SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES
Mechanical Engineering
B57EB
Mechanical Engineering Science 2
Semester 2 – 2013/14
Wednesday 14th May 2014
Duration: 2 hours
Instructions to Candidates:
Answer ALL Questions
Approved calculators may be used.
B57EB
SECTION A
(Answer ALL questions)
1. The resistance to fracture of four different metal alloys is being investigated.
Samples of the metals have been prepared with artificial cracks (through
thickness surface crack) of depth 100 µm in one edge and the tensile stress
at which they fail noted.
Metal Alloy σ fracture
(100 µm crack)
(MPa)
MA1 3022
MA2 856
MA3 2770
MA4 1259
You may use one or more of the following equations for a through-thickness
edge-crack to answer this question:
𝐾 𝐾 2
𝜎𝑓 = 1.12𝐼𝐶𝜋𝑎 𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑡 = 1.12𝐼𝐶
2 𝜋𝜎 2
𝐾𝐼𝐶 = 1.12𝜎√𝜋𝑎
√
(a) Calculate the fracture toughness for each of the four metal alloys.
(8 marks)
(b) Due to the very different manufacture processes each material will
have a different maximum defect size in produced components (listed
in the table below). Also the yield stresses of the metal alloys are
listed.
Determine whether components produced from each of the metal
alloys will fail in yield or fracture.
(8 marks)
Metal Alloy Max production defect σ yield
(µm ) (MPa)
MA1 500 1480
MA2 300 260
MA3 150 972
MA4 750 654
(Cont’d)
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B57EB
Question 1 (Cont’d)
(c) The metal alloys are to be used for the production of solid circular bars
required to support a tensile design load of 3 MN. Due to design
constraints there is a requirement to make this bar as small as
possible.
Which metal alloy can be used to produce a bar with the smallest
diameter?
(9 marks)
2. A motorway traffic sign is shown in Figure Q2a (on the following page). The
motorway sign is suspended from the bar AB by 5 cables. The total weight
of the sign is 250 kg which can be considered to be uniformly distributed
over the entire length of AB. The length of AB is 2.5 m.
The member BC is a circular rod and makes an angle of 25° to the
horizontal bar AB as shown in Figure Q2a.
The pin at A is in Double Shear and the pin at B is in Single Shear and they
are free to rotate. The pin at A has a maximum allowable shear stress of
40 MPa and the maximum allowable tensile stress of the circular rod CB is
50 MPa.
Take g = 9.81 ms-2
(a) Draw a Free Body Diagram for the bar AB.
(4 marks)
(b) Determine to the nearest mm the smallest diameters of the pin at A
and the smallest diameter of the circular rod CB required to support
the lighting rig.
(16 marks)
(c) The 5 cables are of circular cross section with a diameter of 4 mm and
made from an alloy with a Young’s Modulus E = 260 GPa. Calculate
the strain in the cables (neglect the weight of the cables).
(5 marks)
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B57EB
Figure Q2a
END OF SECTION A
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B57EB
SECTION B
(Answer ALL Questions)
3. (a) Small steel balls fall from rest through an opening shown in
Figure Q3a at the steady rate of two per second. Find the vertical
separation h of two consecutive balls when the lower one has dropped
3 metres. Neglect air resistance.
(10 marks)
Figure Q3a
(b) A cone falling from height impacts a soft solid material that deforms on
impact, see Figure Q3b. The velocity on impact is v 0 = 20 m/sec. The
acceleration of the cone is modelled by the equation,
𝑎 = 𝑔 − 𝑐𝑦 2
If the maximum penetration distance is 0.1 m calculate the value of the
constant c in S.I. units.
(15 marks)
Figure Q3b
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B57EB
4. A pendulum of mass 1 kg and pendulum string of length 0.9 m is released
with an initial velocity of 2 m/sec at A, as shown in Figure Q4. When
vertical the pendulum string hits a peg, 0.6 m below the point of suspension.
The pendulum continues to swing on a reduced radius.
(a) What is the velocity of the pendulum mass at locations B (before and
after the pendulum string hits the peg) and C?
(7 marks)
(b) What is the centripetal acceleration of the pendulum mass at locations
A, B (before and after the pendulum string hits the peg) and C?
(8 marks)
(c) At what location does the maximum tension in the pendulum string
occur and what is its value?
(10 marks)
0.9 m 60 o
0.6 m
A
peg C
vA=2m/sec 90 o
Figure Q4
END OF PAPER
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