ES 240

I completed my undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, in New York City. At the undergraduate level, I have taken two courses related to solid mechanics: Solid Mechanics and Stress & Applied Elasticity. Though these courses covered most of the same topics, the focus was not on working with developing the equations for different situations. The majority of the work was in knowing when to apply the equations and coming up with quantitative solutions. Thus my weaknesses will be related to coming up with equations to model various stress situations.

Concerning my research, I am working with Prof. Robert Wood in the microrobotics laboratory. My focus will be on aquatic robots on the order of several centimeters in length. Because of the restrictions inherent in working at this scale, it will be important not to over-design the systems. From studying solid mechanics, I hope to gain the ability to analyze the states of stress and strain in materials such that I can effectively develop efficient systems for microrobotics.

My name is Will Adams and I am a first year grad student in BME. I have no previous courses in solid mechanics or strength of materials but I have taken two fluid mechanics courses, ES220 and ES123, as an undergrad which contain many of the same lines of thinking. Hopefully the math formalisms of these classes will help in ES240 but having no solids background leaves me with little intuition about experimental results. Hopefully I can acquire this here. I was a BME major as an undergrad here in DEAS.

My name is Adrian Podpirka and I am a first year grad student studying applied physics. I came to Harvard after finishing my Bachelors in Material Science and Engineering at Columbia University. As an undergraduate I took Mechanics of Solids with Professor Xi Chen and Mechanical Properties of Materials with Professor Noyan.

Related to this course, my main weakness is the mathematics involved since it has been more then 3 years since I took differential equations. Also, both my undergraduate courses were not tensor based. My main strength in this course would be my understanding of material properties and the phenomenas involved.

My likely research direction will probably be in the field of fuel cell membranes with Professor Ramanathan.

This set of homework relies on a few elementary facts of the algebra of vectors and tensors.  If you are vague about these facts, see some old notes I wrote when I taught ES 240 in 2006:  node/205/revisions/1385/view

11. Positive-definite elastic energy density
12. The coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) is a second-rank tensor.
13. Hooke's law for anisotropic, linearly elastic solids
14. Invariants of a tensor
15. A "derivation" of the Mises (1913) yield criterion

6. Post an entry in iMechanica to explain to your teaching staff and classmates why you take this class.

7. Residual stress around an inclusion
8. Lame Solution in Cylindrical Shape
9. Stress Concentration around a Circular Hole
10. Back-of-Envelope Calculation

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Zhigang Suo: Wed. 3pm Pierce 309

Nanshu Lu: Thur. 4~6pm Pierce 403

Valid for every week except special notification is published.

Due 26 September 2008 in class

1. Nothing Is Continuum, but...
2. Hooke's law in various forms
3. Compatibility: the strain-displacement relations
4. Traction vector on a plane
5. Turbine blade: centrifugal force and creep

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Update on 26 September 2008: An updated file on elements of linear elasticity is posted. You can still access the older version by clicking "revisions".

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This page is for ES 240 taught in Fall 2013.  See also

• ES 240 taught in Fall 2008
• ES 240 taught in Fall 2006

Fall 2013, MWF 10-11 am, Maxwell-Dworkin Laboratory 319