Statics
■ Semester: Fall semester for freshman
■ Textbook: J. L. Meriam and L. G. Kraige, “Engineering Mechanics: Statics,” John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 8th Ed., 2017.
■ Course Description: Mechanics is the science which describes and predicts the conditions of rest or motion of bodies under the action of forces. Mechanics is the foundation of most of engineering sciences and is an indispensable prerequisite to their study. Categories of Mechanics can be classified according to the types of objects under forces as follows: Rigid bodies (Statics, Dynamics), Deformable bodies (Solid Mechanics, etc.), and Fluids (Fluid Mechanics, etc.). The subject of statics is to study the behavior of rigid body objects under the static forces. The prediction of reactions at joints and internal forces in the body members is the main focus of this course.
Materials Science and Engineering
■ Semester: Spring semester for junior
■ Textbook: W. D. Callister, Jr. & D. G. Rethwisch, Materials Science and Engineering, 9th Ed., SI Version, Wiley, 2015.
■ Course Description: Modern science and technology is highly dependent on materials whose properties can be controlled to accommodate a wide range of applications. The multidisciplinary field of materials science and engineering outlines approaches to enhance the manipulation of existing materials and synthesis of new materials. Further, the study of materials science and engineering provides the basis for understanding material properties. The purpose of this course is to present to students the basic principles necessary to understand structure-property relations in engineering materials. The course assumes a basic knowledge of general physics, general chemistry, and mathematics. With these tools and the subject matter outlined in this course, students will obtain a wide knowledge of modern challenges to the application of modern materials. When appropriate, state-of-the-art problems will be discussed to illustrate the structure-property relationship in materials. The student will grasp concepts of structure from bonding to microstructure, and then learn to consider the interrelationships between structure and property.
Continuum Mechanics
■ Semester: Spring semester for graduate students
■ Textbook: W. M. Lai, D. Rubin, E. Krempl, Introduction to Continuum Mechanics, Elsevier, 4th Edition, 2009.
■ Course Description: The subject of mechanics deals with the study of deformations and forces in matter, whether it is a solid, liquid, or gas. In such a study, we make the simplifying assumption, for analytical purposes, that the matter is distributed continuously, without gaps or empty spaces (i.e., we disregard the molecular structure of matter). Such a hypothetical continuous matter is termed a continuum (continuous medium). In essence, in a continuum all quantities such as mass density, displacements, velocities, stresses, and so on vary continuously so that their spatial derivatives exist and are continuous. A mathematical study of the mechanics of such an idealized continuum is called continuum mechanics. Its subject matter can be divided into two main parts: (1) general principles common to all media and (2) constitutive equations defining idealized materials. The general principles are axioms considered to be self-evident from our experience with the physical world, such as conservation of mass; the balance of linear momentum, moment of momentum, and energy; and the entropy inequality law. The second major part of the theory of continuum mechanics concerns the “constitutive equations” that are used to define idealized materials. Idealized materials represent certain aspects of the mechanical behaviors of natural materials.