Understanding Solid Mechanics: Stress Analysis Approaches

This course is your starting point towards really understanding solid mechanics. You need to understand the basics to enable you to apply good practice in your finite element analysis, and this course will give you the knowledge you really need for a good understanding of the principles that every engineer or designer should know.

You don't need in-depth knowledge about FEA or computational simulation. A working knowledge of engineering design and analysis is all you need to start out with.

You will learn about the solid mechanics and basic theories that are widely used in engineering design, analysis and simulation.

Each session is a building block - over the five weeks, you will cover:

1. Statics, Forces and Equilibrium in Design
2. Elasticity, Stresses and Strains
3. Constitutive/Material relationships
4. Hand (or ‘Back-of-the-envelope’) calculations
5. Boundary Conditions and Applied Loads

The course covers these topics in a concise and practical manner. Unlike traditional university courses, this course avoids lengthy mathematical derivations and highlights many practical examples to illustrate the application of solid mechanic theories in modelling and analysing engineering structures. Where possible, exercises that can be done by hand are included so that attendees can test their knowledge. Full solutions will be provided within a few weeks of completing the course.