on the physical structures and their components. In contrast to theory of elasticity, the models used in structure analysis are often differential equations in one spatial variable. Structures subject to this type of analysis include all that must withstand loads, such as buildings, bridges, aircraft and ships.

Structural mechanics

Structural mechanics or mechanics of structures is the computation of deformations, deflections, and internal forces or stresses (stress equivalents) within structures, either for design or for performance evaluation of existing structures. It is one subset of structural analysis. Structural mechanics analysis needs input data such as structural loads, the structure's geometric representation and support conditions, and the materials' properties. Output quantities may include support reactions, stresses and displacements.

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