Innovations in teaching mechanics of materials in materials science and engineering departments

Abstract

Traditional mechanical design employs experimentally obtained or handbook material properties in selection and sizing to develop a product. This approach is increasingly inefficient as designs come to employ modern materials whose processing and resulting properties are themselves an adjustable part of the design process. Both the design process and the engineering curricula used in educating designers can profit from an integration of the materials science and traditional mechanics of materials approaches, as opposed to an artificial separation of these two interlinked disciplines. The Materials Science and Engineering department at MIT is large enough to offer its own Mechanics of Materials subject, and this subject naturally seeks to blend the materials and mechanics aspects of the discipline. A series of NSF-sponsored, web-available modules is being prepared to support this approach, along with Java applets and other electronic teaching aids. The paper provides an overview of this effort, emphasising the teaching of fracture mechanics and microstructural failure mechanisms.